For a moment there, it seemed like Amazon might pivot its Astro home robot to enterprise by giving it a better job as a camera-equipped patrol dog. But today, it’s discontinuing the Astro for Business robot for good. On September 25th, every one of the 20-pound wheeled robots will stop working, and Amazon will automatically issue full refunds for the $2,349.99 bot, plus a $300 credit. Amazon isn’t commenting on how many business bots it actually sold since the November 2023 launch, but the company’s VP of hardware engineering, Lindo St. Angel, says he’s “increasingly convinced the progress we’re making in home robotics is where we should focus our resources.” We’re sharing his full internal memo below. Amazon also provided this statement to The Verge, which sure makes it sound like an Astro for Home successor might be on the way: We are fully committed to our vision of bringing world-class consumer robotics solutions to the home. To accelerate our progress and ongoing research to make Astro the best in-home robot, we’ve made the decision to wind down support for Astro for Business. We’re excited about the in-home experiences we’re inventing for Astro, and look forward to sharing more in the future. GeekWire first reported the news and said Amazon isn’t laying off any workers due to the pivot because they’ll just start working on home robots instead.
Full report : Amazon is closing down its security robots business, to focus solely on home robots.
