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Household robots emerge before full acceptance

Reference judgmentCorrectResearch snapshot · October 15, 2026
Source confidence & research status
i
Editorial paraphrase · evidence v0.3. AI-assisted editorial assessments; original book editions not independently collated. Attribution and outcome confidence are recorded separately.

Source state: AUTHOR ADAPTATION CHECKED.

Attribution confidence
MEDIUM
Outcome confidence · deadline / review
HIGH / HIGH
Timing confidence / kind
MEDIUM · DOCUMENTED BY
Population
Technology markets and relevant users; no universality unless the forecast expressly requires it.

Our reading of the claim

Reference (stated reasonable reading)

Correct

Criterion: Useful household robots are commercially established but not yet universally accepted.

Deadline: 2009 · Included in this comparison

At original deadlineFULFILLED
By review dateFULFILLED

Roomba launched in 2002 and iRobot reported five million home robots sold just after the 2009 year-end; this confirms a substantial pre-deadline product category. The existence/emergence claim was met. Later broader adoption does not retroactively invalidate the accurate early-stage description.

Deadline and follow-up notes

At deadline: Roomba launched in 2002 and iRobot reported five million home robots sold just after the 2009 year-end; this confirms a substantial pre-deadline product category.

By review: The existence/emergence claim was met. Later broader adoption does not retroactively invalidate the accurate early-stage description.

Evidence: N52 (opens in a new tab)N21 (opens in a new tab)

View this reading in the scorecard →
01

The forecast and its attribution.

EDITORIAL PARAPHRASE

Household robots emerge before full acceptance

Spiritual Machines: The Merging of Man and Machine — Ray Kurzweil

1999 · Attribution / year unconfirmed
P02 Business in 2009, household-robots bullet

AUTHORED ARTICLE THIRD PARTY MIRROR

Source publication: 1999 · Access: text checked

Attributed to Kurzweil; closing note identifies adaptation from The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999). An article mirror, not a scan of the book. Text transcription may contain errors. The article’s dollar amounts must not silently replace differently quoted book versions.

Catalogue entry P02
Open listed source (opens in a new tab)
Normalized claim
Household robots emerge before full acceptance
Success criteria
Useful household robots are commercially established but not yet universally accepted.
Claim type
Adoption
02

Timeline

PREDICTION MADE1999Attributed forecast year; original edition not collated
ORIGINAL TARGET2009Deadline supplied by this assessment
FULL REALIZATIONBy 2009Evidence bound, not first achievement year

DOCUMENTED BY: Documented by 2009

End of named target year.

Outcome at original deadlineFULFILLED
Outcome at reviewFULFILLED

Supplied target wording: 2009. The original deadline is preserved if a later forecast revises it. Forecast horizon: not established. Drift is a calendar-year difference, not a precise elapsed duration.

03

The evidence.

CONTEXT · 2010-01-05

iRobot: More than five million home robots sold (opens in a new tab)

January 2010 retrospective on robots launched in 2002 and already commercially established in the 2000s; do not shift the threshold by one year just because the tally was announced in January.. January 2010 retrospective on robots launched in 2002 and already commercially established in the 2000s; do not shift the threshold by one year just because the tally was announced in January.

Source checked as of 2026-10-15
PRIMARY RESEARCH OR OFFICIAL

Source publication: 2010-01-05 · Access: web text or indexed extract checked

January 2010 retrospective on robots launched in 2002 and already commercially established in the 2000s; do not shift the threshold by one year just because the tally was announced in January.

Catalogue entry N52
CONTEXT · Publication date not recorded

IFR: Service robots record sales worldwide (opens in a new tab)

23.2 million consumer/domestic service robots sold in 2019, +34%. Annual sales are not household penetration or a count of robot-owning homes.. 23.2 million consumer/domestic service robots sold in 2019, +34%. Annual sales are not household penetration or a count of robot-owning homes.

Source checked as of 2026-10-15
PRIMARY RESEARCH OR OFFICIAL

Source publication: 2020-10 · Access: web text or indexed extract checked

23.2 million consumer/domestic service robots sold in 2019, +34%. Annual sales are not household penetration or a count of robot-owning homes.

Catalogue entry N21

Capability, adoption, and timing

A related breakthrough is not automatically fulfillment. Review must check the actual capability, how widely it was required to be used, the specified technology, and the original deadline. A prototype cannot establish a claim about routine or widespread use.

04

Research notes & history

The January 2010 tally is retrospective evidence, not a reason to treat the entire 2000s robot emergence as late. This is distinct from the stronger 2019 ubiquity forecast K080.

Open questions

  • Original-edition collation remains an attribution task; it does not erase the stated outcome assessment.
  • An earlier documented instance could refine timing; the documented-by date is not claimed to be the invention year.
Imported from
kurzweil_verification_v0_3_package/predictions.canonical.v0.3.json
Legacy identifier
None
Forecast family
K061
Parent statement
Not assigned
File checksum
93ae54d9ea2f1bd1817c481b85e2b707812bcd934c74d0f1715fa098d9b5f51b
Inspect preserved source fields
release_record
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Review history

— Evidence v0.3: EDITORIAL_ASSESSMENT_COMPLETE; supplied verdict CORRECT. Roomba launched in 2002 and iRobot reported five million home robots sold just after the 2009 year-end; this confirms a substantial pre-deadline product category. The existence/emergence claim was met. Later broader adoption does not retroactively invalidate the accurate early-stage description.

Related forecasts.

No forecast family has been resolved for this record. Related statements and revised deadlines will be linked during research.