They'll get back into it at some point I'm sure, James. It's
   just that the $$$ to be made in robotics lies where it always
   did: in industry and not with robot pets / butlers / etc. Google
   Car has promise - they're doing good with that. But mostly,
   they're getting out of it because people didn't want to see a
   robot getting abused by people. Made Google look like bullies -
   not the image they want to project. So they're mostly distancing
   themselves from that public relations fiasco. == Thing is,
   _somebody_ is gong to be working on it, whether or not it's
   Google. Doesn't matter what corporate giant is financing:
   somebody is and will. I had to live through the AI Winter. Do
   you know how much that SUCKED? Well, it sucked. 1990/91 I was
   geared up to go into theoretical physics. I was ready to learn
   LISP, learned a bunch of stuff about neural networking... how it
   works... I was _ready_. Well, ready to be ready. Never finished
   but that didn't matter. I *knew* I could get jobs in AI at some
   point. Waited. Waited. Waited. Did lots of other interesting
   things, none of which I regretted either. Around 2000, I was
   complaining. Where's the robots? Where's the AI? What
   HAPPENED!?! Almost a decade and I saw nothing. Scoured the news,
   nothing. Gave up hope. I didn't know people work still quietly
   working on it in the background. Then, a few years later, AI
   started to gain momentum again. Robots started becoming "a
   thing". FINALLY. But honestly, I thought it was dead and gone
   forever. We went backwards and were stuck there, worrying about
   speed rather than progress. So, yes, I understand James. You
   might have to suffer through a robotic winter. Might be coming.
   Eventually though, you'll see fruition. Hopefully sooner rather
   than later. ==