Astro: Amazon’s robot remains (very) expensive for what it does
astrothe connected robot ofAmazonlooks a bit like one of those characters from Wall-E, but much less inspired in terms of design. With its square, screen-shaped noggin overhanging a rounded base, Astro is not really a design model. As for his eyes in the form of empty circles, we have seen much better to express (false) emotions since a certain Cozmo (or his successor Vector).
Amazon unveiled its robot at the end of September, presenting it as an all-purpose companion, capable of guarding the house as well as video chatting or bringing objects (to characters with motor difficulties, for example) . All this for a price of 1000 dollars for the first buyers, and 1449 dollars for the following ones. It is a sum, and one can legitimately wonder if this tariff is well founded.
Several Astro users have testified to their experience a few months after purchasing the robot, and the findings are more than mixed. A certain Bob Rekieta has published a video where we can see Astro bringing a beer to a person located in another room of the house, and obviously, Astro is not used for much more than that. It should also be noted that Astro did not place the beer in his rear compartment himself since he has no arms.
Matthew Nereim, a university professor, uses Astro as a remote controllable smartphone gadget. The robot is also used to entertain the family dog… and to amaze the friends, who rave about the simple fact that Astro is able to track his owner. Lucid, Matthew judges that the 1449 dollars requested for the purchase are not reasonable and considers that the device should not cost more than… 700 dollars!
We can also regret that some of the most interesting functions of the robot, such as home monitoring, are subject to an additional subscription (Ring Protect Pro) of 20 dollars per month. If we add to this table the questions that still remain unanswered concerning the management of personal data that passes through the Amazon cloud, there is above all an urgency to wait. Astro the robot is only available for sale in North America.
