The Roomba lawnmower is finally happening | Hacker News Reader

The Roomba lawnmower is finally happening

arstechnica.com

16 pointsIsamu12 comments

From what I can tell, robotic lawnmowers currently more common in Europe than in the US. I don't think I've ever seen one in the US, but in Norway they seemed to be everywhere. Is there a reason for this disparity?

So common that they are known to be a danger to wildlife (here's an article from US magazine wired that even says they are unknown in the US: https://www.wired.com/story/robot-lawnmowers-are-killing-hed... )

I don't know why they are uncommon here as lawns are just as popular as they are in other countries.

I would guess our lawn sizes are larger on average. You have cities where there are no lawns, suburbs where they would have a use, and a lot of rural areas where the lawns are simply too large. It takes me 2 hours to mow my lawn using a riding lawnmower.

multi acre yards are not uncommon in France, Germany and Australia, for example.

So interesting!

Labor and capital(robotics) are substitutes. Thus in a cheap labor market (USA) anybody that would use a robot instead simply uses human landscapers.

It is quite common in the USA to see humans doing what would be automated work in First world countries.

That was my first thought, although I wasn't sure that would explain the vast numbers of Americans who mow their own lawns. Although maybe it does, if you squint a little harder? If labor prices were higher, maybe more people would choose to do more paid work instead of mowing their own lawn?

I'm not sure though --- I think it might be that Americans tend to have a different relation to their lawns than Europeans. I was surprised to read that mowing your lawn on Sunday is illegal in Norway, with a silent robotic mower being a legal workaround: https://www.newsinenglish.no/2015/07/27/conflicts-arise-over...

The USA is literally the definition of a First World country

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_World

I get what you're going for, HN loves to hate on the US.

Maybe they forgot an 'other':

> It is quite common in the USA to see humans doing what would be automated work in other First world countries.

I get what you're going for, HN loves to not give any benefit of doubt.

It takes me 10 minutes to mow my lawn, once a week.

Are these safe enough to justify use?

If you haven't watched the roombas spreading dog turds around the house on youtube I highly recommend it.

I wonder what the equivalent of that will be for the outdoors?

The safety implications worry me too. I'm surprised they don't discuss this in the article.

They've been on the market for years so if they were a real problem we'd know about it (they do run over some small wildlife; I posted a link on another thread).

This is simply one company coming late to a crowded market and hoping for some press.

When I step in dog turds outside I just wipe my shoe off in the grass.

if (dogTurdContact) { wipe() }

I'm sure this isn't nearly as much of a problem as it is indoors.

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