It looks as though SoftBank’s Pepper robot may be stepping into the shadows, for good, with production reportedly halted since last year. SoftBank also has plans to get rid of half of its positions in France, where the dream of this humanoid robot lived and breathed. Going forward, it seems SoftBank plans on refocusing its efforts on current ventures in Japan while fading out its dream of becoming a leading robotics company.
SoftBank launched the charming little helper back in 2014, with the idea of creating a bond between robot and human. The dream was for Pepper to have a place well within the public eye, providing a face to the idea of a technology-powered future. SoftBank touted the robot as the perfect business companion for connecting the customer base to the business on a social level. The undeniably adorable Pepper was a fully programmable robot that was meant to interact with customers on a daily basis. Besides the inviting face, Pepper comes with a chest touchscreen for human interaction. The robot is also fully capable of moving around and interacting with people, even recognizing faces with its built-in forehead camera. Unlike many other cute robots, Pepper was built with the aim to be as close to a staff member as possible.
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According to SoftBank, Pepper helps “reduce cost, reduce turnover, and drive more sales.” The idea of an inviting robotic face greeting customers and helping run a business by implementing and gathering data is a good one, but in practice, it didn’t hold up. While Pepper made the headlines on multiple occasions, that wasn’t enough to hold production up as viable, according to Reuters. SoftBank saw the decline in interest and functionality of the robot and had already begun laying off employees both in the U.S. and UK. Softbank has plans to lay off about 50-percent of the 330 positions in France around September, leaving little left of where Pepper began. A spokesperson told Reuters that “negotiations on layoffs are ongoing with final numbers not decided.” As for the layoffs in the US and UK, it seems about half of the employees have been redeployed to Japan.
In time, Pepper lost its spark in the public eye. Over the course of its production, only 27,000 were reportedly made and cultural differences between the French business and Tokyo management led to “limited functionality and unreliability” according to Reuters’ sources. Furthermore, the same sources suggest that production of Pepper would be too costly to start up again, which points towards the death of Pepper altogether.
That doesn’t mean SoftBank is done with robotics. While Pepper wasn’t a successful product, SoftBank still stands behind its vision of a brighter future based on evolving technology. The company is redirecting its efforts to products already in production, like Whiz, the commercial smart carpet cleaning robot. SoftBank also retains a stake in robotics firm Berkshire Grey and owns SB logistics. SoftBank stated how it “will continue to make significant investments in next-generation robots to serve our customers and partners.”
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Source: Reuters
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