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from the when-a-business-sucks-and-it's-a-good-thing dept.
Robot vacuums may have once seemed an eccentricity, but they now represent a non-trivial portion of the overall vacuum market – 20 percent worldwide, according to iRobot CEO and co-founder Colin Angle, who I spoke to at TechCrunch Beijing 2016. And Roomba makes up 70 percent of that market, giving iRobot a commanding lead in the space.
Exactly how many robots does that translate to? Over 14 million Roombas sold to date, Angle said, which is a steady business for a consumer product that starts at a price point that tends to be a bit higher than your average human-powered home cleaning hardware.
iRobot's lead in the market should be easily defensible, Angle says, because the company has a long lead in terms of working on the problem, and because it's focused on consumer home cleaning products exclusively. iRobot's become even more focused of late, since the company recently divested itself of its defense and security robotics division and is now focused entirely on the home consumer space.
Do any Soylentils have a Roomba or some other automated cleaning system? What has your experience been like? How well does it work? What improvements are needed?
[Ed Note: A Robot Vacuum Cautionary Tale]
(Score: 2) by ledow on Thursday November 10 2016, @01:41PM
I don't have a Roomba, but I have a similar cheaper thing that just moves at random and has brushes to sweep things into its body.
It tends to get stuck behind objects, it very much likes the bit behind the bed which is only just wide enough to get into but not quite to get out of in any reasonable amount of time.
It hasn't yet taken a dive down the stairs, but it comes close quite often.
It beeps after 30 minutes and turns itself off, so it's never where you expect it (definite hazard in the dark, being dark grey in colour).
It'll rip up or fire out things that get in its path, including cat tails (they are fascinated by it).
And, yes, anything like a table with chairs around it and you can just give up now. It'll never get to underneath them.
Kind of like a lot of technology - if you go to the effort to make it work properly, you might as wall have just done its job in the first place.
And if you made something that could pull all the chairs out, tidy the floor and recognise the cat tail and not eat it, then you don't need a robot vacuum - it could just use the normal vacuum, surely?
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Thursday November 10 2016, @01:56PM
I would think that the philosophy of automation is, rather, this:
Rather than doing the job *over and over* thoroughly and completely... and manually.
This applies everywhere from simple backup scripts in sh/bash to vacuum cleaning robots to factory floor automation to missile guidance to aircraft avionics/autopilot automation to... you name it.
Wouldn't that make the otherwise "normal" vacuum into a really, really good robot vacuum?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 10 2016, @02:02PM
To be fair, I don't think a Roomba was really intended as a complete cleaning unit. It is more touch-up in-between (or for very specific circumstances)
It does raise the question however if it is worth the price.
Bought it, so that's a done deal, but I wouldn't buy another one unless it was more a discretionary purchase.
(Score: 3, Informative) by art guerrilla on Thursday November 10 2016, @03:52PM
happy owner of a cheap roomba knockoff ($150 vs $1000!) which works GREAT for our circumstances... we have hardwood or tile floors throughout, with only a few flat/non-plush rugs... with two dogs and ourselves traipsing in and out, we are constantly having gritty, hairy floors, until the once every week or two for major, regular vacuuming... the vacbot comes on at a certain time (um, which im not sure we can change after one of the dogs chewed up the remote), does its light vaccuming, and keeps the floors grit free...
pretty much think the other poster is both exaggerating shortcomings (which do exist), and being just a *leeeeetle* bit of a spoiled first worlder in that since it isnt perfect (what is?), it isnt worth it... whatevs...
took the dogs a while to get used to it, and as several other posters have mentioned, there is some stuff you cant have lying around or it will choke on it...
overall, very happy with the VERY low effort we expend vs the pretty darn good job it does...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 10 2016, @05:39PM
> a cheap roomba knockoff
Brand/model?
(Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Thursday November 10 2016, @09:59PM
got from amazonians, brand was ilife, forget model...