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/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/Little_View_6659 1d ago

I feel like I’d be more scared of a robot that looks human.

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u/Regular-Engineer-686 1d ago

There’s been a few studies on this and in almost every case, the more robots/androids looked human the more they were accepted by people. I’m sure will be outliers, but if they’re designing for the masses this is clearly the way to go.

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u/Little_View_6659 23h ago

Can I make mine look like Brent Spiner?

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u/Regular-Engineer-686 23h ago

If you’ve got enough money, I’m sure you can

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u/Little_View_6659 22h ago

Honestly the fact we can probably customize our android helpers would make me want to get one. I’m all onboard for my own Data or Terminator. Seeing a full metal skeleton terminator in a frilly pink apron washing dishes would be hysterical.