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February 22, 2022 06:05 pm

Amazon's Astro Home Robot Remains Elusive Six Months After Debut

An anonymous reader shares a report: Last September, Amazon debuted a household robot named Astro that was supposed to usher in -- or at least point to -- a Jetsons-like future. Fifty-three minutes into a press conference otherwise focused on new Ring cameras, a thermostat and a giant Echo speaker with a wall screen, the three-wheeled robot rolled out on stage at the command of Amazon devices chief Dave Limp. With Astro looking on, Limp ticked off the gadget's attributes: advanced computer vision that lets the bot know where it is, home monitoring, media playback and the ability to summon emergency help for elders. Astro would eventually sell for about $1,450, but Limp said people lucky enough to score an invitation could get their hands on one for $1,000 -- or about the price of an iPhone 13 Pro -- and test it out at home. In a video presentation of the unveiling, Henrik Christensen, a computer science and robotics professor at the University of California at San Diego, said, "Astro is a huge step forward. The next question will be: 'When should I get one?'" A more apt question might have been: When can I get one? Six months later, Astro is tough to find. Hardly anyone is talking about the robot -- which is confounding because early adopters typically love to share their experiences online. A scan for Astro users on YouTube, Twitter and Instagram turned up just two people, who posted brief videos of the bot. Turns out Amazon has so far shipped at most a few hundred Astros, according to people familiar with the situation.

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