Softbank has halted the production of its iconic robot Pepper, once considered the world’s first humanoid helper. It was founded in 2014 by Foxconn, a supplier to Tesla and Apple, and was meant to be a job coach that could do basic tasks and look after customers and babysitting children.
Softbank acted as the company’s unofficial mascot and placed the robot in its mobile phones shops. Still, Reuters sources claim that only 27,000 Pepper robots were produced between 2014 and 2020, citing limited global demand. According to Reuters, the company has also scaled back its industrial ambitions and will not build Pepper robots, despite the announcement of its first robot, Heart, last year.
In a statement, SoftBank said it would continue to make significant investments in next-generation robots to serve its customers and partners. Its most notable is the Whiz carpet cleaning robot.