Laundry-folding robot Laundroid folds under $20M worth of pressure
Better get to work on all that unfolded laundry you had saved up.
Tragic news for all of us who made room in our homes and hearts for Laundroid . The impractically large robot that took far too long to do its one job has folded its last pair of trousers.
Laundroid creator Seven Dreamers filed for bankruptcy Tuesday. According to Teikoku Databank, a private credit research agency, the company owes 2.25 billion yen ($20.1 million) to 200 creditors, Engadget reports. The folding bot had an initial price tag of $16,000 but never went into mass production.
CNET's Megan Wollerton saw the Laundroid in action at CES 2017 and described the monolithic appliance as looking "kind of like a bottom freezer fridge." But it got the job done. Eventually.
Yes, with no human intervention, the laundry is done.
The Laundroid's built-in AI was smart enough to identify different kinds of clothing, and its robotic arms were dextrous enough to produce a neatly folded pile of laundry . Unfortunately, like your dad taking his time with the washing up in the hopes of never being asked to do it again, it took five minutes or so to fold a single item.
"I suppose it's better than doing it yourself," Megan concluded.
The dream of robot-folded laundry lives on with Foldimate, which claims to be able to fold 25 items in the time it took the Laundroid to fold even one.
Seven Dreamers didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
