[dmantis]

For me it's so weird nobody makes a thing you can trust. I would happily overpay 3-4x for the good vacuum without the cloud and the need to do some hacking with valetudo, with an official service and support for the device. Yet nobody is willing to take the money. They'd rather go bankrupt..

[moooo99]

> I would happily overpay 3-4x for the good vacuum without the cloud and the need to do some hacking with valetudo, with an official service and support for the device. Yet nobody is willing to take the money. They'd rather go bankrupt..

I feel like you are over estimating market demand based on your own preferences. Been there, done that. Most techies under estimate how little normal folks care about privacy, cybersecurity and stuff like that.

The market for privacy focused vacuum robots (at a significant premium) is probably not even going to pay for the injection mould tooling

[Xelbair]

>Most techies under estimate how little normal folks care about privacy, cybersecurity and stuff like that.

No, we just think that this security nightmare should be regulated, and companies should be forced to keep sane security standards and not abuse data gathered from users.. and there's this weird idea of owning thing you were sold, i know - its' a bit weird.

Just like when you go buy some food you don't have to think if it is safe to eat.

[imiric]

Unfortunately, companies prioritize profits over everything else, and sometimes that is at the expense of what should be the morally right thing to do. They can only be pursuaded against this by regulation, which they're also in a position to influence at their will. To say nothing about the usual government incompetence and tech illiteracy, which is another factor for technology products specifically.

And then you add the point GP was making, which is that regulation only happens when citizens demand it, and it is politically favorable. The extremely low percentage of the market that demands privacy and security, coupled with everything else, means that these things rarely if ever happen.

[NewsaHackO]

>No, we just think that this security nightmare should be regulated, and companies should be forced to keep sane security standards and not abuse data gathered from users.

But that is orthogonal to the goals of many governments, as I'm sure they have access to most of them either by official or unofficial channels/backdoors.

[closewith]

> Most techies under estimate how little normal folks care about privacy, cybersecurity and stuff like that.

Most techies vastly overestimate how much money most people have available for nice-to-haves like privacy, cybersecurity and stuff like that.

[haritha-j]

this. Thank goodness i'm a broke phd student.

[raxxorraxor]

Maybe I should buy some broke phd students for vacuuming then. Perhaps take their phones while they work, so that they aren't connected to the cloud.

[xienze]

> Most techies under estimate how little normal folks care about privacy, cybersecurity and stuff like that.

Exactly. Everyone I’ve talked to about my own robot vacuum (which is using Valetudo, so not phoning home to China) just kind of shrugs and says “who cares if audio and video inside my house are being piped to China, I don’t do anything interesting, what use would they have for it?” This also applies to other consumer electronics that do similar things.

They just can’t conceptualize that _in aggregate_ all this mundane information can be wielded by bad actors for their own gains. Which is funny, because they certainly have strong opinions about how Facebook et al are being used to push misinformation.

[bee_rider]

Yeah. The real options are usually: a Chinese device from a company that seems nebulously a little close to their government, imported (so, limited need to follow local safety or privacy regulation); or, a US product from a company with explicit connections to the Google/Facebook/Amazon network, and with a warranty that lasts a whole month (as long as you don’t open the battery hatch).

I don’t know if people would pay 3X for something that actually works in their interest, probably not, but it isn’t as if such a product has been tried in the last ~50 years.

[Workaccount2]

>I would happily overpay 3-4x for the good vacuum without the cloud a

Those wall-to-wall advertising packed smart TVs that cost $350 for a 65" outsell the $1500 65" 10 to 1.

People love low prices. Their concerns about privacy are a distant second or even third (after aesthetics).

[lotsofpulp]

> Yet nobody is willing to take the money.

It’s weird that you have identified this business opportunity with such confidence, but you are also unwilling to take the money.

[dmantis]

As it is so easy to start a mass production of vacuum cleaners, yes. Give me a week in my garage. TBH I have zero idea where I should go to start a business of such scale even if I have a 100% zero-risk shot which is never the case. Not everybody has an MBA, some of us just code stuff.

[sandworm101]

Mine doesnt need cloud or internet. AIRROBO P20