I think this is a little cynical. Robotics and AI are moving at a decent pace. I just bought a robot vacuum that is also a mop and has all manner of sensors and even mapped my house. It was like $250. That's a huge leap over the $500 one I bought years ago that just bounced around randomly and only vacuumed. "Hey why doesnt this have an app and complex sensors and be able to dynamically make a map," would be borderline-laughable not that long ago, but now its the bare minimum for a robot vacuum. I don't even see a lot that don't also mop too. When before the mop feature was seen as this high-end feature, often requiring buying a 2nd machine. Now its just something tacked on.

I'm not going to go into the controversial world of assisted and some level of self driving, but its clear that's making a lot of progress and today is just seen as a boring feature on your car, like seatbelts or ABS.

I've been watching videos from Chinese robot manufacturers and we definitely are 'getting there.' What getting there means is the big question, but this isn't Omni magazine in 1985. You can see videos of these things doing a lot right now, even if its rudimentary. Unitree especially, considering how they aim for a 'low' price point. Of course a lot of these are carefully staged demos, but the fundamentals are here. Even non-staged stuff is starting to look relatively good.

The recent leak about Apple's robot is interesting too. Apple is very conservative, so if they're testing one, even if its a tabletop (with an arm?) that says a lot on what's practically possible and affordable right now. The same way when Apple was testing the PR waters for an electric car, it was a great time to move into electric cars.