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SF Startup Sends Humanoid Robots to Clean Homes for $30 an Hour
Tau says human operators and AI jointly control the robots, and several hundred people have signed up for one-hour cleaning visits.
On Tuesday, Tau Robotics launched an invite-only waitlist for humanoid cleaning services in San Francisco, offering to perform household chores for $30 an hour to selected applicants.
Koch said the service aims to expand the cleaning market for customers who do not typically hire human cleaners; each robot is jointly controlled by AI and a human operator.
Tau Robotics features three specialized robots for San Francisco: "Chelsea" for kitchens, "Tony" for deep cleaning, and "Elon" for item organization; the company claims robots already handle vacuuming and wiping counters.
Human operators see inside homes during sessions as Tau Robotics records video to train AI models; operators, engineers, and third-party providers have access to recordings stored indefinitely.
UC Berkeley professor Ken Goldberg expressed skepticism, noting that picking up objects remains a challenge for current robotics; Tau faces potential hardware constraints following the Trump administration's ban on foreign robots.