Amazon’s Next Home Robot: A Second Chance After Astro’s Rocky Start
Amazon is taking another run at the home robot, assembling a team to build a device intended to operate around families. This time, the useful part needs to outlast the unboxing.
Amazon hasn’t disclosed the robot’s design, specific capabilities, price, or launch date. A humanoid is one possibility, given its acquisition of Fauna Robotics, but the company hasn’t confirmed that shape or identified Fauna’s Sprout as its next consumer product.
A recent CNBC investigation draws on job listings, LinkedIn profiles, and Amazon’s comments. Listings sought staff for a “new-to-world robot product,” while a since-removed engineering ad described navigation through changing homes and “autonomous operation alongside family members.”
Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser told CNBC that the company has carried lessons, talent, and experience from Astro into other robotics efforts. Astro gave Amazon experience navigating homes. It also supplied a harder lesson: getting around the house and earning a place in it...
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