Amazon introduced the Astro robot during its annual device presentation last fall. The company has designed a robot with a friendly face as a mobile assistant on wheels that can handle entertainment, security and even courier roles. Sarah Andrew Wilson, who served as chief content officer for voice game developer Matchbox.io before Volley's acquisition in February, was one of the few chosen by Amazon to buy Astro soon. Amazon will then use the feedback from Wilson and other early Astra owners to upgrade and improve the Astra for a more mainstream version in the near future. Voicebot interviewed Wilson about what it's like to own an Astro, the pros and cons of the robot, and how she sees it in the rapidly evolving smart home ecosystem. The interview questions and answers have been slightly edited for clarity.
Performance and use of Astro
What made you decide to buy Astro?
“I was definitely not looking for a home robot [before the Astro announcement]. I didn't know I even cared. I see so much potential in voice and stationary. I didn't even think about those who move around too much. But then, at Amazon's announcements last year, they announced a thermostat, they announced a small drone, and they announced Astro. When I saw the Astra, there was something about it that immediately piqued my curiosity; I was like, what can you do? What can you do about it? It's an Alexa device that moves and has facial expressions. So the use cases that they had in that announcement video as well seemed to really interest me.”
How is interacting with Astro compared to other Alexa devices?
“It doesn't look like any Amazon Echo device we've seen before, and it feels completely different in most of your interactions. But when you ask it to do something that Alexa needs to take over, suddenly you're communicating with Alexa and you think, 'Oh, yeah. This is actually an Alexa device that's combined with robotics, and a whole different team at Amazon got involved.'"
Amazon has done a lot of work with the spatial awareness built into Astro, highlighting how it can learn to navigate around the house by creating its own map. Did it live up to the hype?
Amazon introduced the Astro robot during its annual device presentation last fall. The company has designed a robot with a friendly face as a mobile assistant on wheels that can handle entertainment, security and even courier roles. Sarah Andrew Wilson, who served as chief content officer for voice game developer Matchbox.io before Volley's acquisition in February, was one of the few chosen by Amazon to buy Astro soon. Amazon will then use the feedback from Wilson and other early Astra owners to upgrade and improve the Astra for a more mainstream version in the near future. Voicebot interviewed Wilson about what it's like to own an Astro, the pros and cons of the robot, and how she sees it in the rapidly evolving smart home ecosystem. The interview questions and answers have been slightly edited for clarity.
Performance and use of Astro
What made you decide to buy Astro?
“I was definitely not looking for a home robot [before the Astro announcement]. I didn't know I even cared. I see so much potential in voice and stationary. I didn't even think about those who move around too much. But then, at Amazon's announcements last year, they announced a thermostat, they announced a small drone, and they announced Astro. When I saw the Astra, there was something about it that immediately piqued my curiosity; I was like, what can you do? What can you do about it? It's an Alexa device that moves and has facial expressions. So the use cases that they had in that announcement video as well seemed to really interest me.”
How is interacting with Astro compared to other Alexa devices?
“It doesn't look like any Amazon Echo device we've seen before, and it feels completely different in most of your interactions. But when you ask it to do something that Alexa needs to take over, suddenly you're communicating with Alexa and you think, 'Oh, yeah. This is actually an Alexa device that's combined with robotics, and a whole different team at Amazon got involved.'"
Amazon has done a lot of work with the spatial awareness built into Astro, highlighting how it can learn to navigate around the house by creating its own map. Did it live up to the hype?
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