Famed roboticist and iRobot founder Rodney Brooks believes that despite the amount of money being injected into the industry, humanoids won’t be able to learn dexterity — or the fine motor movements with hands — rendering them essentially useless. Fady Saad, a general partner at robotics-focused VC Cybernetix Ventures and former co-founder of MassRobotics, told that beyond sending humanoids into space in place of human astronauts, he doesn’t see a huge market yet. Saad is also concerned about safety, especially when humans and humanoid robots share the same space. Safety issues could arise from humanoids and humans working closely on a factory floor, or other industrial sites. Saad says those concerns mount when humanoids enter people’s homes — a goal many humanoid companies are working toward. Seth Winterroth, a partner at Eclipse, said while it can be easy to get excited as each new technological development happens, or the latest demo drops, humanoids are incredibly complicated. He added that it will be a while before they reach their full capabilities. “It’s difficult to do software releases to six degrees of freedom systems; what we’re talking about with some of these humanoids is 60-plus degrees of freedom systems,” Winterroth said, regarding a robot’s ability to move on a 3D axis. “Then you need to be able to have good unit economics around that solution, such that you’ve got strong gross margin, such that you can be building an enduring business. I think we’re early.” In most cases, humanoid robots aren’t ready for the world yet, either.