It’s decietful, the robotic dog in your analogy does not “pretend” to be real or the least bit useful it is for entertaining purposes only. Zillow purposely (because they are financed by the housing industry) inflate the zestimate models to the high side. The models it uses for calculating the home “value” were designed during the upturn they do not account for lossess. Zillow is a joke, use with caution.