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Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

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Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#611

Post by mig39 »

delichon wrote: post #600
femiagbabiaka wrote: post #591

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why nobody has tried to beat the Chinese companies at their own game. The whole schtick is: take a product that people like, vertically integrate and drive down costs. This is like the purest form of capitalism.

E.g. Tesla: * built a lithium refinery * produces its own battery cells * makes its own motors and drivetrains * makes its own car seats * owns and operates a fast-charging network * sells direct, bypassing dealerships * offers insurance integrated with vehicle data * develops its own autopilot AI

At this point, isn't Tesla another example of Chinese companies taking a product and making a better, cheaper version?

A lot of Chinese EVs are much better and cheaper than the Cybertruck.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#612

Post by coldpie »

rjp0008 wrote: post #598
coldpie wrote: post #576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also would have preferred to keep it in the country, but the fact is that Amazon does more harm and is a larger threat to Americans and your children than China is. Hence "Of those two choices... I pick China." I would love for there to have been more than those two options, but this is where we ended up after decades of not enforcing anti-trust law, thanks in no small part to Amazon.

I would definitely argue the opposite, that China is the larger threat. They want control of Taiwan and are building way more capable hardware than Russia has.

Sounds bad man.

Meanwhile, Amazon and its executives are union-busting to keep worker rights minimal, running a nation-wide law enforcement surveillance network, supporting Republican politicians and all of their anti-American policies and practices, lobbying to oppose anti-trust enforcement to keep hold of their illegal market positions and keep our economy weak, and they own one of the nation's largest newspapers specifically so they can control the narrative over their own actions. And that's all happening right here, in the US, influencing our laws and our media, right now today, not in some theoretical future.

So yeah in terms of entities that are actually doing real harm to Americans, Amazon beats China no question.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#613

Post by zugi »

cs702 wrote: post #254

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 have cameras, can move around on their own, and are connected to the Internet. If they're taken offline, they stop working. Many have microphones too. The new Chinese owner will get control of a network of tens of millions Internet-connected, autonomously mobil…

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.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#614

Post by margalabargala »

mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #535
jasonkester wrote: post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Isn't that basically the reason patents exist? If you're really the first, you should be able to get about a 20 year head start.

> If you're really the first, you should be able to get about a 20 year head start.

That's an opinion, and not one I agree with.

If you and your competitor are racing to develop a thing, whoever wins by a couple months shouldn't get a monopoly for decades.

Most of the time when things get patented, it's strictly worse for innovation in that space until the patents expire. 3d printing is a great example.

It's asinine to think you can outsource manufacturing of whatever object to some other company in another country, but that no one on the planet can make the same thing because "the idea is yours".

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#616

Post by knowitnone3 »

ryandrake wrote: post #545
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You already know this Ryan https://blog.avast.com/what-do-security-cameras-know-about-y... Data brokers love this data, dont play with me I know you better than that https://www.cloaked.com/post/the-data-broker-economy-will-hi...

I don't like this kind of surveillance any more than anyone else on HN, but we get this here all the time. People make these posts that X leads to Y and jump way over the details. Sometimes X does lead to Y. Other times, it's the Underpants Gnomes: There's a big "???" step between X and Y that people don't like to take the time to articulate. This is how conspiracy theories take hold--you ignore the ??? and just assu…

how hard is this to understand. you have a roving camera/microphone in your house and you think that is OK?

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#617

Post by knowitnone3 »

georgeecollins wrote: post #304
cs702 wrote: post #254

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 have cameras, can move around on their own, and are connected to the Internet. If they're taken offline, they stop working. Many have microphones too. The new Chinese owner will get control of a network of tens of millions Internet-connected, autonomously mobil…

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?

device on your network is not concerning to you? I'm not going to explain it to you only because I'd like to see the outcome.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#618

Post by williamdclt »

zugi wrote: post #613
cs702 wrote: post #254

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 have cameras, can move around on their own, and are connected to the Internet. If they're taken offline, they stop working. Many have microphones too. The new Chinese owner will get control of a network of tens of millions Internet-connected, autonomously mobil…

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 pr…

> 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.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#619

Post by tootie »

furyg3 wrote: post #136

Are there any good robo-vacuum cleaners that will still clean your floor if the internet is down? I've had my Miele vacuum cleaner for 15 years now, and I bought it second hand. I can still buy bags and filters for it, and when the floor roller piece broke (something heavy fell on it) I was able to buy a replacement one for cheap. I see no reason why it can't go another 10 years. It feels like a very low probability…

I have eufy 11s. It does a braindead bump-and-run algorithm that uses no computer vision and does not map your room. It's a bit slower, but still does a solid job. Cheap too.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#620

Post by wafflemaker »

prmoustache wrote: post #421
cs702 wrote: post #254

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 have cameras, can move around on their own, and are connected to the Internet. If they're taken offline, they stop working. Many have microphones too. The new Chinese owner will get control of a network of tens of millions Internet-connected, autonomously mobil…

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…

>Dusting all the furnitures + objects on top of them

With furnishing optimized for dust generation (less materials where the dust-shitting microbes live, like material curtains) and daily Roomba runs (plus eventual air filter running in the background) there is very little to dust off of surfaces. If there's little dust on the floor, it doesn't get kicked up and doesn't land on things. Ergo - Roomba makes dusting easier.

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