Where Robotics Goes From Here

The Prediction Problem

In the mid-2010s, Rodney Brooks, co-founder of iRobot and Rethink Robotics, argued that self-driving cars were close enough that many observers expected them to be common by 2020. Around the same period, McKinsey forecast that personal household robots could become a tens-of-billions market by the mid-2020s. Boston Consulting Group and PwC likewise projected that “lights out” fully automated factories could become common within a decade.

None of these happened.