In an offering that’s giving us major modern-day Howard Hughes vibes, super-wealthy renters in one of L.A.’s most luxurious apartment buildings can now ensconce themselves in their rooms, with anything they need brought to them by robots, thereby avoiding any interaction with other humans at all.
Or maybe they’re very normal people who simply want their coffee brought up. Either way: Robots.
The helpful little delivery bots roaming the halls of the just-opened building known as Ten Thousand are made by California-based robotics innovators Savioke. They are all named Charley, by the way.
Residents of Ten Thousand’s $9,000 to $25,000-per-month units, can place an order for anything they might need via a specialized iPad app. The item will arrive at the building’s front desk, where an actual human will take it and hand it off to Charley the robot butler. Charley then scoots along up to the designated apartment, locked and secured so only the intended recipient can get to the delivery.
The technology behind the robots is a little more sophisticated than just strapping a basket on a Roomba and sending it on its way.
"It works through a mix of AI, with planning and perception algorithms to let it move around in the world and human intelligence, with a call center it can ask for help if it runs into any problems," Savioke CEO Steve Cousins told Digital Trends.
Ten Thousand is set to be the first residence to roll out the robot butler service. Currently, they’re in use to provide room service at a few high-end hotels, which is where a staffer from the apartment building saw them in action and decided to roll out the technology.
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