Over the years, the adorable, somewhat unnerving robotic helpers have remained a staple of the tech show — but, that’s just about the only place you’ll see them.
Unless you live in Japan, where robots (particularly Softbank’s Pepper) have already carved out their own unique presence in the workforce, with mixed results, chances are service bots aren’t a part of your daily life.
Some hotels here do have robots, but this type of automation — at least in the U.S. — is nothing near what CES might have you assume.
This past year, service bots of all sizes speckled CES 2020, such as this slew of systems from South Korea's Hancom Group and the usual spectacle from Russian startup Promobot.
And, as is often the case, many didn't work. When we visited CES 2020 earlier this year many bots were in the process of being rebooted or unable to complete basic functions due to connectivity issues.
There is, of course, hope for service robots, especially during a pandemic when human contact is considered a liability. At the moment however, bots that service people in their homes that aspire beyond the mold of speaker-bound voice assistants mostly end up mostly being toys.