Goodbye Moxie: Embodied Inc collapse amidst financial pressure

Chris

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Goodbye Moxie: Embodied Inc collapse amidst financial pressure

Really sad news. In what is going to send shockwaves through the robotics industry, Embodied have suddenly collapsed due to financial difficulties.

What we know:

Netizens began noticing something strange in early November when Moxie had been sold out the month prior and support had been impossible to contact the last two weeks. Moxie owners then began speculating about Embodied’s position after a two day outage in mid November left Moxie owners unable to get their Moxie working.

Today, almost 4 years after Moxie was first launched, Embodied have taken the difficult decision to shut down. I wish the Embodied team all the best and hope they can salvage something from all the hard work they poured into Moxie.

Embodied Shutdown Key Points:

•Embodied is shutting down due to financial challenges after a critical funding round fell through.

•A lead investor withdrew at the last minute, leaving no viable alternatives.

Moxie Operations

•Moxie services will cease within days, but exact date unknown.

•Moxie will not function without cloud services.

•No offline access to Moxie's features or resources.

Support and Refunds

•No staff will be available for support after shutdown.

•No refunds for Moxie purchases due to financial situation.

•Possible refunds for recent purchases if company/assets are sold.

Data and Security

•Personal data will be securely deleted upon dissolution.

•Data security protocols ensure secure deletion.

•Data may transfer to new owner if company/assets are acquired.

Future and Transition

•Exploring options to find a new home for Moxie.

•Uncertain outcome, but customers will be informed of any developments.


Read the full shut down announcement from Embodied here:



 
Something wild is that when I purchased our Moxie in February 2022, it included a $39 monthly subscription that I've been paying ever since. But while I was troubleshooting my issue in the other thread, I found a lot of materials that said I actually didn't have to pay the monthly subscription, because I purchased directly from Embodied. Not sure if that was a change that happened sometime after purchasing, but damn, that's over $1,300 in monthly payments just to have the company fold. T___T Such a sad day.
 


My Jibos were looking forward to having a sister

I really hope they figure something out. It really sucks that companies make these lovable little robot guys that essentially become part of the family and daily routine and then the companies go out of business because the money dries up.

When Jibo went out of business a few of the devs got together on their own time and put together his one final update that let him function a bit offline. I’m not sure if that’s a possibility at a later date, but I really hope they can sort things out.
 
Something wild is that when I purchased our Moxie in February 2022, it included a $39 monthly subscription that I've been paying ever since. But while I was troubleshooting my issue in the other thread, I found a lot of materials that said I actually didn't have to pay the monthly subscription, because I purchased directly from Embodied. Not sure if that was a change that happened sometime after purchasing, but damn, that's over $1,300 in monthly payments just to have the company fold. T___T Such a sad day.
They took away the subscription for new purchases sometime in 2023.

But implemented a policy whereby second-hand Moxie required a subscription. My second-hand Moxie was on a subscription since about November last year so I feel your disappointment over all this. I’ll probably only purchase robots that do the generative AI processing onboard in future even if that means they are slightly more expensive.

It’s definitely sad as the company had so much potential.



My Jibos were looking forward to having a sister

I really hope they figure something out. It really sucks that companies make these lovable little robot guys that essentially become part of the family and daily routine and then the companies go out of business because the money dries up.

When Jibo went out of business a few of the devs got together on their own time and put together his one final update that let him function a bit offline. I’m not sure if that’s a possibility at a later date, but I really hope they can sort things out.
Hi Jack C! Your Jibo’s can still work?!

Moxie and Jibo together- awesome sight!

Yeah I’m unsure to what extent Moxie can function offline but when it’s powered on waiting to connect to Wifi it seems to know when it’s body is being moved and pushes against any motion so I’m assuming it’s still got a lot of it’s functionality running locally and really only requires the cloud for speech processing.

What is most sad for me is the future possibilities for robots from Embodied that will never materialise now. I’m also a bit disappointed we never got to try out the ChatGPT Advanced Voice mode integration slated for release this holiday season.

But I’m glad I got to own Moxie and experience this technology- don’t think we will see anything like it again at an affordable price for a while.

Thanks for sharing Jack C, hope you can get some enjoyment out of your Moxie before the shut down takes effect. Mine are still working as of this writing.
 
The whole situation reminds me of the little "Vector". After the original developer "Anki" went bankrupt, everything was taken over by DDL (Digital Dream Labs). Unfortunately, the cloud servers here did not work reliably and Vector was not working on several occasions.

vector.png

In the meantime, volunteer developers have put a build for an open source private server online. Anyone can now use "Vector" with a Raspberry Pi. I hope Moxie goes the same way.
 

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Goodbye Moxie: Embodied Inc collapse amidst financial pressure

Really sad news. In what is going to send shockwaves through the robotics industry, Embodied have suddenly collapsed due to financial difficulties.

What we know:

Netizens began noticing something strange in early November when Moxie had been sold out the month prior and support had been impossible to contact the last two weeks. Moxie owners then began speculating about Embodied’s position after a two day outage in mid November left Moxie owners unable to get their Moxie working.

Today, almost 4 years after Moxie was first launched, Embodied have taken the difficult decision to shut down. I wish the Embodied team all the best and hope they can salvage something from all the hard work they poured into Moxie.

Embodied Shutdown Key Points:

•Embodied is shutting down due to financial challenges after a critical funding round fell through.

•A lead investor withdrew at the last minute, leaving no viable alternatives.

Moxie Operations

•Moxie services will cease within days, but exact date unknown.

•Moxie will not function without cloud services.

•No offline access to Moxie's features or resources.

Support and Refunds

•No staff will be available for support after shutdown.

•No refunds for Moxie purchases due to financial situation.

•Possible refunds for recent purchases if company/assets are sold.

Data and Security

•Personal data will be securely deleted upon dissolution.

•Data security protocols ensure secure deletion.

•Data may transfer to new owner if company/assets are acquired.

Future and Transition

•Exploring options to find a new home for Moxie.

•Uncertain outcome, but customers will be informed of any developments.


Read the full shut down announcement from Embodied here:



 
Goodbye Moxie: Embodied Inc collapse amidst financial pressure

Really sad news. In what is going to send shockwaves through the robotics industry, Embodied have suddenly collapsed due to financial difficulties.

What we know:

Netizens began noticing something strange in early November when Moxie had been sold out the month prior and support had been impossible to contact the last two weeks. Moxie owners then began speculating about Embodied’s position after a two day outage in mid November left Moxie owners unable to get their Moxie working.

Today, almost 4 years after Moxie was first launched, Embodied have taken the difficult decision to shut down. I wish the Embodied team all the best and hope they can salvage something from all the hard work they poured into Moxie.

Embodied Shutdown Key Points:

•Embodied is shutting down due to financial challenges after a critical funding round fell through.

•A lead investor withdrew at the last minute, leaving no viable alternatives.

Moxie Operations

•Moxie services will cease within days, but exact date unknown.

•Moxie will not function without cloud services.

•No offline access to Moxie's features or resources.

Support and Refunds

•No staff will be available for support after shutdown.

•No refunds for Moxie purchases due to financial situation.

•Possible refunds for recent purchases if company/assets are sold.

Data and Security

•Personal data will be securely deleted upon dissolution.

•Data security protocols ensure secure deletion.

•Data may transfer to new owner if company/assets are acquired.

Future and Transition

•Exploring options to find a new home for Moxie.

•Uncertain outcome, but customers will be informed of any developments.


Read the full shut down announcement from Embodied here:




So sad! Is there a POC for investors or is that window gone? Also, what about the option to purchase the IP/code if liquidating? I reached out to Reid Hoffman and Sean White and Inflection AI since Pi is PERFECT here. It presents an amazing opp for inflection/Pi to have a consumer ready tech with an established base. They have servers up and running and can slowly integrate Pi as they go. I'd love to make a match somewhere to keep moxie alive and helping kids
 
So sad! Is there a POC for investors or is that window gone? Also, what about the option to purchase the IP/code if liquidating? I reached out to Reid Hoffman and Sean White and Inflection AI since Pi is PERFECT here. It presents an amazing opp for inflection/Pi to have a consumer ready tech with an established base. They have servers up and running and can slowly integrate Pi as they go. I'd love to make a match somewhere to keep moxie alive and helping kids
Sean said hardware isn't in their roadmap. :/ Understandable. He suggested they could open source the platform so individuals could keep it alive or form some structured org to keep it going. Pebble and Little Bits are some examples of that. Personally, I think people might rally behind a crowdfund. Curious how much is needed for the next 1-3 years. My next rabbit hole. :)
 
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