$2,350 Amazon ‘Astro’ Business Robots To Become Pointless Paperweights 11 Months After Release
from the I'm-sorry-I-can-no-longer-do-that,-dave dept
One of the common themes here at Techdirt over the last 20 years is how in the digital and internet-connected era, the very meaning of “ownership” and “property” has changed — often for the worse. It simply takes a merger or an ill-timed firmware update to render something you thought you owned — completely obsolete.
Case in point: last fall Amazon announced that it would be selling its Astro robot for use as a security guard for businesses. The robots, which can patrol up to a 5,000 square foot area, start at a price tag of $2,350, with a $180 per month subscription charge. But eleven months after the announcement, Amazon has announced that they’re shutting the effort down and bricking the robots.
The robots will simply stop working on September 15, and unfortunately can’t be repurposed in any way (Amazon is providing free recycling for your expensive and now completely pointless $2,350 robot). Business subscribers will at least get a refund for their units and $300 in Amazon credit. All personal data will be wiped from the device by Amazon.
In a statement to The Verge, Amazon indicates that they’re shifting their attention to Astro robots for the home. Employees that worked on the business version will be migrated to that version:
“We are fully committed to our vision of bringing world-class consumer robotics solutions to the home. To accelerate our progress and ongoing research to make Astro the best in-home robot, we’ve made the decision to wind down support for Astro for Business. We’re excited about the in-home experiences we’re inventing for Astro, and look forward to sharing more in the future.”
The home version of Astro is now only available as a $1,600, invite-only preview. Hopefully those users don’t have the same experience another few months from now.
Filed Under: amazon, bricked, consumers, hardware, ownership, robotics, robots, shut down
Companies: amazon
Comments on “$2,350 Amazon ‘Astro’ Business Robots To Become Pointless Paperweights 11 Months After Release”
“We’ve screwed over our existing customers so that we can chase a new customer base.
And this new customer base will DEFINITELY trust us not to screw THEM over…”
Taking “move fast and break things” way too far.
Re:
The new mantra is “break fast and move things”.
Re: Re:
Actually i think it’s, “brunch and move things around”.
It’s bad enough losing access to subscription based software and media (at least there are work around for a lot of that)
But when it comes to subscription based hardware, that’s a hard pass from me.
Re: I didn't know I needed it...and I still don't
Still trying to figure out how man survived for millennia without the benefit of a “smart” grill.
Amazon pulling a Google
Personal robots from a company that just bricked the previous line of robots after less than a year of service, despite those customers paying significantly more?
Where do I sign up?!
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Unfortunately The suckers, er um, customers that they are selling to probably won’t even be aware of what’s transpired. I am also sure Amazon will pinky swear they won’t pull the rug out that quickly this time.
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Lets be fair, the personal ones will just be recycled old ones with a sticker on it that says “Personal”
18 months later:
“We’re shuttering our home robot operations … no, none of those things are true! We just feel like it. I mean, we are focusing on business, warehouse, and industrial applications. The new robots will have quantum cloud blockchain AI 6G.”
who the hell would buy a robot from amazon knowing that they WILL (not might) brick it whenever they feel like it?
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Maybe the same people who got those echo dots?
Someone’s bound to come up with a way to patch the robots so they don’t call home to Amazon anymore but point somewhere else instead. At which point, they no longer stop working.
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My thoughts exactly. Those robots are going to become someone’s experimental playthings from now. Fitwermi, I’d be setting “home” in “call home” to “my local network”.
As useless as the Houston Astros in a Game 7
I can’t get dell to reset their motherboards when they recycle them into laptops we send them for repairs. You think I am going to trust Amazon with my data? Not that I have these bots, but seriously.
Given what Amazon has just done to Astro robots for business (and what purveyors of expensive tech have always done for the past several years), I’ll trust the company only as far as I can throw it.
““We are fully committed to our vision of bringing world-class consumer robotics solutions to the home.”
Not in my home. It’s just Alexa with wheels and cameras.
Why would anyone want such a thing running around their house? Does it clean?
What kind of fucking idiot would even buy the home version after Amazon outright fucked everyone with the business version?!?!?!
And I was mad when my $5 Amazon dash wand stopped working (I used it as a remote control for my outdoor stereo.)
Coming soon- Astro for prisons. The perfect guard.
Feature rich
I’m sure we will see the feature rich $1600 home safety robot. Imagine it will notify the police if the children leave the home unaccompanied by an adult, have that fourth cocktail— notify your doctor your drinking too much, leave the window open too long – notify your insurance company you’ve failed to secure your home, drop flour on the floor baking a cake – notifies the police white powder is liberally sprinkled everywhere, pick up a firearm- notifies the swat team you’re about to commit mass murder. I feel safer already.
Hopefully when Amazon do brick it it’s final act is to notify the detectives you’ve been defrauded of $1600.
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Amazon did actually refund the money in this case. That makes it somewhat more complicated to sue, even though it’s not remotely a sufficient remedy. Could you imagine if you came home one day to find all your furniture gone, because the seller changed their mind—but, hey, here’s your money back (and nevermind the effort that would go into replacement, or whether comparable stuff can even be found at that price anymore)? That’s the attitude we’re dealing with from these companies.
If I physically had one of these in my possession, I would take that as a personal challenge.
Maybe...
Maybe Amazon saw the writing on the wall. Not that they did something greedy, but that the lawyers of America put them at risk. I bet someone pointed out that by providing a “security guard” robot, they are at risk of being sued for any loss that happens on the robot’s watch. (Weasel words in contracts never stop lawsuits from being filed.)
This is a lot less of a risk with a home bot, where the maximum loss is a house that is likely insured and the robot performs the same function as a home alarm system.
So… TL:DR lame lawyers.