Amazon Is Reportedly Building a Robot to Follow You Around the House

Amazon hopes its home robot will go on sale sometime in 2019:




Amazon seems determined to insert itself ever further into our everyday lives, and the game plane apparently does not end with its smart speakers, bedroom cameras, or various other Echo gadgets. According to a report by Bloomberg, Amazon is working on a home robot that can follow you around. The robot, codenamed ‘Vesta,’ will be equipped with HD cameras and software to navigate around the home.
The big mystery right now is what exactly Amazon plans to use Vesta for. It’s possible that the robot could just be an Echo speaker on wheels, but that seems like a limited scope for such an involved project. It stands to reason the robot may also act as a companion or be able to perform certain tasks.
There is, of course, the likely privacy downside. If Vesta has both a microphone and a camera (likely, considering it will need to navigate) it will prove a more autonomously intrusive gadget since it won't just stay where you put it.
Evidently Amazon isn't worried. The tech giant reportedly plans to start selling these robots in 2019, and expects a multibillion dollar market for home robots to spring up within a few years. Hopefully that won't include Terminators.

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