This $1,000 laundry-folding robot is my favorite bad idea from CES
Who actually likes doing laundry?
First you have to sort through your clothes, organize them by material and color, wash them, dry them —then after all that, fold them. But what if you could have a subservient robot take care of the last step for you?
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That's the (um ... bad) idea behind FolidMate, the $980 laundry-folding robot being shown off at CES 2018 in Las Vegas. The original concept for the machine was on display at last year's conference, but it didn't have any moving components. This year, the creators have rigged up the machine to accept clothing you feed it, but it still doesn't actually fold the clothes.
FoldiMate's CMO Debbie Cohen-Abravanel told Mashable at the conference that the company does have a working prototype back at its headquarters, but elected to show off just the receiving mechanism this year. It was admittedly easy to clip in fresh towels and shirts, however, when I tried feeding the machine a long-sleeve shirt, the sleeve got caught on the entrance and the machine jammed.
Still, even if the machine worked perfectly, $1,000 is a hell of a lot of money to spend on a small inconvenience. I could potentially see my laundromat buying one of these to make life easier when they have to do bulk loads of laundry, but even for a small business, that's a lot of money.
For now, you can sign up to get an alert when the FoldiMate is ready to begin taking preorders. If you sign up, be prepared to wait. The company expects to begin shipping in "late 2019," so you'll be doing plenty more loads of laundry before you ever see this thing.
For more of Mashable's CES 2018 coverage, click here.
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