alt Hacker NewsI think the distinction is about the interaction with physical world. I robot must change its own position and/or can be able to manipulate other objects.
A washing machine does’t care about the pose of the laundry inside. No direct manipulation. It just rotates the drum with a motor.
A self driving car locates and moves itself. A robotic arm manipulates objects. They are like half-robots. A “robot” robot can do both.
My washing machine detects when the wet laundry inside is imbalanced and will do a slow half rotation to evenly spaced the wet laundry before a spin cycle