Source: FT/The Rise of Robots.
Market forecasts:
Barclays Research estimates the market for Humanoid robots will reach $200bn by 2035.
Humanoid shipments are forecast to grow from 90k in 2026 to over 1.2m by 2030.
Initial Consumer applications include folding laundry, loading dishwashers, cleaning homes.
But will Humanoids just be a novelty or will they really take off?
Or will Apple enter this market leapfrogging the others?
Pricing models:
A single unit costs tens of thousands of dollars e.g. from Unitree of China (while Figure and Tesla are currently for industrial use).
But 1X’s Neo has a subscription model of $500/month (RaaS).
Expect the prices to drop over time as dexterity and performance increase.
Societal aspects of Humanoids at home:
Trust: Will we trust them?
Privacy: Do we really want Humanoids to be listening to us and recording us in our homes?
Health: If people are not actively doing household chores or 7,000 steps a day, what will that mean for their health?
Children: Will children grow up not knowing how to do household chores
Cybersecurity: What happens if the humanoids are hacked?
Affordability:
How will mass market consumers be able to afford them if AI displaces humans in jobs?
Or will some of the AI leaders predicting a world of future economic abundance be giving them away as well as funding UBI?!