Photo: Javier Pierin (Getty Images)
As if Alexa wasn’t creepy enough, it seems like Amazon is currently working on a “mobile Alexa.” Meaning they are pretty much working on a robot to follow us all around.
According to The Verge, the project has been given the codename “Vesta,” “named after the Roman goddess of the hearth.” Vesta is being developed by Lab126, who is the Amazon hardware R&D center that previously built the Kindle, Fire Phone, and Echo. So yes, this robot talk is pretty damn legit.
There’s no word as to what Vesta will look like or what the point of it will be, but some believe it will follow a person around the house, ready to answer all their questions.
The Verge
Prototype robots built by Amazon reportedly have computer vision software and cameras for navigation, and the company is said to be planning to seed devices in employees’ homes by the end of the year. Bloomberg notes that the general public might be able to test such robot prototypes “as early as 2019.”
From such scant details, it’s difficult to know exactly what Amazon is planning, but it’s safe to say that a home robot in this case does not mean some sort of “robot butler able to perform a variety of household chores.” The technology needed for this sort of device just doesn’t exist yet in the commercial sphere (although companies like Boston Dynamics are working on it).
Instead, “home robot” more likely means a virtual assistant housed in some sort of mechanical exterior.
There’s also this: Sex Robots Could ‘Change Humanity Forever’ Thanks To Sex Being ‘Too Easy’
Well I just hope it’s something straight out of Rocky IV.
This is just another step in what Amazon, Apple and all the other big time companies out there hope will end with a robot in every household in the world. Just a hunk of junk following you around, doing everything for you and slowly planning to end your life when you least expect it.
