Rabbit R1 has just 5,000 active users; what can Jony Ive do? [Video]

Former Apple design chief Jony Ive this week confirmed he’s working Sam Altman on an AI hardware product of some kind, despite the failure of existing products like the Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1.

Humane last month admitted that returns were exceeding sales, and now Rabbit founder Jesse Lyu has confessed that the R1 has just 5,000 active users …

Lyu was surprisingly frank when talking about the product at the Fast Company Innovation Festival.

“The fact is, the early bad reviews didn’t kill us, right?” he added. 

(MKBHD famously described the Rabbit R1 as “barely reviewable,” with commenters saying he’d killed the company.)

Lyu said that, now, around 5,000 people use the R1 daily, and his team has pushed 16 over-the-air updates to the R1 since its initial ship date. He views the R1 as an interactive product; and believes that it’s imperative for hardware startups embrace imperfect if they want to be part of a conversation. “If you’re …