Rabbit's OS3 reaches users through a browser tab, Telegram or iMessage

OS3 runs in the cloud and reaches a user's desktop software, files and web pages through a local agent node, per Wired's description of the platform ^[3]. A node on the user's own machine issues its requests from that machine's network and session. A rented virtual machine in a data center does not, and Amazon banned Meta's Muse agent from crawling it to shop on a user's behalf using exactly that setup ^[11]. Rabbit hit this first: the R1 used a virtual machine to take actions inside apps for people, which was contentious at the time ^[24]. "We've been through all of this a year and a half ago," Lyu said ^[10].

Trying the agent now starts on hardware the user already owns ^[2]. The tasks Rabbit sold from the start were speaking a request and having it book an Uber or order food on DoorDash ^[23], and those are decided by whoever runs the destination.

Almost every number on the record is Lyu's own. He claims more than 100,000 R1s delivered, returns under 5 percent and hardware margin of roughly 45 to 50 percent ^[6], and says Rabbit has raised around $60 million and employs 15 people ^[8]. Wired's own contribution is the 3/10 it gave the R1 after its CES 2024 launch ^[12]. The interview does not report usage, retention or task-completion figures for the agent features ^[22]; the only current demand figure Lyu gave was four or five orders through Rabbit's website on the morning of the interview, which he said excludes Amazon, Target and Best Buy ^[19]. Around 50 updates over the past year and a half ^[15] works out to roughly one every eleven days ^[20].

A 12,000-member Discord ^[16] is what a team points at when asked who is still using the thing. Against the 100,000 units Lyu claims, it is at most about 12 percent of buyers ^[21], and its members are the ones who wanted to run OpenClaw or Hermes on the R1 in place of Rabbit's own models ^[17]. "We're more open; the device is yours, you decide what to do with the device," Lyu said ^[18].

Rabbit is still in the hardware business. It has stopped making the R1 and ruled out an R2, and says its next device, due within months, is a Cyberdeck for vibe coding that runs OS3 ^[4][5]. Last year was harder: regulations stymied a planned launch in India, and a handful of employees went on strike saying they were not being paid, after which Lyu says the company secured more funding ^[13]. "There are no issues with the company's health," he said ^[14].

For anyone choosing an agent to put in front of users on Monday, two things sort the options: where the agent executes, on the user's own machine or on a server the vendor rents, and whether the destination site permits agent traffic at all. Three of the four combinations answer themselves. The interesting one is a local node at a site that blocks agents, where the outcome turns on how well that site can separate a person from software acting under that person's login. I would take the local-node option and price what comes with it: installation, operating-system permission prompts and breakage become your support queue's problem.