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This! I was a very early customer of Roomba and loved them when they came out. I had pets at the time, and the machine would consistently fail in about 14 mont

This! I was a very early customer of Roomba and loved them when they came out. I had pets at the time, and the machine would consistently fail in about 14 months. I finally figured out that I needed to buy them from Costco, so that I could get them replaced. Rather than taking their lead and improving the product, they just sat there with the exact same product for like 10+ years. It was outrageous. I guess Rodney Brooks got busy with other interests, and whomever ran things didn't realize that Tim Ferris is full of shit. It was extremely frustrating to watch these assholes destroy the company right from the outset. All they needed to do, was to slowly walk forward and iterate with improvements. The only surprise in this news is that it took SO LONG for them to dismantle the company. I do not think it's appropriate for an organization holding this much deeply personal data can be sold to any foreign entity.

horsawlarway 10mo ago
This is my take: If the EU was concerned enough about Amazon taking them over in early 2024 to block the deal, I'm still concerned about a foreign owner in 2026...
lumost 10mo ago
I remember the "upgrade for pets" option, which... didn't work. After buying the maxed out version I realized that the product simply had a long, long way to go - but iRobot did nothing with it other than launch new segments like "upgrade for vision based mapping" etc.
foobarian 10mo ago
The promise didn't pan out for us. You have to prepare and cordon off the floor, and the unit gets stuck half the time. Somehow it's exactly the right height to get wedged under furniture.
- rpcope1 10mo ago
  My wife got one to try and automate away the vacuuming. We went through the same thing, and it still needs to be babysit anyways. For the sheer amount of time and frustration of basically all robot vacuums, it has been easier to just get a nice Kenmore upright bagged vacuum and do it yourself anyways (and the results are basically always way nicer).
  - foobarian 10mo ago
    I'm pretty optimistic about biped robots for this. Either you buy or lease one and a cleaning service teleoperates it, or subscribe to a cleaning service that drops it off and teleoperates for a few hours a week. Suppose it could even walk itself to the next customer if close enough.
    - recursive 10mo ago
      If a wheeled low-profile vacuum that stays in a room is too hard to deliver, surely we can fix it by making it walk around and grasp a vacuum cleaner and walk between houses.
  - sersi 10mo ago
    We've had the Chinese dreame with valetudo (so fully disconnected from the cloud), it works honestly very well. Doesn't get stuck, avoids my son's toys rather effectively and just works. I run it when we leave home. There's honestly no reason why roomba didn't make something equivalent to the dreame, they could have competed with the Chinese manufacturers on feature and by allowing users to easily disconnect from the cloud. They didn't because the company was completely mismanaged and their products barely evolved.
intrasight 10mo ago
Rodney Brooks is first and foremost a scientist. I doubt that he had a hand in the operations and planning at Roomba.
wombatpm 10mo ago
There was a video of a iRobot store employee sweeping up at closing time. I’m not surprised they are bankrupt.
chipotle_coyote 10mo ago
Is there a connection between Tim Ferriss and Roomba, or is this just a joke about Brooks having a 4-hour workweek?
- daveguy 10mo ago
  They were saying that whoever was running things at Roomba must have been duped by the 4 hour work week bs because nothing was getting done. Specifically whoever took over operations, planning, and product improvements from Brooks.
  - anymouse123456 10mo ago
    Couldn't have said it better!
jasonkester 10mo ago
Rather than taking their lead and improving the product, they just sat there with the exact same product for like 10+ years. It was outrageous. I think that this is actually the only viable strategy for a hardware product company in the current world. As soon as your product is successful, it will be cloned by dozens of Chinese companies and dumped on the market everywhere. Any update you make from there on out will immediately be folded into all those products selling for 10% what you do. In a couple years, they'll all be better than yours, and still way cheaper. So you have to do the Roomba thing or the GoPro thing, where you iterate behind the scenes until your thing is amazing, release it with a big Hollywood launch, get it turned into the noun and verb for your product category and the action that it does. But then you have to do what those companies didn't do: Fire everybody and rake in as much cash as possible before the inevitable flood of clones drowns you. I have a few really good hardware ideas, but I don't believe I could ever market them fast enough and far enough to make it worth spending the R&D to make them happen.
- _aavaa_ 10mo ago
  Idk if I’d hold GoPro as an example of a company launching amazing things anymore…
  - ses1984 10mo ago
    That's the point.
- ragazzina 10mo ago
  >I have a few really good hardware ideas, but I don't believe I could ever market them fast enough and far enough to make it worth spending the R&D to make them happen. Then make a nice blog post, translate it to Chinese (hell, I'll pay a professional translator for you) and post it on the internet so that someone in Shenzen can try it.
  - thenthenthen 10mo ago
    Just post your ideas to crowdsource websites and wait for the aliexpress clone to appear, zero r&d costs, zero dev and manufacturing/qa! That said, Taobao and Ali are so full of bizarre products (transparent rubber domes to be able to type with 5cm long nail extensions), it will be a challenge to stand out
SoftTalker 10mo ago
They could improve the design and get people to replace their machines with the improved ones, repeat and repeat. Or they could sell the broken design and people would just buy more as they broke. They don't care if Costco was eating the cost with their in-house warranty. The fundamental problem though is the same with all "household gadget" products. They look cool, and appear to solve a problem, but that is actually all a perception based on novelty. They actually don't work very well, they are not built very well, and they don't last very long. There's no point in improving them because the concept is fundamentally something people don't need in the first place. Just buy a good canister vacuum and you're set for a decade or more. It will cost more than the latest gadget from Shark or Dyson or iRobot but it won't frustrate you and it will just reliably do what it is supposed to do without uploading anything to an IP address.
- dontlikeyoueith 10mo ago
  I have a Miele canister vacuum. I love it. My wife bought the Dyson garbage anyway because she can't ignore her instagram feed.
  - seanmcdirmid 10mo ago
    I don't understand how people deal with cords anymore, and basically I've stopped thinking about those for more than a decade now.
    - brendoelfrendo 10mo ago
      I'm also a Miele canister vacuum owner, and everywhere in my house where I vacuum is within range of a wall outlet. When I'm done, the cord retracts into the vacuum so I don't need to wind it or stow it myself. I guess, for me, that takes care of the issue to a great enough extent that I just never saw an advantage that justified the expense?
      - seanmcdirmid 10mo ago
        If you are ok with it, I think that's fine. Cordless to me is a huge productivity boost since I can just pick it up and vacuum whenever. I think most people see it as a huge win, but I haven't conducted a formal poll or anything. Having a robot do everything is just another step in the convenience direction. It is great if you have expensive floors that you want to maintain on a daily or bi-daily basis.
sizzle 10mo ago
Can you explain the Tim Ferris jab, what’s the story there?

horsawlarway 10mo ago

This is my take: If the EU was concerned enough about Amazon taking them over in early 2024 to block the deal, I'm still concerned about a foreign owner in 2026...

lumost 10mo ago

I remember the "upgrade for pets" option, which... didn't work. After buying the maxed out version I realized that the product simply had a long, long way to go - but iRobot did nothing with it other than launch new segments like "upgrade for vision based mapping" etc.

foobarian 10mo ago

The promise didn't pan out for us. You have to prepare and cordon off the floor, and the unit gets stuck half the time. Somehow it's exactly the right height to get wedged under furniture.

rpcope1 10mo ago
My wife got one to try and automate away the vacuuming. We went through the same thing, and it still needs to be babysit anyways. For the sheer amount of time and frustration of basically all robot vacuums, it has been easier to just get a nice Kenmore upright bagged vacuum and do it yourself anyways (and the results are basically always way nicer).
- foobarian 10mo ago
  I'm pretty optimistic about biped robots for this. Either you buy or lease one and a cleaning service teleoperates it, or subscribe to a cleaning service that drops it off and teleoperates for a few hours a week. Suppose it could even walk itself to the next customer if close enough.
  - recursive 10mo ago
    If a wheeled low-profile vacuum that stays in a room is too hard to deliver, surely we can fix it by making it walk around and grasp a vacuum cleaner and walk between houses.
- sersi 10mo ago
  We've had the Chinese dreame with valetudo (so fully disconnected from the cloud), it works honestly very well. Doesn't get stuck, avoids my son's toys rather effectively and just works. I run it when we leave home. There's honestly no reason why roomba didn't make something equivalent to the dreame, they could have competed with the Chinese manufacturers on feature and by allowing users to easily disconnect from the cloud. They didn't because the company was completely mismanaged and their products barely evolved.

intrasight 10mo ago

Rodney Brooks is first and foremost a scientist. I doubt that he had a hand in the operations and planning at Roomba.

wombatpm 10mo ago

There was a video of a iRobot store employee sweeping up at closing time. I’m not surprised they are bankrupt.

chipotle_coyote 10mo ago

Is there a connection between Tim Ferriss and Roomba, or is this just a joke about Brooks having a 4-hour workweek?

daveguy 10mo ago
They were saying that whoever was running things at Roomba must have been duped by the 4 hour work week bs because nothing was getting done. Specifically whoever took over operations, planning, and product improvements from Brooks.
- anymouse123456 10mo ago
  Couldn't have said it better!

jasonkester 10mo ago

Rather than taking their lead and improving the product, they just sat there with the exact same product for like 10+ years. It was outrageous. I think that this is actually the only viable strategy for a hardware product company in the current world. As soon as your product is successful, it will be cloned by dozens of Chinese companies and dumped on the market everywhere. Any update you make from there on out will immediately be folded into all those products selling for 10% what you do. In a couple years, they'll all be better than yours, and still way cheaper. So you have to do the Roomba thing or the GoPro thing, where you iterate behind the scenes until your thing is amazing, release it with a big Hollywood launch, get it turned into the noun and verb for your product category and the action that it does. But then you have to do what those companies didn't do: Fire everybody and rake in as much cash as possible before the inevitable flood of clones drowns you. I have a few really good hardware ideas, but I don't believe I could ever market them fast enough and far enough to make it worth spending the R&D to make them happen.

_aavaa_ 10mo ago
Idk if I’d hold GoPro as an example of a company launching amazing things anymore…
- ses1984 10mo ago
  That's the point.
ragazzina 10mo ago
>I have a few really good hardware ideas, but I don't believe I could ever market them fast enough and far enough to make it worth spending the R&D to make them happen. Then make a nice blog post, translate it to Chinese (hell, I'll pay a professional translator for you) and post it on the internet so that someone in Shenzen can try it.
- thenthenthen 10mo ago
  Just post your ideas to crowdsource websites and wait for the aliexpress clone to appear, zero r&d costs, zero dev and manufacturing/qa! That said, Taobao and Ali are so full of bizarre products (transparent rubber domes to be able to type with 5cm long nail extensions), it will be a challenge to stand out

SoftTalker 10mo ago

They could improve the design and get people to replace their machines with the improved ones, repeat and repeat. Or they could sell the broken design and people would just buy more as they broke. They don't care if Costco was eating the cost with their in-house warranty. The fundamental problem though is the same with all "household gadget" products. They look cool, and appear to solve a problem, but that is actually all a perception based on novelty. They actually don't work very well, they are not built very well, and they don't last very long. There's no point in improving them because the concept is fundamentally something people don't need in the first place. Just buy a good canister vacuum and you're set for a decade or more. It will cost more than the latest gadget from Shark or Dyson or iRobot but it won't frustrate you and it will just reliably do what it is supposed to do without uploading anything to an IP address.

dontlikeyoueith 10mo ago
I have a Miele canister vacuum. I love it. My wife bought the Dyson garbage anyway because she can't ignore her instagram feed.
- seanmcdirmid 10mo ago
  I don't understand how people deal with cords anymore, and basically I've stopped thinking about those for more than a decade now.
  - brendoelfrendo 10mo ago
    I'm also a Miele canister vacuum owner, and everywhere in my house where I vacuum is within range of a wall outlet. When I'm done, the cord retracts into the vacuum so I don't need to wind it or stow it myself. I guess, for me, that takes care of the issue to a great enough extent that I just never saw an advantage that justified the expense?
    - seanmcdirmid 10mo ago
      If you are ok with it, I think that's fine. Cordless to me is a huge productivity boost since I can just pick it up and vacuum whenever. I think most people see it as a huge win, but I haven't conducted a formal poll or anything. Having a robot do everything is just another step in the convenience direction. It is great if you have expensive floors that you want to maintain on a daily or bi-daily basis.

sizzle 10mo ago

Can you explain the Tim Ferris jab, what’s the story there?