The deal will give the e-retail behemoth even more access to our homes:
[...]
It seems fairly obvious why Amazon wanted to get its hands on iRobot. Amazon has been working for years to integrate itself into homes, first with audio systems (Alexa), and then video (Ring), and more recently some questionable home robots of its own, like its indoor security drone and Astro. Amazon clearly needs some help in understanding how to make home robots useful, and iRobot can likely provide some guidance, with its extraordinarily qualified team of highly experienced engineers. And needless to say, iRobot is already well established in a huge number of homes, with brand recognition comparable to something like Velcro or Xerox, in the sense that people don't have "robot vacuums," they have Roombas.
All those Roombas in all of those homes are also collecting a crazy amount of data for iRobot. iRobot itself has been reasonably privacy-sensitive about this, but it would be naïve not to assume that Amazon sees a lot of potential for learning much, much more about what goes on in our living rooms. This is more concerning, because Amazon has its own ideas about data privacy, and it's unclear what this will mean for increasingly camera-reliant Roombas going forward.
[...] My worry, though, is that iRobot is just going to get completely swallowed into Amazon and effectively cease to exist in a meaningful and unique way. I hope that the relationship between Amazon and iRobot will be an exception to this historical trend. Plus, there is some precedent for this—Boston Dynamics, for example, has survived multiple acquisitions while keeping its technology and philosophy more or less independent and intact. It'll be on iRobot to very aggressively act to preserve itself, and keeping Colin Angle as CEO is a good start.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 08 2022, @01:27AM (1 child)
Current Roombas don't require a wifi connection to operate. There may be extra features available if you do let it connect (like voice command) but the basic cleaning works without the internet connection.
Dollars to donuts this changes with Amazon ownership. How long before control buttons are removed from the Roomba and it requires "Alexa -- tell the Roomba to start cleaning" to operate?
(Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Monday August 08 2022, @01:41AM
Neato already did it. The whole interface is now via your phone.
I grabbed a second D80 (lcd. not online) a year ago.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by optotronic on Monday August 08 2022, @01:33AM
Like most readers here, I imagine, I'm not pleased with this. I have three Roombas, two in current use, but I buy the low-end ones without wifi. I fear Amazon will drop those to maximize spy capability. The cheapest wifi models already sometimes cost the same as those without it.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Monday August 08 2022, @07:01AM
It means I won't get one.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by stretch611 on Monday August 08 2022, @08:43AM (3 children)
I did not want a Roomba due to its wifi requirements and uploading room mapping to the cloud.
I bought a EUFY 11S off of ebay... One for myself and later one for my mother. No wifi, it has a remote that really is not needed. Just push the button on top, it cleans and returns to a docking station for power.
My mother is thrilled with hers... she literally has not brought out a normal vacuum since I bought one for her in November. She uses it almost daily (Obviously, she is more of a clean freak than me by far.)
It keeps her happy, I do not worry about anything being uploaded or commands for it to shut off when a new model is available (or worries about the cloud service turning off forcing obsolescence.)
Another thing to add to the list of things to never buy due to amazon.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 08 2022, @12:07PM (2 children)
> I bought a EUFY 11S off of ebay...
Does it work on rugs? Can it climb up (and down) to get onto a half inch (1cm+) thick rug? We have both hardwood and linoleum (kitchen) floors, but some of them are partially covered with rugs. Some of the rugs have a bound edge (stiff), other rugs have a knotted fringe at the ends.
(Score: 3, Informative) by stretch611 on Monday August 08 2022, @09:46PM (1 child)
I pretty much have wall to wall carpeting and linoleum in the kitchen. There is a slight transition into the kitchen.
1 cm rugs do not seem to be a problem (I do have a mat in the kitchen.) I do not know about larger heights.
I also do not know for sure about fringes. My mat does not have one. In general, I would say no, even with normal vacuums you need to worry about fringes. But I really am clueless on this.
This unit is really quiet It seems to use to brushes to stir up the top of the carpet and then sucks it all into the dust bin. My mother was shocked how much it collected the first week literally filling the dust bin every day the first week or so when she thought her carpet was pretty clean to begin with. (My place... it if wasn't full it wouldn't be worth anything)
Link to the manual [eufylife.com]
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 09 2022, @12:48AM
Hey, thanks!!