The a16z Show · Tuesday, July 28, 2026
The progression of robotic applications historically moves from fully structured environments like factories, to semi-structured environments such as warehouses, and finally towards unstructured environments like homes. The development of general-purpose robots capable of operating in these unstructured settings remains a significant challenge.
“That's a great question. So, you know, if you think about the progress of robotic applications in the real environment, it has always followed the trend from going from fully structured environments into semi-structured environment and then into unstructured environments.”
“For structured environments, like factory, like car manufacturing lines, those have been automated for decades.”
“But then you have the unstructured environments, like your home and my home. Those is, I would say, the current challenge for robotics is that you have a general purpose body that can be very general, but not necessarily best at everything.”