$8K laundry bot knows when to hold ’em, knows when to fold ’em, and knows it has help standing by

Nobody likes folding laundry, but you really have to hate it to spend $7,999 on a robot that'll fold it for you with a whole heap of limitations – including company employees getting the occasional peep at your tough-to-fold unmentionables. Head over to Weave Robotics' homepage and you'll see videos of a Johnny 5-esque robot …

[Doctor Syntax]

You have a robot tha will tidy up a home by putting everything away. Where do you put it away when it's not in use?

[elsergiovolador]

Get another robot to fold it. Ad infinitum.

[Kane]

"Get another robot to fold it. Ad infinitum."

It's robots all the way down!

[The Oncoming Scorn]

"But worst of all, the most bitter pill to swallow, for four long years, I had to hand-scrub the gussets of your longjohns."

[Excused Boots]

“....and is also offering a $9,999 priority delivery option for those that want to jump the line.”

Well you do have to admire their optimism!

[Doctor Syntax]

Maybe their target market is industrial scale laundries.

[Kubla Cant]

Not if it takes 90 min to fold a single load. I estimate that I spend as much as 10 min per week folding laundry (but then I don't fold my pants, and I don't own a "tshirt" - the spelling suggests a Russian garment). At $450/month that works out at about $600/hour. Is that the going rate for laundry-folding jobs?

[Doctor Syntax]

"I estimate that I spend as much as 10 min per week folding laundry"

You must be one of those who takes their time over it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, you could 3-D print yourself a whole new fashion-forward wrinkle-free wardrobe of clean clothes in the time it takes to wash, dry, and fold your old ones with this bot ... it'd be cheaper too! ;)

[cyberdemon]

Give me your clothes, your boots, your motorcy.. Actually, just the clothes.

[Doctor Syntax]

Or just your money.

[Neil Barnes]

be monitored by a human to ensure it's not leaving behind a pile

I'm trying hard to think of a job which would be less exciting than this.

I'm also wondering how much I'd have to pay someone to come in a spend twenty minutes folding all my clothes once a fortnight. Somehow I doubt it would be $500...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: be monitored by a human to ensure it's not leaving behind a pile

Less exciting? They make games for PS5, "Farm Simulator", "Work Simulator", etc. Perhaps it's not about how exciting it is. :-|

> come in a spend twenty minutes folding all my clothes once a fortnight. Somehow I doubt it would be $500

Commercial laundry service will probably bill you this monthly, if not fort-nightly. You'd likely need to resort to that for pick-up and delivery service. What catches my eye is with two service instances, you could afford a whole new laundry machine (to clean, not dry or fold). It's that perspective that gets me every time. Of course, if you're willing to do drop-off and pick-up, they charge $10-15/KG (wash dry fold), so probably $45 per week or fortnight, depending on your load size. In non-western countries, or Southern American countries, that could be $6-$12 per load, wash-dry-fold. (Blankets are extra.)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: be monitored by a human to ensure it's not leaving behind a pile

> Commercial laundry service will probably bill you this monthly, if not fort-nightly. You'd likely need to resort to that for pick-up and delivery service

This 'bot doesn't *do* the laundry, it only *folds* the laundry! You don't go to a commercial laundry service for a purely folding service and there is absolutely no need for a pick-up and delivery. I hope. You just need, as the OP said, "a woman who does for you" (or "bloke who does", no stereotyping around here) to pop in once a fortnight for 20 minutes. Certainly hope that won't be at $1500 per hour (at that rate, they'd better be ready to do the windows as well, inside at least).

Although, given Silly Valley has (or had) gig services that brought you coins for the machine, a pick-up service solely for folding suddenly doesn't seem so mad.

[LBJsPNS]

$8K? Piffle.

I have clients who have multiple $25K bidets installed in their high rise condos. $25K for a place to take a dump while we have people sleeping on sidewalks and living out of clapped out RVs.

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: $8K? Piffle.

If they're taking a dump in the bidet they have bigger problems than having too much money...

[LBJsPNS]

Re: $8K? Piffle.

Visit the US sometime. Noplace has a separate bidet. It's incorporated into the toilet seat. Why have two fixtures to clean?

[takno]

Re: $8K? Piffle.

"Why have two fixtures to clean?"

Presumably so that you're getting your moneys worth out of the bathroom-cleaning robot

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: $8K? Piffle.

It's incorporated into the toilet seat.

You wash yourself from the same place that people shit in? Ewwww.

[JamesTGrant]

What is ‘folding laundry?’ I fold T shirts, and towels and sheets but the rest? Nope.

Also 90mins!!?

[Bebu sa Ware]

What is ‘folding laundry?’

Ditto.

If it doesn't slip on to a coat hanger it gets stuffed into a drawer. [10 minutes per week. Tops.]

Ironing ? Which part of "retired" you don't comprenez ?

I reckon if they could produce an ironing device the could iron those gym slips with a million small pleats so beloved by girls private schools they could charge a motza for it, or for a few dollars more, offer to take out the school trustees responsible for the uniform code

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: What is ‘folding laundry?’

Ironing - I use a travel steamer at home or on trips (For North America....well Canada, it also doubles up as a handy kettle) when I need\want to iron a shirt, its just so much easier & I get better results.

[Anonymous Coward]

Fitted bedsheets

"Large blankets and bedsheets are currently out of its expertise"

I know the feeling.

I can't fold a fitted bedsheet to save my life

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Fitted bedsheets

> I can't fold a fitted bedsheet to save my life

Plot of the next Saw movie: This time, it's elastic!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Fitted bedsheets

I think automated bed sheet washing, ironing and folding has already been fixed, but you need a huge machine that looks like a newspaper printing press - I'm sure I saw this on some crapchannel that was doing a documentary on a cruise liner.

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: Fitted bedsheets

Fitted sheets & quilt covers etc I do one wash* for those & refit the same day.

*Several times per year at least, I don't keep track.

[Anonymous Coward]

But No One Is Asking..........

......is this robot phoning home?

You thought Google and Meta are snooping......and then you let a robot INTO YOUR HOME!

WiFi, Bluetooth, video, microphones..........

[fredds]

To paraphrase Douglas Adams, come the revolution, they will be up against the wall with the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.

[Bebu sa Ware]

"up against the wall with the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation."

We can now guess why the Great Wall is so long.

So many, so little wall.

[DS999]

Who is this for?

If you are rich enough that you can throw away that kind of money on something as frivolous as this, you aren't doing your own laundry anyway.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Who is this for?

Laundry? You mean that thing they do when I gives last week's clothes to Oxfam?

Yes, one said "I gives"; "I" is the houseboy's name, he's from one of funny little countries one can never quite spell.

[ThatOne]

Re: Who is this for?

> If you are rich enough that you can throw away that kind of money on something as frivolous as this, you aren't doing your own laundry anyway.

Came to say the same thing: $8k just to avoid 5 to 10 minutes of work/week? In that case you certainly can also afford to hire some domestic help who will take care of the whole laundry process, hamper to wardrobe, and will handle your expensive clothes with proper care.

I understand they're still (many) years away from the perfect robotic butler who will clean, do the laundry, cook dinner, walk the dog, bring you your newspaper, answer the phone and get the groceries needed to prepare aforementioned dinner, but the limited version they try to start with is kind of really limited... The only potential clients I see are those who need to impress their visitors ("Hey, look how cool I am, I have a laundry-folding robot!").

[Rikki Tikki]

"Nobody likes folding laundry"

I beg to differ, Brandon. I for one find it a quite relaxing way to spend the final minutes of a long day. Add to that the sense of triumph when I locate the last missing sock.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh-Ho! Sure sign of malfunction when your laundry system's Schrödinger unit consumes socks in pairs ... Please have it looked at soon!

[Bebu sa Ware]

"Schrödinger unit consumes socks in pairs "

Not barrels or kegs so I guess those are Hosier pairs.

I once wondered whether anyone^† somewhere ever made pairs of left and right handed footed socks ?

( The ultimate fate of Universe might hinge on this should two left [or right] footed socks be placed in the Schrödinger unit. ;)

_{† probably lynched by the Ankh·Morpork Laundresses' Guild.}

[Bebu sa Ware]

"I for one find it a quite relaxing way to spend the final minutes of a long day…"

watching the little lady folding the laundry. ;)

"locate the last missing sock." — Sussed that out years ago. Only ever buy socks identical to those you have so I am never down more than one matched pair.

Now I periodically have to sort and discard worn socks which I never needed to before. Attrition rate ~ replacement rate ?

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: "I for one find it a quite relaxing way to spend the final minutes of a long day…"

Only ever buy socks identical to those you have so I am never down more than one matched pair - Can confirm that's also my MO.

Those mismatched pairs & worn socks (Along with underwear)..... I wear\pack those on trips & dispose of in the hotel bin after use.

Creates a little space for bringing different things back in Carry On.

[PhilipN]

Useful half a century ago

Provided it could also iron cotton shirts. I have a wardrobe-full for the office which I never wear.

Everything else is polyester which is only ever kept randomly in a bundle.

Which of the prissy commentards here care about wrinkles?

[the Jim bloke]

Prior art - not that any robotics/AI vendor will acknowledge it..

Pretty sure Kryten from Red Dwarf really enjoyed folding clothes... and possibly had a steam socket for ironing too...

[Bebu sa Ware]

Re: Prior art - not that any robotics/AI vendor will acknowledge it..

"Pretty sure Kryten … really enjoyed folding clothes"

Didn't he also repair Talkie Toaster ?

The only clothes on the Red Dwarf would have been Lister's which would have been over a million years old and only survived because he was wearing them in the stasis pod. They certainly never betrayed any evidence of being folded, or being ironed, or indeed being washed (ever.)

I nearly forgot Cat — but I recall it was a mystery to Rimmer and Lister where he got his kit from.

_{Of course Rimmer was outfitted by Holly — I am surprised that Rimmer wasn't projected with a pink tutu. Although with Mr Flibble comes close.}

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: Prior art - not that any robotics/AI vendor will acknowledge it..

You neglected the scrubbing of Listers Gussets...

[trevorde]

Spoiler alert!

It's a man in a spandex suit (again)