Allegedly trashing Airbnbs to test robots puts startup in legal trouble
Allegedly trashing Airbnbs to test robots puts startup in legal trouble
因涉嫌在测试机器人时损毁 Airbnb 房源，一家初创公司陷入法律纠纷
A San Francisco robotics startup is being taken to court by an Airbnb host who claims the company’s “robotic prototype testing” caused extensive damage to his home. In the lawsuit filed on May 26, 2026, Sean Donovan is seeking more than $12,000 in damages from the Bay Area startup The Bot Company. The court case was first reported by SFGate, which also interviewed Donovan about the unprecedented mess he encountered after the startup’s employees supposedly rented his former childhood home through Airbnb.
旧金山一家机器人初创公司正面临一名 Airbnb 房东的起诉，该房东声称该公司的“机器人原型测试”对其房屋造成了严重损坏。在 2026 年 5 月 26 日提交的诉讼中，肖恩·多诺万（Sean Donovan）向这家湾区初创公司 The Bot Company 索赔超过 12,000 美元。此案最初由 SFGate 报道，该媒体还采访了多诺万，了解了他在该初创公司员工通过 Airbnb 租下他儿时故居后，所目睹的“前所未有的混乱”。
The first clue that the guests were not typical tech startup employees needing a temporary crash pad came when Donovan was taking care of the trash during the guests’ stay. He told SFGate about seeing “bundles of wires” throughout the house and a robot he described as a 6-foot-tall “Roomba with treads” that also resembled the cybernetic Borg from the Star Trek universe. Donovan described more than 30 people coming and going during the approximately two-week rental period in April, with his Ring camera capturing snippets of outdoor conversations in which people discussed taking shifts.
多诺万在客人入住期间处理垃圾时，第一次察觉到这些客人并非只是需要临时落脚点的普通科技公司员工。他告诉 SFGate，他在屋内各处看到了“成捆的电线”，还有一个他形容为 6 英尺高、带有履带的“Roomba（扫地机器人）”，看起来就像《星际迷航》中的博格人（Borg）。多诺万描述称，在 4 月份大约两周的租期内，有 30 多人进进出出，他的 Ring 摄像头还捕捉到了人们讨论轮班的户外谈话片段。
Whatever the guests were doing, they allegedly left behind paint damage, floor damage, damage to a kitchen doorframe, bent poles in dishwasher racks, water damage and scratches on wooden credenzas, damage to a living room coffee table, scratches on a laundry washer, broken laser cut art, and a dining room table described as an “antique family heirloom damaged with scratches and water marks.” Other perhaps telling signs include cabinets and drawers emptied of their contents and moved elsewhere, along with decorative items and books moved from shelves to drawers. One shoe rack, along with a pair of shoes, was also missing from a locked bedroom closet, which Donovan’s lawsuit, filed in the San Francisco Superior Court, describes as “potentially a criminal matter.” Beyond the extensive physical damage, Donovan alleges that the defendants “deceptively booked as short-term rental, rather than correctly booking for commercial use and filming.”
无论这些客人在做什么，据称他们留下了油漆损坏、地板损坏、厨房门框损坏、洗碗机架弯曲、木制餐具柜的水渍和划痕、客厅咖啡桌损坏、洗衣机划痕、激光切割艺术品破碎，以及一张被描述为“因划痕和水渍而受损的古董传家宝”餐桌。其他可能说明问题的迹象还包括橱柜和抽屉里的东西被清空并移到了别处，装饰品和书籍也从架子上被移到了抽屉里。一个鞋架和一双鞋也从锁着的卧室衣柜中丢失，多诺万在旧金山高等法院提交的诉讼中称这“可能涉及刑事问题”。除了严重的物理损坏外，多诺万还指控被告“欺骗性地预订了短期租赁，而不是按规定预订用于商业用途和拍摄”。
Robot trials
机器人试验
The Bot Company, identified as Botco in the court filing, has kept a low profile since its founding in 2024 by Kyle Vogt and Paril Jain. Vogt is best known for cofounding the online streaming platform Twitch and the self-driving car company Cruise Automation, which General Motors acquired in 2016 before shutting down its autonomous driving division. Paril spent more than nine years at Tesla, where he rose to become AI manager. The company’s sparse website lists some job openings and describes the company’s mission as “building a helpful robot for every home” but does not provide any images or specifications about its robots. It lists backing from venture capital firms and startup accelerators that include Greenoaks, NFDG, Spark, Eclipse, Kleiner Perkins, and Y Combinator and has reportedly raised more than $300 million according to PitchBook.
The Bot Company（在法庭文件中被称为 Botco）自 2024 年由凯尔·沃格特（Kyle Vogt）和帕里尔·贾恩（Paril Jain）创立以来一直保持低调。沃格特最出名的是联合创立了在线流媒体平台 Twitch 和自动驾驶汽车公司 Cruise Automation，该公司于 2016 年被通用汽车收购，随后通用汽车关闭了其自动驾驶部门。帕里尔在特斯拉工作了九年多，并晋升为人工智能经理。该公司简陋的网站列出了一些招聘信息，并将公司使命描述为“为每个家庭打造一个有用的机器人”，但没有提供任何关于其机器人的图片或规格。据 PitchBook 报道，该公司获得了包括 Greenoaks、NFDG、Spark、Eclipse、Kleiner Perkins 和 Y Combinator 在内的风险投资公司和初创企业加速器的支持，据称已筹集了超过 3 亿美元。
Robotics companies typically train and test robots in their own labs, well away from any prying eyes and without causing any notable incidents. Using Airbnb homes as robot testing grounds without the hosts’ knowledge or consent would be a risky business move, especially because any damage caused by the robots would be suboptimal advertising for robots intended for household use. The San Francisco Standard also identified three of the guests from Donovan’s Airbnb booking as being associated with negative reviews from a dozen other Airbnb hosts. Some hosts reported similar damage to cabinetry、furniture, walls, flooring, and doors. Ars has reached out to The Bot Company for comment.
机器人公司通常在自己的实验室里训练和测试机器人，远离窥探，也不会造成任何重大事故。在未经房东知情或同意的情况下将 Airbnb 房屋用作机器人测试场是一种冒险的商业行为，尤其是因为机器人造成的任何损坏对于旨在家庭使用的机器人来说都是糟糕的广告。旧金山标准报（The San Francisco Standard）还发现，多诺万 Airbnb 预订中的三名客人曾收到过其他十几位 Airbnb 房东的差评。一些房东报告了类似的橱柜、家具、墙壁、地板和门损坏情况。Ars 已联系 The Bot Company 请求置评。
In any case, there is a reason the millions of robots deployed throughout the world primarily work on factory assembly lines and in heavily automated warehouses. People’s homes are much more unstructured environments with a wide variety of household tasks to perform that may include more fragile furniture and items—not to mention the presence of squishy flesh-and-blood humans who must not be harmed.
无论如何，全球部署的数百万台机器人主要在工厂装配线和高度自动化的仓库中工作是有原因的。人们的家是一个结构化程度低得多的环境，需要执行各种各样的家务，其中可能包括更脆弱的家具和物品——更不用说还有必须受到保护、柔软的血肉之躯的人类存在。