Comment by sebtron
6 months ago
I don't understand the obsession with humanoid robots that many seem to have. Why would you make a car repairing machine human-shaped? Like, what would it use its legs for? Wouldn't it be better to design it tailored to its purpose?
Economies of scale. The humanoid form can interact with all of the existing infrastructure for jobs currently done by humans, so that's the obvious form factor for companies looking to churn out robots to sell by the millions.
Can, but an insectoid form factor and much smaller size could easily be better. It's not so common that being of human size is an advantage even where things are set up to allow for humans.
Consider how chimney sweeps used to be children.
Not only that but if humanoid robots were available commercially (and viable) they could be used as housemaids or for.. companionship if not more. Of course, we're entering SciFi territory but it's long been a SciFi theme.
They want a child.
Legs? To jump into the workshop pit, among other things. Palms are needed to hold a wrench or a spanner, fingers are needed to unscrew nuts.
Cars are not built to accommodate whatever universal repair machine there could be, cars are built with an expectation that a mechanic with arms and legs will be repairing it, and will be for a while.
A non-humanoid robot in a human-designed world populated by humans looks and behaves like this, at best: https://youtu.be/Hxdqp3N_ymU
This is such a bad take that I have a hard time believing it's not just trolling.
Really, a robot which could literally have an impact wrench built into it would HOLD a SPANNER and use FINGERS to remove bolts?
Next I'm expecting you say self-driving cars will necessarily require a humanoid sitting in the driver's seat to be feasible. And delivery robots (broadly in use in various places around the world) have a tiny humanoid robot inside them to make the go.
Sure, why not? A built-in impact wrench is built in forever, but a palm and fingers can hold a wrench, a spanner, a screwdriver, a welding torch, a drill, an angle grinder and trillion other tools of every possible size and configuration, that any workshop already has. You suggest to build all those tools into a robot? The multifunctional device you imagine is now incredibly expensive and bulky, likely are not reaching into narrow gaps between car's parts, still not having as many degrees of freedom as human hand, and is limited by the set of tools the manufacturer thought of, unlike the hand, which can grab any previously unexpected tool with ease.
Still want to repair the car with just the built-in wrench?
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More and more, cars are not built with repair in mind. At least not as a top priority. There are many repairs that now require removal of substantial unrelated components or perhaps the entire engine because the failed thing is just impossible to reach in situ.
Nuts and bolts are used because they are good mechanical fasteners that take advantage of the enormous "squeezing" leverage a threaded faster provides. Robots already assemble cars, and we still use nuts and bolts.
Cars were always like that. Once in a while they worry about repairs but often they don't, and never have.