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Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

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Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#621

Post by CamperBob2 »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #607
CamperBob2 wrote: post #577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coasting on their patents is exactly why iRobot went bankrupt. If they had a proper incentive to continue innovating, they might be around today. Instead, the patent system incentivized them to erect a tollgate and snooze away in the booth next to it.

US companies can’t beat Chinese companies completely subsidized by their national government.

Except our companies do just that, all the time. Who is the Chinese Intel? The Chinese Microsoft? The Chinese Boeing? The Chinese NVIDIA?

People forget that the US is still the #2 manufacturer in the world, and that's (apparently) without halfway trying.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#622

Post by krosaen »

Anyone have experience with https://valetudo.cloud?

Seems like could be a good solution to using best rated (chinese) vacuum's while mitigating privacy concerns.

I am bummed that US robovacs aren't that competitive. Rooting for Matic, though currently don't seem to be as good as Dreame / roborocks [1] (can't go under furniture, apparently take longer to clean same area, tout "vision only" as a feature while charging more - you would think having fewer sensors / no lidar would bring costs down).

[1] https://vacuumwars.com/matic-robot-vacuum-review/

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#623

Post by mvdtnz »

crazygringo wrote: post #452
prmoustache wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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. Hard disagree, because vacuuming is something you often need to do daily . Spending 10 min/day becomes over an hour a week. That's a significant chunk. If you have smooth floors, running a Roomba kind of becomes a no-brainer. On the other hand, I only need to du…

Vacuuming daily is insane behaviour.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#624

Post by sivanmz »

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

Also relied on government subsidies until recently.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#625

Post by jijijijij »

kqr wrote: post #289
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…

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!

Well, I hope you learned your lesson and now won't blindly trust any corporation again, but rather demand open code and full control over the device you bought. Especially if it is a moving camera in your home...

At least in the US, the Chinese government realistically should have been the least of your worries. What's China gonna do, if they caught you reading the Quran, or snorting crack? They could livestream your marriage proposal in WeChat to a billion people and you wouldn't ever notice. Meanwhile Snowden revealed, covertly watching random people through webcams is a leisure activity at the NSA, a national institution incidentally sharing jurisdiction with you. And evidently, your wife's death in a car accident may become a trending video at Tesla headquarters, while they deny your claims for a lack of such evidence.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#626

Post by dontlikeyoueith »

SoftTalker wrote: post #578
anymouse123456 wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Br…

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 actuall…

I have a Miele canister vacuum. I love it.

My wife bought the Dyson garbage anyway because she can't ignore her instagram feed.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#627

Post by asveikau »

In home automation circles, Roomba is generally regarded as worse than other brands.

Anyone know which brands work when you completely block internet access? I think Roborock is one of the better regarded robot vacuums, but I think I read that they shut down when they can't phone home.. maybe Dreame?

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#629

Post by hectdev »

mvdtnz wrote: post #623
crazygringo wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Hard disagree, because vacuuming is something you often need to do daily . Spending 10 min/day becomes over an hour a week. That's a significant chunk. If you have smooth floors, running a Roomba kind of becomes a no-brainer. On the other hand, I only need to du…

Vacuuming daily is insane behaviour.

My dog that sheds a lot says otherwise

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#630

Post by kqr »

margalabargala wrote: post #614
mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Most of the time when things get patented, it's strictly worse for innovation in that space until the patents expire.

What happens at expiration is an important and intended feature of patents. They trade a legally guaranteed headstart against the requirement of publishing your methods for your competitors to learn from.

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