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I don't deny that even the basic model can figure out the layout of your house. It can't determine materials. The lidar can't really do that either. Even if it

I don't deny that even the basic model can figure out the layout of your house. It can't determine materials. The lidar can't really do that either. Even if it could, whether you buy Charmin or generic toilet paper on Amazon is a better signal of your wealth anyway. Honestly just buying a Roomba is a pretty good signal that you have some money to burn but not so much that you can hire a maid. The article is just FUD

SoftTalker 4y ago
> Honestly just buying a Roomba is a pretty good signal that you have some money to burn but not so much that you can hire a maid. Or you're a sucker for gadgets that are sold at high margins and ultimately don't really improve anything in your life.
- falcolas 4y ago
  Honestly, this is spoken like someone who has never used a robotic vacuum. Unless you vacuum your house daily, it helps your house look a whole lot better. Visible dirt on the floor has a bigger impact on the look (and frankly hygiene) your house than you might imagine. And even if you do vacuum your house daily, the robotic vacuum will save you hours of time every week. That said, if you don't care about visible dirt on your floors, perhaps you're right, it won't improve your life.
  - SoftTalker 4y ago
    My wife bought a Roomba a few years ago. The thing is noisy, and as it bumps around the room like a blind man it frequently gets stuck in a corner or under a chair, or ingests a shoelace from a shoe that someone took off near the front door and then calls for help. I don't vacuum every day, but do it often enough with a standard canister vac. It takes a few minutes per room, and then it's done. I can also use the vacuum to get cobwebs out of the wall corners and along the ceiling. I can use it to get dust off of other surfaces. I can use it to vacuum out my car. It's a really nice vacuum, quiet, with a powerful suction, HEPA filter, and it cost less than all but the lowest-tier Roomba.
falcolas 4y ago
> The j7 and j7+ model, available only from iRobot in September 2021, debuted PrecisionVision Yeah, they have cameras in 'em - they advertise being able to detect pet poop, a material. > Honestly just buying a Roomba is a pretty good signal that you have some money to burn but not so much that you can hire a maid. Dismissive and also untrue. Roombas save time by spending a relatively small amount of money - about the same amount of money you'd spend on a good vacuum.
owenwil 4y ago
The past isn't exactly an indicator of the future, though. Competition like Roborock's vacuums are laden with cameras and can do full object categorization, including furniture type and layout, but also what's lying around anywhere up to waist height. Mine has detected shoes, cables, power strips, pets, clothes, toys and so on–that is pretty useful data and tells you A LOT about the house and its owner–pretty easy to imagine them eventually detecting the brand of the shoe and how worn it is or something. If Roomba isn't working on something like this, given the competition is clearly much further ahead, I'd be completely surprised.
- henryfjordan 4y ago
  Other posters have pointed out that newer high-end $1000 Roombas do have cameras and some of those features you mention, but they make up a small portion of the Roomba fleet. The article is suggesting Amazon bought iRobot for access to that tiny amount of data. There's just no way that's the primary motivator. It makes so much more sense to think about this acquisition from the "consolidating household smart-device offerings under the Alexa brand" perspective.
  - owenwil 4y ago
    I don't disagree, but I see it as more of a forward-looking acquisition, not a backwards looking one. Sure, they don't have the data now but It's easy to imagine Amazon killing off the old basic models in the future and selling the data-gathering camera-enabled ones at a loss, to kill off the competition and get much larger market share, once it's acquired the company. Why wouldn't they?

SoftTalker 4y ago

> Honestly just buying a Roomba is a pretty good signal that you have some money to burn but not so much that you can hire a maid. Or you're a sucker for gadgets that are sold at high margins and ultimately don't really improve anything in your life.

falcolas 4y ago
Honestly, this is spoken like someone who has never used a robotic vacuum. Unless you vacuum your house daily, it helps your house look a whole lot better. Visible dirt on the floor has a bigger impact on the look (and frankly hygiene) your house than you might imagine. And even if you do vacuum your house daily, the robotic vacuum will save you hours of time every week. That said, if you don't care about visible dirt on your floors, perhaps you're right, it won't improve your life.
- SoftTalker 4y ago
  My wife bought a Roomba a few years ago. The thing is noisy, and as it bumps around the room like a blind man it frequently gets stuck in a corner or under a chair, or ingests a shoelace from a shoe that someone took off near the front door and then calls for help. I don't vacuum every day, but do it often enough with a standard canister vac. It takes a few minutes per room, and then it's done. I can also use the vacuum to get cobwebs out of the wall corners and along the ceiling. I can use it to get dust off of other surfaces. I can use it to vacuum out my car. It's a really nice vacuum, quiet, with a powerful suction, HEPA filter, and it cost less than all but the lowest-tier Roomba.

falcolas 4y ago

> The j7 and j7+ model, available only from iRobot in September 2021, debuted PrecisionVision Yeah, they have cameras in 'em - they advertise being able to detect pet poop, a material. > Honestly just buying a Roomba is a pretty good signal that you have some money to burn but not so much that you can hire a maid. Dismissive and also untrue. Roombas save time by spending a relatively small amount of money - about the same amount of money you'd spend on a good vacuum.

owenwil 4y ago

The past isn't exactly an indicator of the future, though. Competition like Roborock's vacuums are laden with cameras and can do full object categorization, including furniture type and layout, but also what's lying around anywhere up to waist height. Mine has detected shoes, cables, power strips, pets, clothes, toys and so on–that is pretty useful data and tells you A LOT about the house and its owner–pretty easy to imagine them eventually detecting the brand of the shoe and how worn it is or something. If Roomba isn't working on something like this, given the competition is clearly much further ahead, I'd be completely surprised.

henryfjordan 4y ago
Other posters have pointed out that newer high-end $1000 Roombas do have cameras and some of those features you mention, but they make up a small portion of the Roomba fleet. The article is suggesting Amazon bought iRobot for access to that tiny amount of data. There's just no way that's the primary motivator. It makes so much more sense to think about this acquisition from the "consolidating household smart-device offerings under the Alexa brand" perspective.
- owenwil 4y ago
  I don't disagree, but I see it as more of a forward-looking acquisition, not a backwards looking one. Sure, they don't have the data now but It's easy to imagine Amazon killing off the old basic models in the future and selling the data-gathering camera-enabled ones at a loss, to kill off the competition and get much larger market share, once it's acquired the company. Why wouldn't they?