In this paper, we introduce a novel idea of kinetic values to examine challenges regarding assistive robots that are expected to support human movement in smart homes and mobility in urban environments. By problematizing the medical-engineering paradigm in care robotics for aging people, we argue that assistive robotics has been based on an idealized and anaemic vision of human motility. Drawing on the phenomenological theory of kinaesthesia, we analyse recent assistive robotics innovations based on four key conceptualisations: ‘self-motion’, ‘being moved’, ‘co-motion’, and ‘united movement’. We conclude that the phenomenological approach provides a better understanding of the interplay among assistive robots, kinaesthesia and urban technological infrastructure.