Should Automakers Do Robots?

Well, one of them already does. Honda just celebrated the 9th birthday of its iconic robo-creation, ASIMO—although according to Wikipedia, the models on which ASIMO are based have been around since 1986, making him/her/it a whopping 23, plenty old enough to drink, drive, and vote. Why am I interested in this? For starters, ASIMO shows everything that’s right and wrong about Honda. The Japanese company seems to make ... you name it. Motorcycles, generators, snow blowers, Acura sedans, lifelike robots. This is great, except that Honda at times looks as if it’s taking its eye off the ball when it comes to being a carmaker. Witness the difficulties it’s experienced with its new Insight hybrid sedan.

Still, if robots are to be part of our future, it would be natural for automakers to build them.

Except that we hate robots.

We have come to hate cars more than we used to, but we really, really hate robots. They scare the bejeezus out of us, have spawned countless dystopian/apocalyptic nightmare entertainments, and have become objects of outright ridicule in popular culture. No wonder no one gives a crap that ASIMO is 9. The less we have to think about ASIMO, the better. Honda’s robot is cute and all—it needs to be, given the widespread fear and distrust of robots—but no one is keeping track of how long it’s been around. At this point, ASIMO is headed into space-program territory: It’s almost time to retire the idea and say, Check! Been there, done that.

Actually, it might be humanoid robots that are the waste of time. Roomba, the vacuuming robot, is very popular, and is produced by a company, iRobot, that also makes highly un-human-looking robots for the military. Unmanned drones are to modern warfare what the machine gun and the tank were to WWI and the long-range bomber was to WWII.

No carmaker in its right mind would roll out an ASIMO competitor now, which is probably why no carmaker has. If, say, General Motors (MTLQQ) wanted to do robots, it would do something with wheels. And a rocket launcher. Honda made the right call when it made ASIMO look like an innocuous small servant/companion, because it gathered all the robot mindshare. That particular take on robots is decisively Honda-branded.

But the brand isn’t going anywhere. The last thing we want is for the robots that we reflexively hate to look anything like us. A sad thing for ASIMO, with its Pinocchio-by-way-of-a-shrunken-Neil-Armstrong pathos. But a good thing for any automaker that wants to get into the robot game and roar past Honda.