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Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

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Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#811

Post by hnben »

cyp0633 wrote: post #550
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…

US-designed iPhones have at least 2 cameras, some microphones, and biometric sensors. From this point, everyone outside the US should stop using iPhones to prevent surveillance from the American empire. From another angle, the iPhones are primarily made in China AND India via third-party factories, so no one should ever use iPhones any more. You have the right to concern about privacy, but that's not how it works.

> From this point, everyone outside the US should stop using iPhones to prevent surveillance from the American empire.

yes.

> From another angle, the iPhones are primarily made in China AND India via third-party factories, so no one should ever use iPhones any more.

also yes.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#812

Post by ch4s3 »

azemetre wrote: post #789
ch4s3 wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is Chinese market consolidation a healthier market outcome here?

It's not US government's job to help bad business leaders, they should do a better job of running their companies than using them as a slush fund. This company would have probably flourished if it had workplace democracy but instead it was a centrally planned dictatorship and failed. Maybe that is the real lesson here.

It’s not the government’s job to punish them either, and in this case Warren destroyed the jobs of many of her constituents.

Ahh yes workplace democracy, famously tenable for high tech companies.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#813

Post by azemetre »

ch4s3 wrote: post #812
azemetre wrote: post #789

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not US government's job to help bad business leaders, they should do a better job of running their companies than using them as a slush fund. This company would have probably flourished if it had workplace democracy but instead it was a centrally planned dictatorship and failed. Maybe that is the real lesson here.

It’s not the government’s job to punish them either, and in this case Warren destroyed the jobs of many of her constituents. Ahh yes workplace democracy, famously tenable for high tech companies.

It is absolutely the the role of government to regulate commerce and establish competitive markets (note the lack of the word free here).

I also have zero faith in tech leadership as they have been the major driver of mass misery across humanity. Not only should they be stripped of their positions in their companies, but leadership should be directly given to the workers.

It's the only way to right to the wrong. If it's good enough for executives (voting for other executives, pay packages, and company direction), it's also good enough for workers.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#815

Post by parineum »

patrickk wrote: post #97
parineum wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Find a vacuum that supports valetudo[1] and a brush/roller like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F54134JY [1] https://valetudo.cloud/pages/general/supported-robots.html

Word to the wise: installing Valetudo can be a nerve wracking task even for the tech savvy. On my model, a Dreame L10s Ultra (there’s about three similarly named models and only this exact one is valetudo compatible, and isn’t sold any more) you are strongly recommended to use a custom pcb and to use Debian to run the commands, and not in a VM. If something goes wrong you can permanently brick your device. I ran into…

I can repeat that experience but didn't take me quite as long as I had time to walk through it.

However, just this last update, they added support for a new set of vacuums, Midea/Eureka that don't require that PCB.

https://github.com/Hypfer/Valetudo/releases/tag/2025.12.0

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#816

Post by BeFlatXIII »

osiris970 wrote: post #636
BeFlatXIII wrote: post #537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US government is more likely to be a threat to my personal freedom than the Chinese.

The emergence of a totalitarian state compared to a liberal democracy (for all it's faults and current state due to voters making bad choices) is so much worse for everyone in the world. Us included

Please point to where the Chinese will have a direct negative impact to my life.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#817

Post by BigTTYGothGF »

kqr wrote: post #553
BigTTYGothGF wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think they want to see the inside of your house, and what do you think they'd be able to do with the information?

Let's just say a family member has a very important and somewhat secretive job. The most classified meetings don't happen in our home, of course, but for a state adversary even small clues can be what's needed. (So why get a roving camera in the first place? We judged that one from a historically and currently aligned state would be safe enough, even though it's not ideal.)

Why are you having any kind of classified meeting outside a SCIF?

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#818

Post by array_key_first »

dboreham wrote: post #401
array_key_first wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how you can sell 40 million units and go bankrupt.

Perhaps because the 40 million units rely on an expensive back-end service that isn't covered by monthly fees to users?

Probably was, but that's just stupid business decisions.

Your pricing model should reflect your real-world costs. If it doesn't, then update your pricing model.

If consumers can't do the new pricing model, then your real-world costs are probably out of wack. Which they would be in this case - there's no reason a vaccum should require expensive backend services.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#819

Post by fredfilz »

jmyeet wrote: post #399
kqr wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

At this point I trust the Chinese government way more than almost every US tech giant. I don't own a "smart" speaker. I've never liked the idea of having an always-on cloud-connected microphone in my house. Like, it's just asking for trouble. I don't necessarily assign malicious intent here. It's just a recipe for disaster. But if you made me choose between an Amazon or Meta "smart" speaker and a Huawei speaker, I'm…

Lol agreed. Btw if you're into sensor, keen to chat. I'm the founder of crewline.ai, just raised our seed and are bringing on a couple key founding engineering hires.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#820

Post by fredfilz »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #478
kqr wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

Genuine non snarky question: Did you weigh data collection, persistence and transferability before purchase and then conclude that the risk/benefit was there?

Lol was thinking the same. Btw if you're into sensors, keen to chat. I'm the founder of crewline.ai, just raised our seed and are bringing on a couple key founding engineering hires.
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