Why we build our robots in Europe
What "designed in Europe" means for us, and what it doesn't.
Robots are coming into our homes. That is no longer the question. The question is who builds them, and under which rules. We want at least one good answer to come from Europe.
European rules as a starting point
For many companies, European data protection law is an obstacle to work around. For us, it's a starting point. A robot that lives in your home deals with some of the most personal data there is. Building it from the start under rules that take that seriously isn't a burden. It's the job.
That's also why the optional Reegy Cloud will run in the EU, and why we'd rather build privacy into hardware and software than promise it in a policy.
A robot that speaks your language
Many devices treat every language other than English as an afterthought. We develop our robots in Germany, and German is one of Nohmu's first languages, not a translation. You notice it in small things: how it phrases a sentence, when it says "du" and when "Sie", how it sounds when it speaks. We also pay attention to regional differences. For many of us, a "Moin" or a "Servus" is simply part of how we talk.
What "designed in Europe" means, and what it doesn't
We want to be precise here, because this is a phrase that often gets stretched. As with almost all electronics, many of the components, and very likely parts of the first production runs, will come from Asia. We won't pretend otherwise, and for many of these parts there is currently no realistic alternative.
"Designed in Europe" means the decisions are made here: what our robots do with your data, how they behave, where the cloud runs, which promises we make and keep. Those decisions are subject to European law and European values. In the long run, we would love to make all of the components in Europe too, and we're working towards it. But we'd rather promise less and keep it.
Robots for everyone
Our credo is simple: robots should be for everyone. Not just research labs. Not just factories. Not just the super-rich. Everyone. Europe, and Germany in particular, has world-class robotics research. We want some of it to arrive where people actually live.