A humanoid robot cleaned my apartment

A robot cleaning service arrives

The author signed up for Tau Robotics' new humanoid robot cleaning service in San Francisco after seeing an X post about it, wanting to experience something futuristic.

How the robots actually work

Tau's robots are not yet autonomous. Humans pilot them remotely via cameras mounted in the robots' heads and wrists, while the robots collect data to train future independent versions.

Pricing and performance trade-offs

Tau charged thirty dollars per hour at the time of booking, now sixty dollars weekly with two robots or one hundred dollars for one-time visits. The robots are thorough but slow.

The robot's physical design

Each four-and-a-half-foot-tall robot has a three D printed head with antennae, two three D printed claw hands, and grippy socks to avoid scratching hardwood floors.

Kinematic guidance trains the AI

For tasks like making beds and folding laundry, human pilots perform motions that sensors transmit to the robot, which copies them. This produces valuable training data for AI models.

Some tasks already work alone

According to Tau cofounder Cornelia Weinzierl, the robot can already complete vacuuming and mopping without human help, though other tasks still require remote guidance.

The robot struggles with stairs

When the robot arrived at the author's building, it struggled climbing eight stairs to the front door, stumbling backward repeatedly. Weinzierl had to carry it up the carpeted staircase inside.

Signal delay affects coordination

Weinzierl explained the robot walks strangely because it is operated remotely from Tau's headquarters, and signal transmission delay affects its coordination. Optimizing timings and connectivity requires enormous effort.

“The amount of work and time that we spend just optimizing, for example, timings and connectivity is crazy.”

First visit ends early

The robot repeatedly stalled during the first cleaning. Weinzierl initially thought it was overheating, but learned the heat had shut down the controller's equipment instead, preventing remote assistance.

Second visit succeeds

A month later, the robot climbed the stairs with less assistance and cleaned the kitchen credibly, though it avoided the stove. It impressed by reattaching its toilet cleaning wand three times.

Imperfect but charming

The robot left taps dripping, knocked over a bottle of olive oil, and couldn't right an air purifier it toppled. Despite these missteps, the author found it charming and forgiving.

The job displacement question

If Tau or competitors succeed in training autonomous, inexpensive cleaning robots, people could lose livelihoods. The United States lacks policies to support those displaced by AI.

Why robots make sense for cleaning

Weinzierl argues cleaning is dangerous work with high turnover and few willing workers. Tau is also considering deploying robots for mold remediation and home health care.

“Cleaning is not a job that a lot of people really actively want to be doing, there's high turnover, there's a high risk of injury.”

The long road ahead

Tau has completed only a couple hundred cleanings so far. The amount of data needed to train robots for apartment cleaning's varied tasks is probably enormous, but progress is remarkable.