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Useless Objects

Reading about the CES roundup gets to be less and less interesting over the years. The proliferation of vacuum cleaners including one to pick up stray socks is both silly and wasteful. Sorting stuff from landfills to create piles of reusable things is infinitely more valuable but too hard a problem for these toy robot efforts to undertake.

Pricing and availability are not published for these vacuums yet, but each is likely to set you back the equivalent of at least one new MacBook. They are also rather big devices to stash in your home (it's hard to hide an arm or an air purifier). Each is an early adopter device, and getting replacement consumable parts for them long-term is an uncertain bet. I'm not sure who they are for, but that has not stopped this apparently fertile field from growing many new products.

Some investor somewhere must have prophesized a big payday for the vacuum that gets it right with the consumer. Its unclear who is the target here. People who can't be bothered to pick up their socks will unlikely invest in a robot to do the work for them - this is not a problem they are aware of. Parents in a household of multiple disorganized kids - maybe. But the kids room when it gets to peak chaos is not less complex than landfill. The standard that I had heard of is the floor is still visible under the mess so its not so bad yet. So chances are that the sock vacuum would fail once put to work in a real environment. 

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