Amazon’s Astro robot still isn’t ready for prime time - Ars Technica

Amazon's press-only hardware event today included reveals of the Kindle Scribe, Eero extending mesh networks with Echo, updated Echo Dot and Studio speakers, plus an Echo dashboard accessory. Like last year, there was also talk of the Amazon Astro robot that can roll around homes equipped with a digital smile, camera, and microphones.

This time, Amazon detailed new and planned features for Astro; however, a year after its initial announcement, Astro remains an invite-only experimental product.

When Ars Technica asked Amazon about when general availability would happen, an Amazon rep wouldn't get more specific than "as quickly as possible.".

But while many consumers can still not buy and try Astro, Amazon will continue experimenting with the robot in a new market: small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Amazon pointed to Astro working with Amazon's Ring security cameras.

So, it makes sense that Amazon is still working on tweaking the robot so that it can not only appear as useful as possible but as necessary as possible, considering its steep price tag and limited precedent for robots like this, particularly in homes.

After all, it's not just about Astro; Amazon hopes to build more than one consumer home robot, Washington told GeekWire in June.

To encourage development of even more Astro abilities, Amazon is sharing the software development kit it used to build the aforementioned pet detection feature with three schools known for robotics development, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Maryland, and University of Michigan.

For the time being, it seems that the next news about Astro will be around further software development rather than a full public release.

And for a robot expected to be $1,500 when it sees general availability, that's probably for the best.