I'm willing to believe that. But we could do those "novelty deployments" with 80s tech - and we did. See: tech expos back then.
The key difference between now and then isn't smaller actuators, cheaper sensors or denser power electronics. It's the AI breakthroughs.
Doesn't need to be "at scale". Scale is a useful proxy though. But if you see two robots deployed to your average Walmart, and doing a good enough job there to cut the staff in half?
Doesn't matter that it's just two robots at a few Walmarts. Making more robots isn't that hard. The scale would inevitably follow.
The key difference between now and then isn't smaller actuators, cheaper sensors or denser power electronics. It's the AI breakthroughs.
Doesn't need to be "at scale". Scale is a useful proxy though. But if you see two robots deployed to your average Walmart, and doing a good enough job there to cut the staff in half?
Doesn't matter that it's just two robots at a few Walmarts. Making more robots isn't that hard. The scale would inevitably follow.