Honda has been building robotics for years ahead of everyone else. Google "japan elderly care robotics". What's cheaper? A robot, or a human caregiver who has fully loaded costs for decades? If you can even find the human who wants to do the job.
A human is much cheaper because no robot can currently do the job. You are completely missing the point. Years ahead means nothing. it could be 20-30 years before it can replace a human for that job. In the meantime, it's a pet project.
The idea is for companies to find revenue from the technology as soon as possible then turn that revenue into R&D to build even better robots.
Look at the revenue the smartphone market generates. There's an arm's race to get consumers buying new devices. We need a couple $100 billion robotics companies pushing boundaries.
Also consider, for example, how Elon is bootstrapping electric cars and private rockets.
> Also consider, for example, how Elon is bootstrapping electric cars and private rockets.
That's a great example. And I agree with you in part. Look how far Elon and Co have come in under 15 years with both Tesla and SpaceX. Bootstrapped? Indeed. But they also had to prime the pump with demand (SpaceX with gov contracts, Tesla with wealthy purchasers)
Yes, they had to find customers. That's how business works. You sound as if they cheated.
You find someone willing to pay for your product. The "build it and they will come" doesn't usually work out so well. Finding governments or wealthy people to pay for your products counts when building a business. Elon didn't invent this tactic.
http://asimo.honda.com/