DJI RoboMaster S1 (opens in new tab)

Children don’t buy $500 toys, parents do.

It was also STUPIDLY overpriced for what it actually could do (not much)

Meanwhile this isn't a terrible price for what amounts to a programmable ground drone and even is just a fun looking toy

I'm from the former Eastern Bloc. Not playing with a toy gun as a child is seen as weird. It's something that never happens, everyone has used a toy gun many many times and never ever thought it's wrong.

When I was a pre-school child, most kids' parents didn't have money to buy toy guns often, but we made toy guns ourselves from sticks, and these worked quite well :)

Do kids play Candy Crush? I’ve only ever seen adults playing it.

> The fact that DJI releases a [toy] for kids that has a working cannon feels super icky from my western perspective.

I don't think that's a western perspective, I think that's your perspective. The actual western perspective likes robots, toys, toy weapons, robotic toys, and robotic toy weapons, and all the various combinations thereof. Nerf and Transformers have been cultural staples for decades.

This isn't even the first commercial toy robot with a toy gun on it: https://www.amazon.com/Nerf-Creatures-TerraDrone-Discontinue...

Or the second: https://www.amazon.com/TerraScout-Nerf-N-Strike-Official-Rec...

Or the third: https://www.amazon.com/Unknown-782-USB-Missile-Launcher/dp/B...

Or the hundredth: https://www.amazon.com/Liberty-Imports-Control-Military-Airs...

I guess you could argue the programmable nature of this somehow sets it apart, but I don't see how.

> Is the culture gap that big, or is there another reason?

I don't think the culture gap is where you imagine.

IMHO this comment qualifies as one of those "bizarre anti-Chinese sentiment" ones.

The #2 consumer drone maker in the world after DJI, Parrot from France, also sells an educational drone for kids with a cannon (it's an add-on but gets sold together in a popular set), and has done so for years: The Parrot Mambo.

There's countless other toys for children that include weaponry and/or glamorize it for that matter, like just about any toy for boys sold in the US throughout the 80s, or so it feels like. I'm also quite sure LEGO has sold sets with motors and plans to build catapult contraptions. Nothing about this is "super icky from a Western perspective".

I am deeply concerned about many things going on within China (e.g. Xinjiang), but this willful othering and breakdown of empathy has to stop. The bottom line here is that some people think it's fun and/or will sell well to have a toy that shoots things. You can absolutely criticize that, but it's a culturally universal phenomenon and doesn't need to divide us along borders.

Also from a Western perspective: this looks like a toy, they even include the orange tip. In context, and contrary to that western battle bots TV show, it seems to pretty much focus on education and competition. A goal which they seem to achieve or it wouldn't be viable to put commercial resources into it.

I don't get this finger pointing, can we please solve real gun violence in our midsts before going for educational resources?

Just preparing them to go to the MIT. Toying with guns is very much in line with western culture, not even mentioning video games. The ability to program the toy just makes it more attractive to nerds.

You mean the western perspective that have us bb guns, lawn dartsm, nerf guns, slingshots, and a plethora of other destructive devices? As a western kids I woukd have loved a robot with working Canon. As a western adult, even more so.

> where it is hunting down a child

You are explicitly trying to put it out of context and I don't understand why.

Thats tracking and object and not "hunting". Even the hover link which makes that video visible mentions this:

> People Recognition

> Thanks to advanced computer vision technology, the S1 is able to identify and track any individual you select in the S1’s FOV.

I grew up in a western country in the 80s; all my toys were war or military based.

I'm clearly old, but I'm sure I remember the Tamiya Frog was about £100 in the mid 1980s, plus radio - IIRC it was about £130 for a complete kit. That equates to about $500 in today's money, so it's not a crazy after all...

Given we've had about 100% inflation since then, it's actually not that crazy. A $250 RC car would have been extravagant, sure, I think my fanciest was about $100 back then, but not unthinkable.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System cost $199 when it launched back in 1991. Plus the additional costs of the games.

The original mindstorms set from lego was over $100 in 90s money and pales in comparison

Yes but are you in the US? When I try and buy it says not in your country. I did just find that if I go store then change to US I think I can now order. I was on my mobile before so this definitely wasn't clear then.

It's a chinese company isn't it? You'd think they'd have a non-US worldview

The differences could be due to environmental influence or a number of other factors. You are reaching to establish a wider gender narrative. Children have different interests for a wide variety of reasons not the least of which is role modeling and social pressure. Anecdotal evidence is not a reliable basis for conclusion-drawing, especially when the anecdotes occur within a similar cultural context. You are trying to find ground for an assumption based on little to no information. Let people be people and stop with the armchair sociology.

> Why should we persist the idea that wanting to win is a boy thing

Because it most often is, boys typically like to compete more than girls do. I'm not going to quote studies on this, just basing this on my experience growing up and now as an adult being around small kids.

>Why should we persist the idea that wanting to win is a boy thing

Because the same processes that make male and female bodies have different structure and work differently make male and female brains have different structure and work differently.

I am not informed enough to even guess. Was it the first robotics ciricculum or the gender dynamics of the class? Or both?

That was 7 years ago, now she is in an all girls high school. The same sex education has provided a much less distracting environment. (Don't want to get off topic but I could go on and on about same sex education)

Are you feeling threatened?

I was just sharing some female perspectives. If this wasn't so expensive, I'd buy 2 for myself.

As a parent, I don't think there's a need to teach the next generation ok kids about AI in the context of autonomous killing machines...

as I said, it's hard, but I offer them alternatives: building things, ball games, surfing,... I guess they are better of with that than water blasters.

the main question is: for what purpose

here it is fighting... This particular robot though is hard to repurpose (e.g. put additional sensors on top, e.g. to measure things or additional actors to move things or have other meaningful impact)

commercially it makes sense, like a facebook bubble does, educationally it is limited