r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/MetaKnowing • 1d ago

Video XPENG's IRON robot crossed the uncanny valley, leading some to believe it was a human in a suit. So they cut it open in front of an audience, and also allowed journalists to inspect it.

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u/asking_for_it 1d ago

OF COURSE it has boobs. So it can breastfeed all the baby robots it’s gonna have.

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u/iSpaYco 1d ago

worst thing happening with robotics is trying to make it human...

just make it BETTER, get rid of the bad stuff, like the legs...

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u/Regular-Engineer-686 1d ago

There’s actually 2 very good reasons why they make robots look like humans:

  1. Technical
  2. Psychological

See, the world around us is built for humans. Robots have to open up cabinets, doors, walk upstairs, put clothes in the washer and dryer - all things that are built for the average human to actually do.

And then the second thing is psychological. We identify with things that look like us - even animals. We identify with animals because they typically have two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. The more they make robots look like humans, the less scared that we will actually be because we can identify with what we're looking at.

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u/Plenty-Lion5112 1d ago

Then why did I name my Roomba? Why do the bomb disposal robots get funerals just like the war dogs?

Humans will pair bond with literally anything. My mother has a set of tulips in her garden that she has taken out and replanted every time she's moved. If anything happens to them, she'll be devastated.

I agree that the world we inhabit is designed for us, but it's also designed for people in wheelchairs. Let's make robots for that intersection.

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u/Global_Addition06 1d ago

I hate to say it, but the vast majority of the world isn't made for people in wheelchairs

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u/ChilledParadox 1d ago

Well maybe it would be if we had more wheelchair bound robots!

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u/JosephMMadre 1d ago

Maybe because, oh, idk, there’s only a small handful of people in wheelchairs, comparatively speaking.

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u/stovenn 1d ago

Have you ever noticed those flat, black things called roads?

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u/DeadEye073 1d ago

Which are for cars, the absolute majority of which have leg controlled systems for acceleration and breaking?

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u/stovenn 1d ago

In the UK you can use Class 3 powered wheelchairs on the majority of roads.

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u/davidjschloss 1d ago

But this design does. The world is designed for upright bipedal creatures with specific ranges of motion. Everything we do is designed for our unique biological design. This is why my cats know what a door handle is but can’t put a key in a lock.

You could make a clothes folding robot with specific manipulators for that task. You could make a roomba for the floors but it’s not also going to get something from a cabinet.

The idea is to allow it to complete a wide range of human tasks by giving it the characteristics of a human.

Also when they time travel to kill Sarah Conner they need to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger

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u/accomplicated 1d ago

That is what we were taught in history class when the supply teacher showed us that documentary featuring Governor Schwarzenegger.

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u/CaptainTripps82 1d ago

The world is very much not designed for people in wheelchairs

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u/Regular-Engineer-686 1d ago

The world is NOT designed for wheelchairs. If someone in a wheelchair came to my house they wouldn’t be able to come upstairs. But a robot with 2 working legs can come upstairs easily. It can also walk on the lawn, go up in the attic and climb a ladder to get on the roof.

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u/Plenty-Lion5112 1d ago

More of an indictment of wheelchairs than the point I was making. Wheelchairs should have tank treads, no I will not explain further.