Highlighting failures is not my favorite pastime, but the video of ASIMO taking a staircase fall can't be missed. Response of the crowd included gasps, laughs, and complete distraction from the embarrassed presenter. What's revealing is that this failure is newsworthy. That's a powerful statement about ASIMO's capability and success. Like space-flight, we now take stair-walking robots for granted. The strangest part is how the technicians dealt with the trip-up by screening off the unconscious robot as it lay motionless. A perfect opportunity to perform mouth-to-manifold resuscitation and revel in the ensuing media blitz was lost.