Building a Robot People Actually Want

Building a Robot People Actually Want

From What's Your Problem? by iHeartPodcasts and Pushkin Industries

April 30, 2026 · 41 min · Season 1 · Episode 176

About this episode

Aaron Edsinger discusses the challenges of building affordable home robots that solve real problems.

Aaron Edsinger left his job as director of robotics at Google to start a company called Hello Robot. Aaron’s problem is this: How do you build an affordable robot that people can use to solve real problems at home? The result is a robot that looks nothing like a person. In fact, it’s closer to a Roomba with an arm. In this episode, Aaron explains:  Why home robots have barely progressed since the Roomba Why simpler robots can be more useful than complex humanoids  Why the physical world is so much harder for AI than language How robot safety is fundamentally a physics problem Connect with us: Follow Jacob Goldstein on LinkedIn , X and Instagram  Email us at problem@pushkin.fm   Follow Pushkin on Instagram , LinkedIn or X   Listen to Jacob’s other show, Business History  To listen to the show early and ad free, sign up for Pushkin+ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People in this episode

Host: Jacob Goldstein

Guest: Aaron Edsinger

Topics covered

  • robotics
  • home technology
  • AI challenges
  • affordable robots
  • robot safety
  • entrepreneurship

Keywords

  • robotics
  • affordable robots
  • AI
  • home technology
  • robot safety
  • entrepreneurship
  • Roomba

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Google, Hello Robot, Pushkin, iHeartPodcasts

Products: Roomba

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