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Amazon acquires Roomba robot vacuum makers iRobot for $1.7 billion

Tobor

Tobor

Member
Oct 25, 2017
28,429
Richmond, VA
Kadzork

Kadzork

Has got mad skills!!
Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,733
Roomba about to stalk you around the house for marketing information.
 
Lump

Lump

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,980
Roomba/iRobot has been good about coming out with innovations before competition but Roborock has won me over with their quality, especially in their latest high end models that spot and identify obstacles really accurately.
 
Bessy67

Bessy67

Member
Oct 29, 2017
11,572
One step closer to an official dj Roomba

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teruterubozu

teruterubozu

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,858
That's pretty huge. I imagine iRobot's R&D unit is pretty valuable and will allow Amazon to create more automated home devices.
 
Jroc

Jroc

Banned
Jun 9, 2018
6,145
nsilvias said:
i dont think ive ever seen one of these in an actual home in my life
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Yeah I've never seen one in person. I always thought they were basically a movie-only thing like segways.

Do they actually work well? I feel like it would fuck up unless you had a very angular home with minimal clutter.
 
Relix

Relix

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,219
I have a Roborock S7 and it just shits on my old Roomba i5.

Perfect vacuuming plus mopping when I want. My floor is shiny clean. Helps a lot when you have a dog and a wife who sheds hair every single motherfucking day
 
0ptimusPayne

0ptimusPayne

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,748
Absolutely love our Roborock vacuum. Keeps my floors clean from all the dog hair we previously dealt with.
 
Dega

Dega

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,313
It'll scan your trash then follow you around asking you to buy more on amazon. :o
 
Grue

Grue

Member
Sep 7, 2018
4,893
That's a pretty natural acquisition I think and probably a good get for Amazon.

These vacuums are getting better and cheaper pretty quickly, and a tangible part of the 'connected home' they're chasing.

Between flying drones, wheeled delivery units and now vacuums, I imagine we're going to see them moving further into robotics.
 
Relix

Relix

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,219
nsilvias said:
i dont think ive ever seen one of these in an actual home in my life
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Don't get a shit dumb one. Get one with mapping and some AI features at least. A dumb Roomba sucks, it barely cleans where you need it to. A smarter one though? It's a work of art. Most of my 30+ Year old friends have at least something in their house, it does decrease the amount of time cleaning your house
 
Jebusman

Jebusman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,081
Halifax, NS
Jroc said:
Do they actually work well? I feel like it would fuck up unless you had a very angular home with minimal clutter.
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So long as your floor is fairly devoid of obstacles, it's pretty good for picking up random debris and dirt.

The older models just function by moving in a straight line, bumping into something, turning, then move again, so sometimes they can miss things if they just happened to not turn that direction. They were pretty dumb and you had to manually empty the bin on them each time.

The newer models map out your room as they travel in them so they can better ensure they get everything, and have auto-disposal bins so they can self empty and keep going.
 
Wollan

Wollan

Mostly Positive
Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,810
Norway but living in France
I refurbished my house so that the flooring is continuous (no skirting/elevations) between the main rooms (kitchen, living room, TV room, hallway etc).
Our Roomba iRobot has 3D scanning so it automatically learned the layout over time and any potential changes over time. It's running every Monday and Thursday when we are at work.

I believe it's the i7 which has a base station that it will empty the dust into (so I only need to throw out the larger bag every ~3 months or so).

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Josh378

Josh378

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,521
Won't be long before they intergrate Ring with iRobot vacation.

Built-in cameras for motion detection for trash and when you're not home. Upgrade to taser mode where you instruct your Roomba to chase after the thief, tazer them, then call 911 for break-in.
 

ruggiex

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,079
Newer robot vacuums are equip with camera for object recognition... I guess they may have other purposes in the future.
 
Sai

Sai

Prophet of Truth
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
5,610
Chicago
nooooo my boyfriends have two of these lmfao now they'll never upgrade
 
Grue

Grue

Member
Sep 7, 2018
4,893
Devil said:
Yes. My Roborock has no problem with our various rugs/carpets lying around on our hardwood floor.

I just don't know how it behaves if you also want to use the mob function cause I never used it.
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The latest models lift the mop when they detect carpet.

Older ones like mine don't do that, so you can set 'no mop' zones to avoid getting your carpet / rugs soggy.
 
MrKlaw

MrKlaw

Member
Oct 25, 2017
33,038
zethren said:
Do these seemlessly transition between hardwood and carpeted rooms?
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They'll handle a 1/2 - 3/4 inch threshold. I'm tempted to try and reduce the one between the hall and living room but if it doesn't make it head on, it'll back off and go in at an angle like a rock crawler :)
 
blacklotus

blacklotus

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
2,026
Jroc said:
Yeah I've never seen one in person. I always thought they were basically a movie-only thing like segways.

Do they actually work well? I feel like it would fuck up unless you had a very angular home with minimal clutter.
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It's fucking amazing how well they work. I have one from Xiaomi. It's just perfection and the way its fucking sonar maps the house is kinda scary.
 
Acidote

Acidote

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,965
I've been using a 630 for the longest time (that I won from an Amazon giveaway the first year they landed in Spain). I'm too used to those things now. The day it dies I'll shop around for a new one.
 
Devil

Devil

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,658
Broddity said:
The latest models lift the mop when they detect carpet.

Older ones like mine don't do that, so you can set 'no mop' zones to avoid getting your carpet / rugs soggy.
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Yeah, I have the S6 Maxv, I don't think it can lift the mop but I have seen the option for no mop zones in the app.

The S7 Maxv ultra with that giant station thingy looks really enticing, it would probably make me actually use the mop function. But it's too expensive with the station. And I'm really, really happy with how well the S6 Maxv vacuums and how the app works so not really worth it at the moment.
 
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