“Crazy, Creepy, and Fun.” That’s how the Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern described her experience with Amazon Astro, the tech giant’s new home robot.
Amazon Astro was designed to help users with a range of tasks from home security monitoring to assisting in the care of elderly people who are living remotely.
To answer the question above, Yes, Astro is a real thing. However, you can’t buy it just yet unless Amazon lets you. At the moment you have to request an invitation. Astro costs $999.99 and comes with Alexa and a 6-month free trial of Ring Protect Pro.
We thought it was interesting, because well… it’s a robot that follows you around your home, but also because it’s another Alexa-enabled device.
According to Amazon, “Amazon Astro uses advanced navigation technology to find its way around your home and go where you need it. When you’re not using Astro, it will hang out close by at the ready.”
If you’re not home, however, you can send Astro to check on specific rooms or people. This comes in handy if you pair Astro with Alexa Together, a feature that helps provide remote care for aging loved ones.
Astro can even detect an unrecognized person or certain sounds when you’re away. Joanna Stern from above dressed up like a burglar and pushed Astro on its side and she got a notification on her phone. Not bad!
Not only that, but Astro can act as a butler. There is a cargo holder that can deliver snacks and drinks to people in your household. “It’s like your little own R2-D2,” fifth-grade teacher, Matthew Nereim, told Bloomberg.
So where does this leave us? Well, Astro is certainly neat and futuristic. Its ability to care for loved ones is probably our favorite trait. Remember, the Census Bureau estimated that there were 54.1 million residents 65 years and older living in the US in 2019. Globally, there are over 700 million senior citizens according to the UN. This number is expected to double to 1.5 billion by 2050 as medicine improves and people continue to live longer lives.
If this little friend can help us care for loved ones remotely that is HUGE. Right now, Astro struggles with stairs and apparently gets lost on its way back to the charging station from time to time.
We’ll continue to keep an eye on this to see how future iterations of Astro progress. If you have an Astro already, be sure to tell us what you like or don’t like about it!