Agree about pets being a distraction. Pickles hates car rides so for the first 20 mins I'm driving with one hand and petting him with the other and reassuring him. I mention the names of my daughter and grandsons and that we're going to see them and tell him he's ok, etc. Same thing every few weeks for 8 years now...he doesn't get it.
Lol...maybe I don't want one...I used to have kids and remember that. @Shirley Martin , you crack me up...I'm still giggling after reading that.
Hmm, it looks like a competitor of Siri (the iPhone's talking secretary). But like @Chrissy Page, I also want one for Christmas just for the novelty of it. But I haven't heard it here so maybe Kirobo has not yet arrived because some of my colleagues are always up to date when it come to technology particularly novelty gadgets. My usual companion in the car is the radio, I listen to either music or commentaries and news. Maybe if I got bored during a heavy traffic, Kirobo could perk me up.
Evidently there are a lot of lonely single people in Japan, in need of an object to talk to. It has the "intelligence" of a 5 year old.