Meta is establishing a new team within its Reality Labs hardware division to develop robots designed to assist with physical tasks, as reported by Bloomberg. This team will focus on creating humanoid robotics hardware, which could potentially include devices capable of performing household chores.
The newly formed robotics group at Meta will be led by Marc Whitten, the former CEO of the driverless car startup Cruise. According to Bloomberg, the group will also work on developing robotic software and artificial intelligence. Whitten brings experience from previous roles at Amazon, Microsoft, and Sonos, as noted on his LinkedIn profile.
Meta’s current plan is not to create a robot branded specifically under Meta, at least in the immediate future. According to Bloomberg, executives at Meta, including CTO Andrew Bosworth, see an opportunity for the company to build a foundational hardware platform for the robotics industry, akin to Google’s achievement with the Android operating system in the smartphone realm.
Furthermore, Bloomberg reports that Meta has initiated discussions with various robotics companies, such as Unitree Robotics and Figure AI, to explore potential partnerships for developing prototypes.
