Amazon Astro review: impressive autonomous navigation skills, reasonable price for the tech, attractive design, but its daily utility is questionable
In a two-week trial, Astro was surprisingly endearing and avoided hazards such as pets and stairs. But I still don't know what I'd do with one.
Fast CompanyCarolina Milanesi
Context & Ripple Effects
Days after the $1,000 home robot's invite-only debut, this two-week review delivers the verdict Amazon's launch needed but didn't get: Astro navigates around pets and stairs convincingly, but the reviewer can't name a daily job for it. The same launch week also brought internal-document reporting on Astro's facial recognition and 'Sentry' mode, with insiders calling it a privacy nightmare — so the product arrived with both a use-case question and a trust question attached.
First-order effects
Amazon's invite-only program now has to convert curiosity into purchases against a review whose core finding is 'impressive tech, unclear reason to own it' — the demand problem sits with the home division, not the engineering one.
The trend: Consumer home robots are being forced from demo-grade autonomy toward a concrete paid job — mostly surveillance — and products that can't find one get pivoted or pruned.
Amazon hardware division went all-in on throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks after the unexpected success of Echo speakers. No idea for sticking Alexa on a device from clocks & toaster ovens to Honda Asimo knock offs has been rejected. https://www.fastcompany.c…
So what is it like to have @amazon #Astro moving in with you for two weeks? I share my experience for @FastCompany As an analyst I have plenty to say about the opportunity of #homerobotics but for now, I wanted to share the experience more as a somewhat regular consumer https://t…
For two weeks, @caro_milanesi lived with Amazon's robot. Here's her report on what she, her husband, and her pets thought about it. https://www.fastcompany.com/ ...
@harrymccracken @caro_milanesi Astonishing how quickly even an analytic researcher anthropomorphizes electronic objects. The human desire to project ourselves, or to want to be seen, is profound.
@caro_milanesi @harrymccracken I think the insurmountable distinction between a pet and a robot is their nature away from us. Dogs might miss us, but they would go on doing dog things. What is the nature of a roomba or a Tesla away from us? They are still, & will always be, close…
@qhardy @harrymccracken It is indeed fascinating. I do refer to Alexa as she and I think of it as a human for Astro, as I do with all our pets, I refer to it as he but saw it as a pet-like rather human-like because of the shape. Clearly, this is rationalizing after the fact
Amazon's vision for the future of home security includes drones flying over your roof, outdoor cameras that monitor for possible trespassers and cute robots patrolling indoors. https://www.cnn.com/...
A brief thread about stupid robots, and Amazon's latest wonderful opportunity for people to become part of a cynical experiment in surveillance capitalism, brought to you by our late lamented friend Douglas Adams. First, the offending item: https://www.theverge.com/...
I wish Amazon would as much effort into making it easy to buy a pair of shorts to play golf in..... as it does with making a home robot that is basically a terrible mobile phone that follows you around stealing any remaining privacy. https://www.theverge.com/...
Great article by @caro_milanesi re her experience with Amazon's Astro. It's interesting that when we initially considered sentient robots - Like R2-D2 or WALL-E we didn't really think about them being “cloud-connected,” and sending everything back to HQ. https://www.fastcompany.c…