Just another Sunday afternoon in SF: I paid $60 for 2 humanoid robots to clean for an hour. Here's how it went: (1) What happened: Sergey and Chelsea (the names of the two robots) finished about 80% of one floor in an hour: tidying, wiping down surfaces, vacuuming, mopping, cleaning the toilet. - They came with a staff engineer at the company, who dropped them off and picked them up after an hour. - They were controlled by 1 human operator each, in the Mission where the company office is at. - The engineer gave me a number to text them, I texted a request to wipe the mirror. They did it. (2) Performance and dexterity: Chelsea dropped a toy, struggled with a pillow, and had trouble balancing on the playmat. But overall, for all the tasks they did, grippers were enough. 5 fingers were not needed. - The engineer told me the hardest task for them was making bed. - They were quite loud, stomping around the house. Took a bit of time to get used to. They both wore gripper socks which protected the floors and helped them not slip. - Interaction: I didn't know they can respond via voice. In the end they were conversing with us in voice which was nice. (3) Unexpected observation: Their pants and shirts have holes in them. It's because they were dragged on and off the vans that transported them. (4) Other user feedback: I shared my experience with some friends afterwards. A user told me that unloading dishwasher was an "advanced task". They didn't attempt at mine since it was running at the time they were working. Another user said they scratched their hardwood floor. That's probably why they now wear gripper socks. (5) Did they do as well as human cleaners? In terms of the tasks they did, I think so. In terms of speed, they were ~80% speed of humans when it comes to the more delicate tasks, but I would say they are quite smooth. They didn't finish the whole place, so it wasn't a full service. (6) How does the math work out? Each booking was only for 1 hour, since their batteries need to be swapped after 1 hour. So they didn't finish the place. For a user: In SF, it's ~$200-220 to clean a full home around my neighborhood, with two human cleaners. Usually it takes around 2.5 hours. So around $40/manhour. This is $30/robot hour. Slightly cheaper, but again it's not fully finished with the 1 hour they were available. For the company: It took 2 robots, 2 human operators, 1 staff member to dropoff/pickup, and 1 driver of the van to transport the robot. Definitely labor intensive. But they also retain the data they collect for training purposes. (7) My biggest takeaway as a user: interaction / hospitality mattered. One of the humanoids was more friendly (Sergey), he waved at us when he came in. It'd have been great if they both introduced themselves in the beginning. Beyond that, being able to do 2 hour slots (instead of one) would be great to finish the cleaning. Overall, I appreciated their work and the fact that they got the robots out in people's homes. Deployment is not easy and so much learning from it each time

Early days. Big ambitions. So much to figure out, but a mission we’re pretty fired up about! Excited to start telling the Junto story. 💙 Follow along ➡️ junto.travel

Two extraordinary charts from today’s PISA test results: 1) School test scores continue to collapse internationally, underscoring how this is no longer a Covid effect but sustained decline. Those falls in reading and maths are equivalent to about two years of lost schooling.

We built a small biped robot you can teach new tricks to. Train it in simulation, run it on the real thing. Meet Microduck 🦆 $399, shipping before Christmas. pollen-robotics.com/microduc… github.com/pollen-robotics/m…

Every college syllabus should include these graphs. Use AI for homework, you will get it done faster and get a higher grade, and then get crushed on the exam.