There are very real technical limitations that make the kinds of robots available limited. Tele-operation is ok for the military, but interfaces aren't good enough yet to, say, enable a human size robot to open a door quickly. Automated driving is up and coming, but still a few years away from being a real product.

This is a combination of perception and manipulation problems. There is only so much that can be done by a robot moving from point a to point b, and we're seeing products that leverage that. Roomba, toys, packbot, grand challenge bots - none of them really see, touch, and grab things. This isn't a matter of some discoveries in a university that are waiting to be productized. No one has found the right answer.

I left a job in robotics to work on more interesting products, but I hope to return when the tech is real.