A few years ago (2019), I bought my son an Anki Vector robot as a gift.
For anyone who never owned one, Vector was way ahead of its time. He was a small desktop robot with a surprising amount of personality. He could recognize faces, explore his environment, respond to voice commands, take pictures, answer questions, and genuinely felt different from most other smart devices.
He wasn't just another gadget sitting on a desk. He felt alive.
Then Anki went out of business.
Like many Vector owners, we were left wondering what would happen to this little robot we had brought into our home. Later, Digital Dream Labs acquired Vector and attempted to continue supporting the platform, but after more uncertainty around the service, it became clear that depending on someone else's cloud was always going to be a weakness.
