Amazon's job posts point to a Fauna robot, not a new Astro, as its next home robot

Amazon is hiring for a "new-to-world robot product" for the home, CNBC reported on Nov. 8 after reviewing the company's job postings. One listing, for a user-experience designer, asks the hire to "define what it feels like to live with a Fauna robot." Fauna Robotics is the New York startup Amazon bought in March. It makes Sprout, a 3.5-foot humanoid robot, and it became part of a new Amazon division called the Personal Robotics Group.

That one phrase says more than the rest of the postings combined: Amazon's next home robot looks like a Fauna product, not a second Astro. Earlier this year Amazon redeployed much of the team behind Astro, its 2021 home robot, and brought in an MIT roboticist, CNBC reported. Astro cost $1,450, never got past invitation-only sales and shipped to a few thousand customers. Amazon says it still supports them.

The other postings sketch the brief. A since-removed engineering listing described a robot that adapts to changing homes and works autonomously alongside family members, under the line "Robots are about to step out of the movies and into our homes." A June posting set the goal as robots that are "not just functional, but delightful," and in October Amazon advertised for a field support engineer.

Sprout is priced for labs, not living rooms

The strongest objection is price. Fauna launched Sprout in January as a $50,000 developer platform, with Disney among its early customers, Interesting Engineering reported when the deal was announced; Amazon took on about 50 engineers. At that price a home robot would reach fewer homes than Astro did. The postings say "a Fauna robot," not Sprout, and some Personal Robotics Group staff come from Lab126, the unit behind the Kindle, the Echo and the Fire Phone.

For now Fauna's own website still sells Sprout to developers, businesses and researchers under the words "Shipping today," and suggests turning it into "a companion for family members."