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by si1entstill4 hours ago |
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upvoteby qurren4 hours ago|
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If you can even afford 20K you're in the top 10% of the US population. It's not a very big market, and even selling to that market is hard. Probably only 10% of that 10% will actually buy, and all of a sudden you're selling to 1%.

Selling to businesses is much easier, 99% of businesses can afford 200K if it replaces 3 x 70K humans.

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upvoteby jfaat4 hours ago|
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Your napkin math only shows that the market is identical. There's about 35m businesses operating in the US. So by selling to 10% of those you sell the exact same number of robots...
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upvoteby ACCount373 hours ago|
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People in the US buy cars.

Can a household robot provide as much utility as a car? If "yes", the market gets pretty big.

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upvoteby cj1 hours ago|
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How does it compare to hiring a human?

I pay $200 every 2 weeks to have a 3000 sq ft house cleaned.

That's about $5200 a year to fully clean a house. And it's a human, so they can also tidy up, clean out the refrigerator, do my laundry, water my plants, etc.

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upvoteby qurren2 hours ago|
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Not really. The car is a non-negotiable, like food, unless you live in Boston/NYC/SF or something. The robot is not.
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upvoteby nancyminusone1 hours ago|
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You don't even "need" to clean your house (yes, yes, I know). You do need to drive to work.
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upvoteby nsvd24 hours ago|
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Actually the high income households are becoming a greater and greater share of spending, referred to as the "K shaped" economy. For example, the top quintile of households accounts for about 40% of all consumer spending.
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upvoteby aantix4 hours ago|
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Most people finance vehicles that cost much more than 20K.

I'd gladly pay or finance a robot that could have dishes clean, laundry folded, and carpets vacuumed by the time our family got home.

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upvoteby drusepth3 hours ago|
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I don't think a cleaning robot and a vehicle are in the same category, as vehicles are more a necessity (at the very least to get to and from your jobs, to buy groceries, etc) and a cleaning robot is squarely a luxury.
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upvoteby rendang3 hours ago|
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A car saves you time walking/biking, a robot saves chore time. Depending on depreciation, it's feasible that you could go do minimum-wage level work on Doordash using the chore time you save from the robot and still come out ahead. E.g. 5 hours/week at $20/hour = $5200/yr
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upvoteby jader2012 hours ago|
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Vehicles, when first invented, were 100% a luxury, not a necessity.

They only became a “necessity” once they went mainstream and the world started evolving with vehicles becoming a part of everyday life.

I can certainly see the same thing happening with residential robotics.

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upvoteby nancyminusone1 hours ago|
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Only way I can see that happening is if you somehow get fired for not folding your laundry, in the same way people are fired when their car breaks and they can't make it to work.
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