The history of consumer electronics is dotted with failures, like the vastly superior Betamax tape format, or 3D TVs, but one device that’s been especially difficult to convince consumers to buy has been robots. The technology at our disposal still hasn’t caught up to what everyone expects a bot to be able to do for them, even with Elon Musk’s and Amazon’s promises.
That hasn’t stopped companies from trying to convince the average consumer that having a robot at home will improve their lives, and over the past 40+ years, we’ve seen lots and lots of robots come and go. Some were complete failures, while others were beloved enough among those that actually bought them to get thrown funerals when they stopped working. We’re rating some of the most memorable bots of the past four decades based on how useful they actually were, but it’s obvious we’ve still got a long way to go before the robots of science fiction become our reality.
