A couple of YouTubers I enjoy watching are very upbeat about the prospects for humanoid robots in our future. They talk of massive markets ahead for these creatures. Elon talks about Tesla becoming the biggest revenue company on the planet based on sales of Tesla’s Optimus robots.
Count me skeptical. I’m a big believer in purpose built robots for specific tasks. A couple of years ago I spent a few hours in an Amazon Fulfillment Center in Tracy, California and got to see a whole fleet of industrial robots helping automate that facility and speed shipments to customers. Years before that I toured the Tesla factory in Fremont, California and saw big industrial robots maneuvering car parts around on the factory floor. Those kinds of robots make lots of sense to me.
But humanoid robots? Maybe there’s a market but I suspect there’s too much optimism about the size of that market. After all, do you want or need a humanoid robot driving your car?