When you watch the video demonstration of Vector Robot (see video below), you can’t help but become intrigued. It seems like a neat little device. But as the video continues, you left wondering what exactly does this robot do for you, for which you’d be willing to pay its hefty price tag. At the time of this writing, the prices from various venues were well over $350. Hopefully, by the time you read this review of Vector Robot, you’ll have a better handle on whether it’s right for you.
Overview
Vector Robot was developed by a technology company called Anki. Anki was formed in 2010 and had backing by several venture capital firms. However, the concept simply did not take off and the company folded in April 2019.
In December 2019, Digital Dream Labs bought the company and has decided to continue the product line. According to the Kickstarter page for Vector Robot, Digital Dream Labs bought the company to save the robot from extinction. It turns out that customers were not too thrilled with the concept of paying a lot of money for a device that does very little.
Note: I have not purchased the product, nor do I plan to anytime soon. My analysis has given me reason to pause and you can read about these reasons in this review.
Analysis
Robotics are a growing field and soon more robot products will be available to consumers. Vector Robot is one such product that is aimed for the consumer market. It is the first-ever self-acting robot that consumers can buy. However, as highlighted in an article by Wired magazine, Vector Robot failed because, like others, robots need to be useful.
It’s unclear what Digital Dream Labs will do to make Vector Robot more useful. So far, it seems the only “value they added” was to raise the price. Reviews of the product on Amazon suggest that they paid about $250 at the time. The price today is well above that in most selling venues.
Digital Dream Labs is also requiring a monthly membership, which is supposed to sustain the developments of the product further. That’s an interesting strategy for a product that has yet to be deemed useful by consumers.
What this subscription means for consumers is that you will need to pay the hefty upfront fee and if you are unwilling to pay the monthly membership fee, the voice commands will not work.
The video showcasing the product’s abilities do not seem to make the case for buying it. The video portrays a man going through a typical day and how Vector Robot can help him. However, most of the help he got was from Alexa commands. If you already have a device that supports Alexa, it’s unclear how having Vector Robot is going to make your life better.
You can ask Vector to deal you a hand of Blackjack. The graphics aren’t even that good for the game. Maybe if the Vector Robot showed you how to win at the casinos, that could make the product worthwhile. However, there is nothing in the video to indicate it has that ability.
Should You Consider Buying Vector Robot?
If you love to be at the forefront of technology and are the first to buy every gadget, perhaps Vector is a good purchase for you. It could be thought of as an early adopter of hands-free robotic control. Vector is capable of performing duties without assistance. But those duties are limited. Digital Dream Labs claims to add functionality in the future, but not much insight is given to what those functions will be.
There’s something to be said for supporting a next-generation AI product such as Vector Robot. However, I think the company would benefit from detailing what features the future versions of the program will contain. Paying a large upfront sum along with a monthly fee isn’t likely to sit well with consumers without at least some vision about what that investment will provide in the future.
Many people have described Vector as cute. If you don’t mind paying a large sum of money for cute, then by all means, make your purchase today. Personally, I think you can get a lot of cute for much less money. Let’s face it, Furby is a cute product, too. It also costs a lot less money than Vector. Of course, Furby needs a smart device to operate, where Vector is self-motivated.
Open Source Code That Is Not So Open Source
The company is making its source code for Vector Robot available for those who have programming chops. Oddly, though, they are calling access to this source code open source. I’ve been in the technology field for almost 30 years and have always understood open source to be freely available code. Yet the company is charging $147 (at the time of this writing) for their “open source” code.
Bottom Line
I think the technological capabilities of Vector Robot have a lot of potential. I am critical of Digital Dream Labs’ promotional direction as the company seems to have little vision how consumers will benefit from this product. Simply stating that they plan on adding several new features or functions doesn’t seem like enough to justify the high cost of the product or the charging of monthly fees. Perhaps I am missing something in this analysis, but frankly, I just don’t get it.
I’ll keep an eye on the developments of this product and the company. But at the current time, it is not a product that I would recommend due to the reasons listed in this review.
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