Another upside of LIDAR is that it isn't a camera. The robot sees a one-pixel 360 scan, which is quite enough for navigation, but doesn't have the privacy implications that come with an IoT camera device. I would not take a camera equipped vacuum even for free, and I think I'm not the only one.

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1313ed01 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

What could possibly go wrong?

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

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kolinko 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Did you ever own a any robot vacuum?

Robots without cameras have an extremely difficult time distinguishing obstacles like cables etc on the ground.

	▲	fullstop 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I have one, and specifically got one without a camera because I don't want that driving around my house. The first time it went through I made sure to stow cables and such, and I do a quick walk-through to make sure that none of the cats have barfed and that there's no obvious obstacles before I release the hypnodrone. It still saves me time, which was the reason that I bought it in the first place.
	▲	distances 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Yes, I've had an early random pattern robovac and a newer LIDAR equipped one. Both worked well enough, the LIDAR device obviously much better though. And yes, I keep the floors free of cables and clutter when it's vacuuming time. That isn't a hassle

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CorrectHorseBat 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Sadly most new models have both camera and lidar. I can see the use of a camera for avoiding things like cables and pet poo, but I don't think it's worth is especially since all the robots are controlled via the cloud