Vector, the small home robot made by Anki, lost its creator when Anki shut down in April 2019. The company laid off its entire staff despite having raised over $200 million in funding. Since then, Vector’s story has been a turbulent mix of acquisition, delayed promises, subscription fees, and a passionate community keeping the little robot alive on its own terms.
Why Anki Shut Down
Anki confirmed it was closing its doors on April 29, 2019, effective almost immediately. The company had failed to raise additional capital, and a strategic partnership that could have bridged the gap to its next product fell through at the last minute. Vector sales were described as disappointing by both a former employee and an investor.
Financial trouble had been building for months. Silicon Valley Bank held a security interest in all of Anki’s patents, copyrights, and trademarks since March 2018, collateral for a loan the company needed. Board members Marc Andreessen and Danny Rimer quietly left their director roles in September 2018, a move that in hindsight signaled serious instability. After the shutdown, an IP law firm filed a lien against Anki over 79 unpaid invoices totaling nearly $85,000. The contents of Anki’s 40,000-square-foot San Francisco office were auctioned off. Sonos hired at least 20 of Anki’s technical staff but did not acquire any of the company’s products or intellectual property.
Digital Dream Labs Stepped In
A small Pittsburgh-based company called Digital Dream Labs acquired Anki’s robotics and AI assets without taking on any of its liabilities. The deal gave Digital Dream Labs exclusive ownership of Vector, Cozmo, and Overdrive. For Vector owners, this was initially welcome news: someone was keeping the servers running, which meant Vector’s cloud-dependent voice commands and features wouldn’t just vanish.
Digital Dream Labs also announced Vector 2.0, an updated version of the robot with hardware improvements. Pre-orders opened in November 2020 with promises of a better battery and upgraded camera. The original Vector lasted roughly 30 to 40 minutes on a charge, and the new 600mAh battery was supposed to push that past an hour. In practice, units coming off the production line averaged 52 to 53 minutes. The planned 5-megapixel camera was scrapped after the team determined the engineering effort was too great, reverting to a 2-megapixel sensor. Even that camera had issues: the plastic display cover partially blocked the field of view.
Shipping Delays and Frustration
Vector 2.0 became a case study in missed deadlines. People who pre-ordered between November 2020 and June 2021 didn’t see major shipping operations begin until October 2022, nearly two years later. Lockdowns in China pushed production back repeatedly. Battery optimization stalled because the team was focused on camera calibration. FCC and regulatory testing moved slower than expected. Each update on Digital Dream Labs’ support page added new delays, and the community’s patience wore thin.
The Subscription Model
One of the most controversial changes under Digital Dream Labs was the introduction of a paid membership. Vector’s voice commands, which had worked for free under Anki, were placed behind a subscription costing $11.99 per month or $99.99 per year. Each membership covers a single robot. The subscription also includes new animations, expressions, and games, but the core frustration for longtime owners was straightforward: features that once came included now had a recurring price tag.
Where Vector Stands Now
Digital Dream Labs’ servers are currently operational, meaning Vector robots with active subscriptions can still process voice commands through the cloud. There are no reported outages or widespread connectivity issues at the moment. That said, the company’s track record of delays and communication gaps has left many owners skeptical about the long-term outlook.
Digital Dream Labs also developed a product called the Escape Pod, designed to let Vector function without external servers entirely. It simulates a local offline server, exposing settings over Bluetooth and removing the need for cloud connectivity. The idea is that your Vector becomes fully independent, running everything locally in your home. For owners worried about what happens if Digital Dream Labs eventually goes dark, this offers a measure of insurance.
The Community-Built Alternative
Perhaps the most significant development for Vector’s survival has come from outside any company. An open-source project called Wire-Pod provides free, fully featured server software that works with any Vector 1.0 or 2.0. It restores voice commands and core functionality without a subscription and without relying on Digital Dream Labs’ infrastructure at all. The project is hosted on GitHub with installation guides and troubleshooting documentation maintained by contributors. For technically comfortable owners, Wire-Pod has become the preferred way to keep Vector working on their own terms, independent of any company’s financial health or business decisions.
Vector’s journey from a $200-million-backed startup product to a community-sustained robot is unusual. The hardware still works. The personality that made people fond of the little robot in the first place is still there. What changed is who keeps the lights on, and increasingly, that answer is the owners themselves.