I finally received the rabbit r1<\/a> (the company insists on this lowercase styling) I\u2019ve been writing about since its debut at CES in January<\/a>. And I was able to tell within about 30 seconds of turning it on that it was shipped a couple months too soon \u2014 but honestly\u2026that\u2019s fine? It\u2019s weird, relatively cheap, and obviously an experiment. To me that\u2019s something we should be rallying behind, not dunking on.<\/p>\n The actual issues with the r1 are obvious: it doesn\u2019t have enough app integrations, and it \u201ccould just be an app.\u201d<\/p>\n As to the first problem, well, it\u2019s completely true at present. There are only four things to connect to: Uber, DoorDash, Spotify, and Midjourney. Leaving aside the clearly too-small number, these aren\u2019t useful for me. I don\u2019t take many cars (and I often use Lyft); I don\u2019t order much food (DoorDash is a bad company); I don\u2019t use Midjourney (and if I did, I wouldn\u2019t use a voice interface); and I don\u2019t use Spotify (Winamp and Plex, if you can believe it). Obviously your mileage might vary, but four isn\u2019t a lot.<\/p>\n As to whether it could just be an app, and for people hung up on the idea that it runs on Android or uses some established APIs \u2014 maybe you missed the whole pitch, which is that we already have way too many apps and the point is to offload a lot of common tasks and services to a simpler, less distraction-inducing device.<\/p>\n Clearly I\u2019m not the target audience for this thing. But I\u2019m still the guy holding one and writing for a big tech publication, so let\u2019s take this seriously.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> rabbit<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The simple truth is I like the idea of the rabbit r1, and I\u2019m OK with waiting until that idea has some time to mature. Rabbit is trying to build version 1.0 (though it\u2019s more like 0.1 at this point) of the all-purpose AI assistant that Google, Apple, and Amazon have been faking<\/a> for the last decade. Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa\u2026 they\u2019re all just natural language command lines for a collection of APIs. None of them really know what to do so they\u2019re just backing one of the fast horses<\/a> and hoping to catch up at some point. Rabbit has said that their intention was to move fast and ship something while the 900-pound gorillas of the industry are flailing.<\/p>\n The problem comes in separating a company\u2019s ambition from the product you actually pay for. Certainly rabbit\u2019s device is nowhere near the state that CEO Jesse Lyu showed off in various demos and videos. We have perfectly good explanations for that, but it doesn\u2019t change the fact that the r1 is shipping in a totally barebones state.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t in good conscience advise anyone to buy one now. I mean, for me, it does almost nothing. But that hasn\u2019t stopped 100,000 people from doing so already, and I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve been deceived in any way. Rabbit has been pretty open about the fact that it\u2019s going to market as fast as possible (which, despite delays, has still been pretty fast) with a minimum viable product, and will add the features it has talked about later.<\/p>\n In the meantime, you have a few popular apps to use and a competent conversational AI (one you\u2019d normally have to pay for) that can look things up for you, or identify stuff in pictures. There are like\u2026three settings.<\/p>\n A wealth of choices<\/p>\n<\/div>\n So it works \u2014 for a limited definition of \u201cworks.\u201d Sounds like an MVP to me. Is that worth $200 to you? What if they added video calls via WhatsApp? Will it will be worth that $200 when they add Lyft, Tidal, audio transcription, Airbnb, navigation, and Snake? What about next year when you can train it on whatever app you want? (Assuming the company\u2019s vaunted Large Action Model works.) I\u2019m not being facetious; it really is just a question of what you think is worth paying for.<\/p>\n $200 isn\u2019t nothing, but when it comes to consumer electronics \u2014 especially in these days of $1,000+ iPhones \u2014 it\u2019s not exactly a big ticket item, either. People pay $200 for RAM, for a smart measuring tape, and for nice mechanical keyboards every day. If you told me I could get an Feker 75 Aluminum for $200 right now, I\u2019d order two and never regret it! (If you have one email me!) Meanwhile you\u2019ll never catch me paying full price for a MacBook Pro. Again, it\u2019s up to each of us to decide. (Though you might wait for a security audit too, considering they\u2019ll have authorized sessions for a lot of your accounts.)<\/p>\n Personally, I think it\u2019s a fun peep at a possible future. My phone is in my bag but the r1 is in my pocket, and I can pull it out on a walk and ask \u201cwhat kinds of hawks and eagles live around here?\u201d rather than opening up the Sibley app and filtering by region. Then I can say, \u201cadd prairie falcon to the list of birds I\u2019ve seen in Simplenote.\u201d Then I can say \u201ccall a car to the parking lot of Golden Gardens to take me home, and use the cheap option,\u201d and that happens. Then I ask it to record and identify the song playing by someone\u2019s bonfire. (Just ask? In Seattle it isn\u2019t done). And so on.<\/p>\n Sure, I could do all that on my phone. I don\u2019t know about you, but I get kind of tired of holding that thing, and swapping between apps, and getting notifications for stuff that isn\u2019t actually important right now.<\/p>\n The rabbit r1 in use. Hand model: Chris Velazco of the Washington Post.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I like the idea of a more focused device. I like that it\u2019s smallish and safety orange and it has a really bad camera with a complicated swivel mechanism for basically no reason (they make double-ended camera stacks for this exact reason).<\/p>\n Companies used to make all kinds of weird stuff. Remember Google\u2019s weird Nexus Q music thing<\/a>? Remember how wild smartphones used to be<\/a>, with unique keyboards, trackballs, cool materials, and weirdo launchers<\/a>? Tech is so boring now. People do everything on the same device, and everyone\u2019s device is almost exactly the same as everyone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat song is this?\u201d Out comes the phone, unlock, swipe swipe tap tap.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should see if we can find a cabin out that way for Memorial Day weekend.\u201d Phone, swipe swipe type type scroll scroll.<\/p>\n \u201cWho were the two guys in the Postal Service again?\u201d Phone, tap type scroll tap.<\/p>\n Every day, every thing, same handful of actions. It\u2019s useful, but it\u2019s boring. And it\u2019s been the same for years! Phones are where laptops were in 2007 and smartphones came along to let us know there\u2019s another way to do it. Rabbit is hoping to do the same thing to a lesser extent with the r1, and to be fair so is Humane<\/a>, though it kind of sounds like the latter has more fundamental problems.<\/p>\n I like that the r1 exists and that it is simultaneously both amazingly futuristic and hilariously limited. Tech should be fun and weird sometimes. Efficiency and reliability are overrated. Plus let me tell you, the homebrew and hacking community are going to go to town on this thing. I can\u2019t wait til I\u2019m playing Tempest on it or, honestly, scrolling down a social media app or reader. Why not? Technology is what we make of it. Rabbit is leaning into that, and I for one think that\u2019s cool.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/rabbit-hole.jpg\")
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