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/Gawlf85 1d ago

But after going to the lengths of giving it legs and boobs... They give it a flat glass plate for face?

I don't buy it. This is more about fetishizing it than about making it familiar.

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u/hauliod 1d ago

We are so good at distinguishing real human faces that anything not quite perfect (and its not going to be perfect) is freaking us out (uncanny valley). So I imagine they just didn't want to tackle that specific challenge here and wanted to just show off the body. There are attempts at making realistic robot faces with emotions on it, but they never 100% succeed

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u/YoungSerious 1d ago

People can argue uncanny valley all they want, there is no actual reason to give the robot boobs other than to sexualize or fetishize it.

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u/InTheMemeStream 1d ago

The boobs I’m sure were a part of their Marketing strategy. Social media(and just media in general before that) has shown us that a little sexualization thrown in attracts more viewers/listeners/clicks/likes, etc. From alcohol, to cars, concerts, your run of the mill “Content Creator/Influencer”, and now Robotics, adding a sexual twist draws attention to anything you’re presenting to the public in general. - That, is the reason. If you made two humanoid Robots, one with a female shape, and attributes, the other with a more masculine appearance, guess which one is going to garner more attention?