If latency turns out to be a serious issue, then remote control robots would be installed where latency is reliable, or where home owners can get low latency connections.
Most likely latency will improve for the valley over the next few years.
Certainly VoiP is reliable in many other countries. We use a cheap provider at work (virtually no issues), and I used it at home in 2011 and it was rock solid. And NZ is definitely on the edge of the main networks!
Edits:
PS: second anecdote: I'm on an island in the Mediterranean at the moment, and VoiP seems very usable.
PPS: what do the gamers in your neighborhood do to resolve ping times? They usually are extremely interested in diagnosing the underlying causes of latency and finding solutions (although you obviously need to find a more engineer type gamer than a script kiddie soothsayer type)
Both providers, Telstra at work, and Internode at home, give VoIP traffic the highest priority QoS, as far as I’m aware. It’s been a while since I worked Internode.
You know, there hasn’t been a technological advancement we’ve managed to refrain from using. So it’s either it’s just a matter of time, or it’s not possible due to some limitation(a).
Let’s assuming for a minute that this does eventuate, and some robot does manage to kill the cat: we’ll get over it. We haven’t regulated the car out of existence yet, and they have a tendency to kill quite the many cats.*
*all analogies breakdown under scrutiny.
I'm convinced AI and androids will come around. I just don't think it will happen in this decade.
The first robot killing the cat by dropping a knife because of a lag is going to be fun.