Why Won't Anduril Build Humanoids?
Palmer Luckey says Anduril will not build humanoids because he believes they have a powerful future. If he did not believe that, he says he would probably build them. He wants Anduril to build things that would not otherwise exist, and he agrees with Peter Diamandis that the aim is to maximize marginal impact.
Alexander Wissner-Gross asks whether Anduril's robots will converge on one general-purpose machine, the way general models handle many tasks. Palmer Luckey says no on the defense side. Manufacturing, hospitality, and medicine might share one form, because each of them gets real economies of scale. Defense does not. He builds robot submarines that dive to 6,000 meters and sit on the ocean floor for months, and he also builds separate surface and aerial machines.
Peter Diamandis tells Palmer Luckey he expected him to be the one building humanoid robots. Palmer Luckey says other companies are already doing a great job, and he wants to use their robots. A humanoid can work older machines built for a person to pull a lever, push a button, and read a screen. Radar systems that cost millions, tens of millions, or hundreds of millions of dollars are the first things hit in a hot conflict, and nobody wants to man them. A humanoid in the seat would automate them without replacing the hardware. Anduril is also skipping small quadcopter attack drones, because too many other companies already build them. Palmer Luckey does not want Anduril to be a launch provider. Anduril does build space products and operates its own satellites and sensors.
