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by jdlshore 811 days ago
High end robot vacuums have been innovating (including Roomba), with self-emptying bins and ML-based obstacle avoidance for things like cords and pet waste. This requires a camera, so any high end robot vacuum is going to have one. For me, those features are worth it.

The other big area of innovation is combo-vacuum+mop, including automatic water replacement and cleaning, but those features don’t seem to be fully ready for prime time yet. Roomba is behind the curve on this one.
1 comments
kccqzy 811 days ago
ML-based obstacle avoidance does not require a camera. The latest products consciously avoid cameras to assuage fears that the images captured could be sent to the cloud.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/12/19/1065306/roomba-i...

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jdlshore 810 days ago
It may not require a camera, but in practice I think most or all units use them. It’s definitely not a Roomba-specific issue.

I’m familiar with the “woman on a toilet” story and I think it’s overblown. It was a prototype unit used for training the ML model, not a consumer unit.

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