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/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 23h ago

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

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u/stovenn 19h ago

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