Robotics · Spatial computing

My own, occasionally spicy takes on robots and the maps they run on.

I’ve spent about twenty years on the hardware and software that help machines understand the physical world: at Google, at two startups of my own, and now at Instawork. More about me.

Writing

• TickTock: A Journey into AR-Powered Robots Five parts · 2018

  A year of product bets from the AR-powered robotics company I founded: an Echo Show on wheels, robots that move retail inventory, and the mapping stack meant to make them work.

• Humanoid Robots are the Wrong Answer to the Right Problem Apr 10, 2019

  The home doesn’t need a Rosie. Purpose-built machines beat human-shaped ones at chores, and chasing humanoids gets the problem wrong.

• We Aren’t Going to See General Purpose Robotics, and Here’s Why Mar 26, 2019

  Alexa can tell you the weather but can’t do your laundry. Information generalizes and atoms don’t, which is why general-purpose robots stay a fantasy.