With some tech savvy, you can disconnect your robot vacuum from the cloud

Or just do what I do -- only buy robot vacuums that don't need a cloud connection to begin with.

I was thinking of getting a robot vacuum and about privacy and thinking I would cover it with a heavy box when not in use but really that's something I would have to remember to do / keep doing and it really undoes the convenience of a vacuum that does what I want automatically.

Ultimately unless the device by design respects my privacy (both willfully and just with security) ... I feel like hacking it isn't a real long term solution.

Still, the story seems like a cool hack for its own sake.

Unbelievable we have to have this conversation. Just let the person set the schedule when they're on the same WiFi network. Discover each other use mDNS or bluetooth. Not hard people.

I installed Valetudo on my Dreame robot vacuum. The process was pretty smooth, not OTA unfortunately, had to use some USB adapter and hook it up to the debug port on the vacuum.

Vacuum-jacking