Jibo Gets Delayed Until Fall, And It’s Still Slower Than Siri

Image: Jibo

Sorry backers, there’s still some wait before Jibo enters your household. The robot billed as the first social robot for the home has recently been delayed to improve software and provide a better first experience for users. The news, while not surprising, was issued on Jibo’s Facebook page and a video update.

Don’t fret too much though. The team behind the anticipated robot has given us a quick glimpse at dynamic conversations between the pre-beta (as if beta would spark any hope) Jibo and users. The robot sits atop a table like Amazon’s Echo or Samsung’s clever Otto, but it boasts more human character through its touch interactive screen. On the flip side, the new update has proved that Jibo is still lagging behind in terms of speed and reliability. It takes a few seconds for Jibo to realize what a user has said and reply back. This is made apparent in the video update.

I tested Siri (running on an older iPhone 5C) against Jibo seen in the video above. Asking Siri for the weather (around the 2:43 mark where Jibo is asked for the weather) returns a faster response. Two seconds faster than Jibo’s response to “Hey Jibo, what’s the weather like today.” A couple seconds isn’t much, but the difference between Siri and Jibo is ease of activation. Jibo requires you gain its attention first by saying in a louder-than-normal speaking voice, “Hey Jibo.” And after about a second or two of wait, you can then ask Jibo what’s up with the weather. Siri, on the other hand, requires you hold a button or say “Hey Siri,” but the fact that the button feature is there makes Siri easier to use.

Three things are for certain: some 7,000 backers are either patiently waiting or furious for the delay, and Jibo has a lot of updating to do before it levels out with the current technology. Jibo is now delayed for shipping in fall.

Source: Jibo

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