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According to the Financial Times, Roomba has sold more than 40 million robotic devices, most of them robotic vacuum cleaners.[a] Many of those vacuum cleaners

• uxp100 10mo ago
  Nope, not all of them are connected to the internet and not all of them have cameras.
  • cs702 10mo ago
    Thanks. That's true. I edited my comment to reflect as much.
• bhouston 10mo ago
  Definitely not all live and functioning. In fact I suspect less than 10m are actively used. It is a company that has been around for years and it has run into sales issues that last few years with competition and their products have tech product lifespans of around 3 years I suspect.
  • horsawlarway 10mo ago
    Personally, I have a Roomba I bought in Jan 2019 that's still doing just fine (So 7 years now). Most of the parts are pretty easily replaced (genuinely pleasant surprise, as an aside) and the company stocked most replacement parts for a long time - I just checked again and I can still get parts for my model (I-series) incl batteries, wheels, brushes, filters, etc. Which is less than it used to be, but still enough to keep mine rolling around for another 3ish years without any likely problems. And that's outside of the whole "unofficial" replacement parts ecosystem that popped up online. 3 years doesn't track with my experience on this one. I'd bet it's 5 to 10. --- For context, Amazon tried to buy them for exactly the same purpose ~2 years back (home/house data) and failed to get EU regulatory approval, so scrapped the deal. I'm not thrilled to have ownership transferred to another company (I was also very unhappy to hear the Amazon rumors back then) and I think this is a pretty clear risk. Even if a user is no longer using the device, Roomba still likely has plenty of data about their home floating around.
    • deleted 10mo ago
      [deleted]
    • brewtide 10mo ago
      > Most of the parts are pretty easily replaced (genuinely pleasant surprise, as an aside) and the company stocked most replacement parts for a long time - I just checked again and I can still get parts for my model (I-series) incl batteries, wheels, brushes, filters, etc. Which is less than it used to be, but still enough to keep mine rolling around for another 3ish years without any likely problems. I've never owned or really used a different brand than roomba (I've joked that I've owned 4 roombas, but never purchased a single one...) but I fully agree that the modular nature of their parts replacement is a super welcome thing. The fact that the electrical contacts are all just sprung into each other, and each component is basically designed for near-minimal replacement overlap (not replacing things that are not broken) is something that I would LOVE to be implemented in more things. I always assumed that it was this 'forward thinking' design that a) Likely added a bit to the cost of the brand b) Likely didn't assist with future sales from breakages, etc. Out of the 4 I've acquired over the years, one has been stripped of parts and discarded. One is relatively in that process, and the other 2 are happily (?) doing the different areas of my house. A few amazon batteries later (Which I originally only charge when I am home and able to check on them, then place faith in 'not burning down the house') and everything is hunky doory. Also, they have been around so long, there are a boatload of 3d printed replacement parts floating around that can be quite useful if one has a 3d printer. I've always held them in pretty high regard for repairable tech.
    • bhouston 10mo ago
      > Personally, I have a Roomba I bought in Jan 2019 that's still doing just fine (So 7 years now). BTW I just found on a bunch of robotic vacuum websites that 4-6 years is the quoted expected lifespan with maintenance: https://us.narwal.com/blogs/product/how-long-robot-vacuums-last https://us.narwal.com/blogs/product/how-long-robot-vacuums-l... https://ca.dreametech.com/blogs/blog/how-long-do-robot-vacuums-last https://ca.dreametech.com/blogs/blog/how-long-do-robot-vacuu... https://au.roborock.com/blogs/roborock-au/how-long-do-robot-vacuums-last https://au.roborock.com/blogs/roborock-au/how-long-do-robot-... I think that likely means without maintenance it is a little less.
• kqr 10mo ago
  Our household (and I suspect many with us) bought a Roomba specifically to not give the Chinese government a roving camera in our home. Ouch!
  • mkagenius 10mo ago
    Since this can be a significant security issue for the state, why doesn't the government sponsor a security audit of the software. Does it upload the data or everything is done on the device? (Also, will have to keep up with the updates)
    • grosswait 10mo ago
      How does that provide any assurance against future changes that the public wouldn’t have any ability to know about.
      • hackernewds 10mo ago
        So the govt implements rules and a panopticon for penalties. this works for the FDA, why wouldn't it for the FCC
        • pintxo 10mo ago
          Because regulation is bad, according to the current executive? Politics aside, the FDA applies a very generous amount of regulation (mostly justifiable), not sure we want to pay multiples for our consumer electronics, as it (mostly) shows acceptable behavior and rearely kills anybody.
          • trimethylpurine 10mo ago
            It is bad. Regulations have been historically hijacked to benefit corporate interests. See Intuit and tax policy for example. Voters on the right naively thought he'd work to fix it. (Wrong!) But it is very much bad for a very large number of issues. Maybe next executive will fix it? (Wrong!)
• beepbooptheory 10mo ago
  What is the significance to you in just a change of owner here? Relative to the situation already?
  • Ylpertnodi 10mo ago
    Not gp, but more and more euroheads much prefer China over [current] USA.
• atwrk 10mo ago
  So the actual problem is the "feature" set of the vacuum cleaners, not the nationality of the new owners, right?
  • jgalt212 10mo ago
    Depends on which nations you care about. How would you feel if Roomba devices were controlled by North Korea, for example?
    • atwrk 10mo ago
      That was kind of my point, I don't buy any of these surveillance appliances. But answering as a hypthetical roomba owner: As I am from the EU, this new ownership would actually be better for me. The US already mandates spying with devices like these, and has been caught multiple times doing so already. It is also known to share info with the domestic services, the latter point not being true for China.
      • red-iron-pine 10mo ago
        the US does not mandate spying with roombas -- wtf are you smoking? China absolutely shares info with all of its national police services, intelligence services, and military. Depending on the company these PLA may literally own some / most / all of the organization. I am not in the US or China, and on balance I am less worried about the Chinese blowing my house up, but don't pretend they're nice, or that they're your friend. I don't want them having my data any more than I want the NSA, Research & Analysis Wing, or the NK Reconnaissance General Bureau.
        • atwrk 10mo ago
          You have the Stored Communications Act, the Patriot Act, the Cloud Act, FISA, and so on. Most of which don't require warrants if it is about non-citizens. Which is then shared, through Five Eyes and similar agreements, with foreign countries, so a workaround for not needing warrants in the target country. This is what I commented about, data sharing with the services in my country. Of course Chinese intelligence agencies will share info with the Chinese police, but they don't share with police in the EU. Again, the root problem of course is that there is any data to share in the first place.
• georgeecollins 10mo ago
  I worry a lot about privacy in general but its hard for me to figure out the danger posed by my roborock. I suppose it has the floor plans of my house and knows we vacuum on Saturdays. It doesn't seem to know if the object passing by is me or my cat. Yes its on my wifi but so are half a dozen other foreign made gadgets. What is the concern?
  • newswangerd 10mo ago
    I’m curious about this too. I’d worry about a local burglar having this information, but what can a Chinese tech company do with this data that I should be concerned about?
    • sandworm101 10mo ago
      An employee of that company sells footage of you to a scam center. They then blackmail you.
      • mystraline 10mo ago
        [flagged]
        • user_7832 10mo ago
          > The Chinese aren't the ones running massive scam orgs backed by their government. They're bust teaching up and innovating on a massive scale. The scammers would be in India, backed by their government. That's patently false. The "Indian Govt" isn't behind any scams any more than a random Sheriff abusing his power is a spokesperson for the White House - and that's generously assuming there are politicians with vested interests behind these, which I haven't seen anything to suggest.
        • goobatrooba 10mo ago
          Unfortunately you are wrong. Most scam centres are Chinese owned, though they are usually based in other countries, e.g. Myanmar or Cambodia. There were various in depth investigations by media and law enforcement across countries, here is a US source https://www.uscc.gov/research/chinas-exploitation-scam-centers-southeast-asia https://www.uscc.gov/research/chinas-exploitation-scam-cente... https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/world/asia/scam-centers-myanmar-thailand-china.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/world/asia/scam-centers-m... https://apnews.com/article/asian-scam-operations-cybercime-fraud-united-nations-494b1832f330d6a9690b083411809f93 https://apnews.com/article/asian-scam-operations-cybercime-f... German source https://www.dw.com/en/why-is-china-clamping-down-on-scammers-in-southeast-asia/a-71456569 https://www.dw.com/en/why-is-china-clamping-down-on-scammers... ... Etc
• Zigurd 10mo ago
  Take that with a grain of salt (typhoon).
• renewiltord 10mo ago
  Well, not to worry. The Biden Admin FTC and the EU ensured this outcome in the interest of making sure consumer rights are protected. Therefore, consumer rights must be better protected in this scenario.
  • freen 10mo ago
    Biden Admin?
    • renewiltord 10mo ago
      Yes, when Lina Khan was FTC Head during the Biden Administration she helped protect consumer rights by getting iRobot sold to a Chinese company.
• grafmax 10mo ago
  American tech companies have already built an apparatus of mass surveillance that works hand in glove with our government to violate our constitutional rights on a regular basis. But it turns out that an economy based on rent extraction and enshittification can’t in the long run compete with one based on a real economy of industry, agriculture, and public services. We should have privacy laws including mandated user control of user data. In my view, scaremongering around China just demonstates how uncompetitive the US is, in the long run. We should set our sights higher than merely begging to trade one form of technofeudalism for another.
• array_key_first 10mo ago
  I don't understand how you can sell 40 million units and go bankrupt.
  • dboreham 10mo ago
    Perhaps because the 40 million units rely on an expensive back-end service that isn't covered by monthly fees to users?
    • spyspy 10mo ago
      Don't give them ideas.
    • array_key_first 10mo ago
      Probably was, but that's just stupid business decisions. Your pricing model should reflect your real-world costs. If it doesn't, then update your pricing model. If consumers can't do the new pricing model, then your real-world costs are probably out of wack. Which they would be in this case - there's no reason a vaccum should require expensive backend services.
  • doctorpangloss 10mo ago
    what is in between a disc shaped robot vacuum and an android walking around with a broom? there's no obvious path between those two designs. the answer is all the growth iRoomba needed and another $10b. the problem with disc shaped vacuums is adapting your whole home to make their labor saving make sense. not maps or china or all this other bs.
    • gs17 10mo ago
      It's not exactly the missing link, but a lot of brands have started adding features that could be seen as in between, like a little robot arm to pick things up, and little "legs" to go up stairs. https://www.cnet.com/home/kitchen-and-household/dreames-new-stair-climbing-and-arm-equipped-robot-vacuums-are-aimed-at-taking-on-eufy-and-roborock/ https://www.cnet.com/home/kitchen-and-household/dreames-new-...
• HSO 10mo ago
  [flagged]
• prmoustache 10mo ago
  I don't think there are tens of millions still in use. Unless you design your house and buy your furnitures taking these roomba into account, they get stuck nearly every where or at the first sock left on the ground by someone in your household. They have a number of wearable most owner will not even want to replace and will start being inefficient rather quickly. Add to that some battery wear and I don't think there is a lot of +5y old devices in the wild. I and most people I know went back to regular vacuum cleaners. The thing is, those robots really don't solve a real problem as vacuuming and mopping are the easiest and quickest job when it comes to cleaning the house. Dusting all the furnitures + objects on top of them and cleaning the bathroom and toilets correctly are both much more time consuming and annoying jobs.
  • ToucanLoucan 10mo ago
    I am one of those weirdos! I bought a roomba in 2015 and it's still going. Second battery, sixth set of rollers and brush, god knows how many filters. Mine's also a dumb one: no wifi or pathfinding, just boring old "drives around until it smacks into shit" navigation. I gave it googly eyes in 2017 and named it Harold.
    • dpedu 10mo ago
      I used to have a similar dumb one (Roomba 860 if memory serves) and it would take the same path over and over again in certain corners of my house, which meant my carpet ended up with unsightly wheel tracks on it from the repetition. I don't think it did a very good job vacuuming either, no matter how much it ran, a normal vacuum would always pull a boatload more crud up. It's an interesting idea but it just didn't work for me and I wouldn't consider buying another.
      • ToucanLoucan 10mo ago
        It's not for hardcore use for sure, not a replacement for a proper vacuuming. I use it in my office/part of my basement, it gets the vast majority of stuff up and keeps the cat hair under control. I don't know that I'd buy another, especially because the new ones creep me out with all the cameras and such, but as long as I can keep this one running, it does a good enough job.
• gverrilla 10mo ago
  I’d rather have the Chinese than the Americans.
• pharrington 10mo ago
  Why are you more afraid of Chinese billionaires surveilling on you than American billionaires?
• basilgohar 10mo ago
  I appreciate the alarm. However, I don't know if we should feel China having this is less safe than an America, European, or other country. I think we have seen that whatever alleged rights to privacy and data protection we have are becoming more-and-more meaningless as the corporatocracy of the US manifests itself more. I mean to say, this should not be any more alarming than if, say, Oracle, Microsoft, or Amazon bought Roomba vs. any random Chinese company. I say this not to say that China has no human rights issues to worry about, but rather, that the US and other Western countries have just as many concerning human rights issues (including privacy, freedom of speech suppression, and police state) that we're just more familiar with and used to, compared to the Other that is China. Basically, 6 of one, a half dozen of the other.
• cyp0633 10mo ago
  US-designed iPhones have at least 2 cameras, some microphones, and biometric sensors. From this point, everyone outside the US should stop using iPhones to prevent surveillance from the American empire. From another angle, the iPhones are primarily made in China AND India via third-party factories, so no one should ever use iPhones any more. You have the right to concern about privacy, but that's not how it works.
  • esafak 10mo ago
    It is, because Apple's privacy stance and record are known. What do we know about this Chinese company, besides the fact that it is beholden to a government that does not care for privacy?
    • standardUser 10mo ago
      Apple's policy is to submit to nearly all requests made by the federal government, though they get substantial credit for resisting some requests. This of course depends on the decisions made by current leadership, which can and will change (while the phone in your pocket remains the same).
      • ahmedfromtunis 10mo ago
        The problem is that not all governments constrain themselves to only use requests and/or allow companies to challenge said requests. And that's at least what you get dealing with Apple and the USA (most of the time).
        • iAMkenough 10mo ago
          (Most of the time) is as true as you trust the federal government that demonstrably lies and “loses” records whenever it feels is convenient for them.
    • iAMkenough 10mo ago
      Apple's record is complying with a majority of government requests for customer data. Not to mention its CEO manufacturing and gifting on bended knee a custom 24-karat gold Apple plaque to a federal government leader that does not care for privacy or foreign customers. That sent the message internationally, loud and clear.
• Cpoll 10mo ago
  > More than 40 million is a lot. For comparison, the US has ~132 million households. Does comparing sales to households make any sense though? You'd need to figure out (40MM - Roombas in landfills) / average Roombas per household.
• lynx97 10mo ago
  How many users does TikTok have again? Talking about internet-connected, autonomously mobile, camera/microphone-equipped robots...
• zugi 10mo ago
  I disconnected my Roomba from the network right after programming its schedule. It still works great, following the same schedule for 7 years. I recently bought a cheap Chinese roomba clone. It comes with a remote control so you don't need to connect it to the internet. I do have to press a button to start it but it works great. If you care about your privacy, choose products appropriately and/or take 5 minutes to protect yourself. Most people don't seem to care, which is their choice.
  • williamdclt 10mo ago
    > Most people don't seem to care, which is their choice. Most people don't have the required knowledge to make an educated decision about whether to care. In fact, most people are not even aware of the question, let alone have the knowledge, let alone caring, let alone making a choice.
• citizenpaul 10mo ago
  > Chinese owner .... inside people's homes They made the devices. I would say its fair to assume they already had access to the data if they needed it. Other than the fact they legally own it now I don't think this makes much difference from before. Why are you concerned about china having access to this data anyway? I'm far more concerned about how much access the US gov has to this type of data. They can easily use it against someone in the country they control if they want.
• knicholes 10mo ago
  Sounds to me like we need to figure out how to flash our own custom firmware or do some fun DNS tricks to keep our data to ourselves.
• deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
• reaperducer 10mo ago
  If they're taken offline, they stop working. I think this is a bit of hyperbole. I haven't had my Roomba hooked up to the internet in at least four years. It works fine. The only thing is that I have to start it by pushing the button on top, instead of using a phone app.
• testing22321 10mo ago
  I have a Roomba. Never connected it to wifi or a phone app (no phone). Works great.
• JohnFen 10mo ago
  I've been buying Roombas since the very first one (I've had four), but stopped buying them when they started including internet connectivity and cameras. That was a total dealbreaker for me. No vacuum cleaner needs that.
• teleforce 10mo ago
  > If they're taken offline, they stop working. If people ask me what's wrong with the so called modern technology, this is it. Local-first system paradigm should be made mandatory and default, not optional [1]. [1] Local-first software You own your data, in spite of the cloud: https://www.inkandswitch.com/essay/local-first/ https://www.inkandswitch.com/essay/local-first/
• illiac786 10mo ago
  I would assume that 60-80% of these are now defunct. They break and even though they can be repaired (I did with my old one, so old it’s not even internet connected) people just don’t.