Among the things the future has promised us, as seen in cartoons and movies, flying cars and robot butlers rank high on the most-desired list.
Although the flying car is still mostly in the prototype stage, the robot butler is here in a variety of forms including smart home systems and autonomous cleaning robots.
Even Mark Zuckerberg stated that his 2016 goal was to build a robot butler.
For those with Zuck-level ambitions but lacking the programming skills, there’s a new posh option. One ultra-modern luxurious building in Los Angeles just took the robot ante to a new level.
The Ten Thousand in Beverly Hills has had locals buzzing for months with its promise of being the most technologically advanced building in the area. Now it’s upped its game with Charley, the building’s autonomous relay delivery robot built by Savoike, a company that specializes in delivery robots for a variety of applications.
Relay robots are already in place in hotels in Silicon Valley.
One robot to rule them all
Charley’s role at the Ten Thousand is to deliver items such as packages, meals, beverages, birthday cake and flowers right to residents’ doors. The robot has been programmed to navigate the entire building and can even operate elevators on its own.
Residents can access a menu of items that can be delivered through the building’s customized resident’s app, which is loaded onto iPad Mini 4s, presented to each resident upon move-in.
The system isn’t totally robot-driven yet; a team of human butlers will receive the requests and place the items inside the interior compartment for delivery (for now, at least).
Other tech amenities in the building include the use of beacon technology to deliver predictive customer service and private Wi-Fi networks for each resident available throughout the entire property.
The building’s 60-person staff includes an in-house technology concierge. Beacon technology in the building uses location-based services to understand residents’ personal behavior patterns, which allow staff to anticipate needs and requests including the way they take their coffee and what temperature they prefer in their car when they receive it from valet.
As with other tech we’ve seen, the dividing line between extraordinary helpful and slightly invasive remains slim.
The app can also be used to book amenities that are available in the building such as scheduling a personal training session, ordering a drink from the bar, reserving the private dining room for a dinner party, requesting your car, and yes, paying rent.
Both the app and Ten Thousand iPad have been loaded with content that also enables residents to control and manage their unit’s smart home systems.
The building’s other highlights include a one-acre park, indoor lap pool and an outdoor sunning pool, indoor and outdoor movie theaters, a resident lounge with a full-service bar and private dining club, fitness center, boardrooms, a lighted tennis court and a kid’s studio designed by the Novogratz family.
The building is set to open in January 2017, and Ten Thousand’s leasing gallery is now open by appointment only. Rents start at a cool $9,000 for two-bedroom units of approximately 1,500 square feet.
The amenities arms race
Many agents and property watchers have spoken of the “amenities arms race” in both rentals and condo projects especially in the New York City market.
Amenities generally take two forms: space amenities such as pools, fitness centers, workspaces, theaters and service amenities such as sky garages and full-service concierges that tend to all the small chores of daily living.
Projects in other cities including Los Angeles have been slower to pick up the baton, but local standouts include 8500 Burton Way, Richard Caruso’s lavish Beverly Hills building with hotel-style amenities plus VIP passes to Caruso’s retail properties in Los Angeles, and The Century, which offers estate gardens, wine storage, a children’s playroom and on-site restaurant.
Deidre Woollard is a co-founder of Lion & Orb in Los Angeles, California. Follow her on Twitter.