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Comment by huytersd | Hacker News Reader

Automated lawn mowing is relatively mature at this point and works well, assuming you have a relatively flat lawn.

A one time purchase price of 20k would be acceptable. $20-30k per year is ridiculous. For that price you can hire a person to come and clean your toilet for 5 hours a day, every single day.

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So... I have a gardener. He works two days a week doing all kinds of stuff.

The mowing itself (and trimming) takes 5% of his time, or even less.

Funny how people enjoy automating the part that you easily could do yourself without a massive time impact.

It depends. My backyard lawn is about 2 acres in size. It takes me 1.5 hours to manually mow it with a small 21 inch powered push mower. I just let the auto mower do its thing continuously and it charges itself. Costs almost nothing since I sharpen the blades about once a month myself. It’s also nice because the grass is always trimmed. You don’t have to go through the let it get tall and the landscaper mows it down every two weeks cycle.

What kind of auto mower?

Husqvarna

Oh yeah, I my lawn isn't that large. But I try to have less lawn and more plants and interesting flora. I also feel that is better for the environment somehow, although <citation needed>.

says the guy paying someone else to do it

You created an account on HN just to say that?

That's part of why tech products disappoint. The MO is to reduce a complex problem to a simple base case (our robot can vacuum an entire house provided you have no stairs or furniture), half ass solving the complexities, and market your product as if they don't matter.

I'll continue doing stuff myself or paying humans. My time is too valuable to waste on empty promises that tech will save me time.

I own a hotel. 20k per year robot that cleans bathroom will save me 20k.

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