SoftBank has stopped manufacturing the humanoid robot Pepper

Pepper has been produced in 27,000 units since 2014, but has never really conquered the market, ending up in stock

(photo: Getty Images) It was launched in 2014 as a robot capable of interpreting emotions of the people and had aroused the curiosity of the public for his humanoid appearance, but the story of Pepper ended within six years, after having accumulated several stocks in the warehouse. Salesman, receptionist, promoter, translator, domestic companion and much more: the manufacturer SoftBank offered it all over the world as a symbol of ambitions in artificial intelligence and technology. However, the Japanese conglomerate discontinued its assembly last August and is carrying out an extensive restructuring of the robotics sector. At risk in September there would be the position of half the staff employed in France, 330 employees in total, according to Reuters.

The company led by Masayoshi Son has been present across the Alps since 2012, after the acquisition of Aldebaran Robotics . There are 27 thousand copies of Pepper that have seen the light, but the production has not been exempt from frequent disagreements between French engineers and Japanese managers, due to a software considered cumbersome and cumbersome. This would have limited the functionality and naturalness of the behavior of the one meter and twenty tall device, which as a potential all-rounder ended up being used in bizarre situations, such as insulting players in a social experiment or being fired from a grocery store in Scotland. although in that case the chatbot was developed by a local university.

Nonetheless, the little robot that SoftBank Robotics is now offering 25% off its site (the base cost was $ 1,790), will increasingly be replaced by Whiz, a robot that is not humanoid, but wash the floors. All this, however, will not be without consequences for the staff employed by SoftBank: half of the sales staff has been reduced in the United Kingdom and the United States, part of the employees of the robotics unit in Japan will be relocated. In terms of strategies, billionaire Son is making a change of direction by engaging the corporation in investments, with the Vision Fund and by selling its assets in the sector, including the majority stake in the robotics company Boston Dynamics. He still maintains stakes in Sb Logistics, shares in Berkshire Gray and AutoStore, an automated warehouse logistics company. SoftBank “will continue to make significant investments in next-generation robots,” said the French robotics unit.


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Japan Artificial intelligence Robot globalData.fldTopic = "Japan, Artificial Intelligence, Robot "

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