This Robot Fridge Comes When Called, and Other Futuristic Smart Appliances

“Sit, fridgie, sit. Good boy.”

With each passing year our homes become more Jetsons-like thanks to smart home technologies and intelligent products designed to use AI and robotics to make our lives easier — and Panasonic just shared new concept appliances that make the Roomba look downright basic.

Earlier this week, at a consumer electronics fair in Berlin, Panasonic unveiled a suite of appliances that look as sleek, minimalist and contemporary as IKEA furniture but have all the futuristic functionality of Rosie the Robot Maid. Including a fridge that comes when called.

Delivering on that next-generation Roomba we’re not sure we really need, Panasonic’s “Better Living Tomorrow” appliances are “meant to represent a “lifestyle enriched with Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and robotics technologies,” according to a press release.

How about a sake cooler that threatens to make sommeliers obsolete scans the label of your favorite bottle and recommends food pairings, like a cheese plate, based on its connectivity to a brewery database?

Or how about a washing machine called the “Sustainable Maintainer” that gives you back your wash-dry-fold and dry cleaning budget by perfectly laundering — and folding — each garment, based on the manufacturer’s own label instructions?

Let’s hope these robotic home helpers have all of Rosie’s diligence, lovability, and sass, too — including reminding us to give off our behinds once in a while, since we would no longer even have to get up to go to the fridge — when we start ordering them around from the couch, demanding just one more glass in the throes of a Netflix binge.

While it looks like the concept designs won’t be available for at least five to six more years, and no cost estimates have been shared by Panasonic, these gimmicks could just be the connected reality of our domestic spaces sooner than we know it.

View the full list of new IoT- and AI-driven products from Panasonic meant to showcase our lifestyles of the future at Panasonic.com.

h/t Curbed