This week on The Vergecast, the co-founder and former CEO of iRobot, Colin Angle, joins The Verge’s smart home reviewer, Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, to discuss what the ideal home robot is. Are we close to creating a Rosie the Robot — an all-in-one humanoid robot that can take care of our homes, or should we take an entirely different approach to home robotics? They dive into the advances in technology powering this shift and ponder what purpose robotics in the home should really serve. Then, Jen takes a journey back into smart home history to help us understand its future. Grant Erickson, Principal of Nuovations, a former Apple, Nest, and Google engineer who was part of the team that developed Thread, joins the show. He shares the story of how and why, back in 2011, the Nest team, led by Tony Faddell and Matt Rogers, decided to create a smart home protocol. It involves a thermostat, fragmented ecosystems, and one of the best smart home products ever made. They discuss how Thread became the foundation of the Matter smart home standard — an unprecedented industry collaboration with a herculean task — to make the smart home simpler. To close out the show, Grant sticks around to help answer a Vergecast hotline question about how Matter manages your data. Further reading: https://www.theverge.com/e/759695 00:00 - Intro 00:28 - Remember Rosie the robot? 03:35 - Interview: Colin Angle, iRobot Co-Founder 06:56 - What is a robot? 12:23 - Generative AI’s impact on robotics 25:05 - Rosie vs. Starship Enterprise 32:04 - Robot arms, legs, and utility 35:08 - Human connection with robots 39:00 - Smart home protocols: Matter and Thread 41:00 - Interview: Grant Erickson on Thread 44:00 - The development of Thread 48:00 - Matter and the industry collaboration 52:00 - Thread, hubs, and Smart home infrastructure 56:00 - The future of Thread 59:00 - Data privacy in the smart home 1:01:00 - Closing remarks & credits Subscribe: http://goo.gl/G5RXGs Like The Verge on Facebook: https://goo.gl/2P1aGc Follow on Twitter: https://goo.gl/XTWX61 Follow on Instagram: https://goo.gl/7ZeLvX Follow on TikTok: http://bit.ly/42VeCVU The Vergecast Podcast: https://pod.link/vergecast Decoder with Nilay Patel: https://link.chtbl.com/decoder More about our podcasts: https://www.theverge.com/podcasts Read More: http://www.theverge.com Community guidelines: http://bit.ly/2D0hlAv Wallpapers from The Verge: https://bit.ly/2xQXYJr If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may receive a commission without exerting any influence on editorial content. For more information about our ethics policy, visit: https://bit.ly/3P4bJgz