The emphasis on cuteness and personability is such a smart product decision - it's the anti-Starship robot approach. Making Dot approachable helps with public acceptance and reduces vandalism risk, which has been a real problem for delivery robots in other cities. Your hands-on impressions really highlight how DoorDash is thinking about the human-robot interaction design. The 'vision-primary' stack with 9 cameras is intersting given most L4 systems lean harder on lidar. I wonder how well it performs in Phoenix's harsh afternoon glare and dust storms. Looking forward to your interview with Ashu Rege - would love to hear about their decision to build in-house versus partnering with an existing robotics company like Coco or Starship.
Hell yes you should go back for a ride in the eVTOL! Would love to watch/ read about that :)
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The emphasis on cuteness and personability is such a smart product decision - it's the anti-Starship robot approach. Making Dot approachable helps with public acceptance and reduces vandalism risk, which has been a real problem for delivery robots in other cities. Your hands-on impressions really highlight how DoorDash is thinking about the human-robot interaction design. The 'vision-primary' stack with 9 cameras is intersting given most L4 systems lean harder on lidar. I wonder how well it performs in Phoenix's harsh afternoon glare and dust storms. Looking forward to your interview with Ashu Rege - would love to hear about their decision to build in-house versus partnering with an existing robotics company like Coco or Starship.