The Vergecast - Should you let a robot mow your lawn?

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

Is it time to fire the neighbor kid and hire a robot lawnmower instead? Last year I wrote that “in all but a few scenarios, robot lawnmowers still aren’t worth your money,” but there’s a new c...lass of Roombas with razor blades ready to tackle bumpy terrain and dodge crazy chickens. Realtor and smart home reviewer Brandon Doyle joins me to talk about our experiences with 2026’s newest robotic mowers and to let you know if they're finally worth all that money. Further reading: It looks like Apple’s iPhone 18 really will skip the fall launch this year Flock CEO: ‘We got this one wrong’ Cats and dogs are missing meals after a popular smart feeder went down I finally found a robot lawnmower I’d trust with my yard I put four robot lawnmowers through a brutal backyard battle — and only one person got injured A hacker ran me over with a robot lawn mower The US government just banned Roombas 5 Robot Mowers, 90 Days, 1 Winner — My 2026 Picks (and One to Avoid) Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed. We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Vergecast, the flagship podcast of robot lawnmowers. I'm Jennifer Patterson-Tooey, the Verge's senior smart home reviewer. It's officially the dog days of summer. And if you've been spending the last few weeks watching your grass grow and wondering whether it's worth shelling out a few thousand dollars for a robot to cut it for you, then this is the Vergecast for you. I've been spending the last few months testing around a half a dozen of these robot lawnmowers. to see if they've gotten any better than the last time I tried when I came away hot, sweaty, frustrated and with a few scars.
Starting point is 00:00:40 My husband's not mine. Today I'm going to be joined by Brandon Doyle, a smart home reviewer, podcaster, real estate agent and columnist for Realtor magazine, who has been going through a similar gauntlet, only with fewer scars. We're going to chat about our experiences with the latest crop of automowers to see if they're worth your money. But first, here's what's happening on the verge today. This is 90 seconds on the verge for Thursday, August 13th, 2026. We may be one iPhone short at Apple's upcoming hardware event, which usually hits around the first week of September. According to statements from Apple supplier Pegatron during an earnings call,
Starting point is 00:01:19 the base model iPhone 18 will skip the full launch and instead arrive in early 2027. That's a bummer as the entry model 17 was the best of the bunch last year. I know I gave my whole family one. Foldable stands, however, fear not. The rumoured ultra model, the foldable iPhone, appears to still be on track for fall, as is the 18 Pro line. Popular tech company, sorry, wrong company. Deeply unpopular surveillance tech company, Flock,
Starting point is 00:01:49 has announced its implementing new safeguards after officers were caught using the tech to do exactly what people feared it would be used for, stalking people. Reports of police officers abusing the tools, to stalk ex-partners and others have prompted the flock CEO to admit they got this one wrong, and roll out updates to prevent abuse of its license plate reader technology. The changes include shortening the default period it keeps data from 30 to seven days, moving closer to the limits suggested by its critics like the ACLU,
Starting point is 00:02:19 who called the moves more focused on addressing a perceived PR problem than the significant harms its products create. And finally, a service outage for a popular pet tech company, Pet Libro, left several critters without their kibble, according to user reports on Reddit. The outage prevented the company's smart pet feeders from dispensing food on schedule, despite PetLibro claiming they should still work even offline. Pet Libro says all services are now fully restored, but some pets are still reporting missing meals. You can read more on all these stories at theverge.com.
Starting point is 00:02:52 That's 90 seconds on The Verge for Thursday, August 13th. How many third-party vendors does your company use? 20, 200? Thanks to AI, someone on your team probably added three more this week. And your security lead has no idea. Traditional third-party risk management can't keep up. Vanta gives you continuous coverage across every vendor, automatically, so you actually know what's in your stack and what to do about it.
Starting point is 00:03:22 AI on, risk off. Vanta.com. support for the show comes from KPMG. In any organization, disruption is inevitable, but struggling through it doesn't have to be. The KPMG Adaptability Index is your blueprint for building capabilities to handle what comes next. It uses real data to look at how your culture, strategy, and partnerships all work together to help your business thrive. Stop reacting and start adapting. Visit dot com slash US slash adaptability to explore the adaptability index and pulse surveys today. Hey, Brandon.
Starting point is 00:04:09 Thanks so much for joining me. I can't wait to dive into our robotic lawnmower experiences because I know we've both had some interesting ones. Yeah, I'm really excited to get started. Thanks for having me. My first year testing robot lawnmowers was two years ago, and I had held off for a while because they, for many years, had a reputation of being very expensive. very fiddly, and they didn't really work well unless you had like a super expensive top of the line model.
Starting point is 00:04:38 It's like the early days of robot vacuums, right? Exactly. So would you say that's changed? Have we, have we, what does, what a robot lawnmower is able to do for us today? Yeah, you know, I think we're getting them to about 95% of what you're looking for. There's still some areas where they struggle and you're still going to be some required maintenance. in some babysitting, but it's really come a long way in the last, I would say, two years. One of the big reasons, I think, is technologies. And would you say, what's the biggest change we've seen since, say, three or four years ago to today in how these robot lawnmowers work in our yards?
Starting point is 00:05:19 Yeah, it's definitely going to be the navigation. Originally, you would have that boundary wire. Then they had RTK, which is a GPS-based system, often requiring you to put a post-end your yard, but it needed good view of the sky. And so you have to run power to that. And in some cases, also Ethernet for like the Yarbo. And so that can be kind of a challenge of where you get that positioned in your yard. And of course, most yards have trees. And GPS isn't so good with that. I know. I know. It's like seriously, people, did you not realize? It was crazy. It's like, oh, no, you need a, I spent hours in my backyard sticking these antennas. Like,
Starting point is 00:06:00 walking around holding an antenna, like, where is the signal? And I live in the south and we have oak trees everywhere. I was like, I can't, I can't do this. Yeah, it was so frustrating. And I was like, this is not something a regular user is going to want to go and spend $3,000 or $4,000 on one of these things and then have it not work because of satellites. Yeah. And we just have the one tree in our front yard, but I live in a suburban neighborhood in So, you know, the houses are 10 feet apart from each other, whatever it is. And even in the side yard, the signal would bounce and it would get slightly off. But there's not a lot of room for error here.
Starting point is 00:06:41 We can't have it mowing. My neighbor is like landscaping. That would be a bad day. And so they've definitely had advancements there. I think the best case is when we're combining technologies. So taking a page out of the robot vacuums, some of them are using LIDAR, and then also either V-SLM or just cameras in general for that object recognition. And so if it gets in an area where a signal is weak, it can rely on those other technologies,
Starting point is 00:07:10 which is nice. And then they've gotten rid of that base station requirement. A lot of the companies have switched to net RTK. Yeah, I've tried that on a couple this year, and it was definitely better. So when I first tested Mimotion, there just would not work, refuse to work in my yard and it was very frustrating and then I put it in my neighbor's yard and it worked fine so like this is you know it's it's a real- Apparently you got to cut down your trees that's the solution. They don't let us do that here and yeah it was very frustrating and then this time they sent me
Starting point is 00:07:43 the their model for this year and they I think right when the three all-wheel drive. There we go and then right when I got it they launched this new I navvy I think they call it but it's net RTK now this is the key I would say. to one of the reasons robot lawnmowers have got better. Can you explain a little bit what NetRTK is versus the RTK GPS positioning that most of them were using prior? Yeah, so essentially instead of relying on an antenna that you put in your yard, it connects to one that is nearby, and they're regionally located. There is a subscription cost associated with them. They include it for, I think, three years or something.
Starting point is 00:08:26 but that just is a sign of times to come. Like, okay, it's free now. And it kind of reminds me of like the early video doorbells or AI cameras where we have some of these features or it's like, okay, well, that's really nice to have and that I want that. But then down the line, okay, the model is changed. And so you're reliant on that.
Starting point is 00:08:48 However, I will say the shelf life of some of these robots isn't actually that long. And so at some point we're going to be replacing them anyways. Yeah, I think subscriptions and longevity are definitely two areas to be concerned about when you're investing in a device like this. I mean, they're out in the elements and they're doing hard work and a long time. Like, they're constantly going. It's not like your push mower that you maybe take out once a week or once a month. Just to keep on the navigation real quick, you mentioned combining these technologies.
Starting point is 00:09:21 I'd notice that this time around that a lot of these mowers will now do. all of them. Do you think that's a good solution or is there one in there that's just better than the rest? Yeah, I'm a big fan of LIDAR. Obviously, if your yard is too big, you know, on a golf course, LIDAR is not going to work because it can't go that far. It relies on seeing things. That would be my go to. The net RTC is great. I do have concerns about subscription costs in the future. Obviously, as reviewers, you know, they're including that for us, but we got to think about the consumer and like would I go out and pay my hard-earned money for this and knowing that I might have that attached? And then I like the cameras for object avoidance. I think it does a really good job. It
Starting point is 00:10:07 didn't kill any of my puppies. I still have all my toes. So I would say that it's been successful. Yeah, I have a flock of chickens in my backyard. You know, we're talking like at least a dozen. And it's really fun to watch it kind of dodge them and go around them. And the chicken's kind of like, face it down. Oh yeah. Our dogs just grew up with robots. So like I have video of them riding a Roomba when they were first born. They just don't even move for any of them anymore. They're just like, no, you go around me. This is my house. Even outside with the lawnmowers. Do they ride the lawnmowers though? Because that would be a video I would watch. That would be fun, but I haven't. We'll have to try. I'll have to see if they'll go up there.
Starting point is 00:10:51 But yeah, when they were little, they would go up on the robot vacuum. And that was a lot of fun. Now they're way too big. Well, and that's the other thing about these devices is these are not small lawnmowers. I mean, these are big hulking things that you have to find space for. And for some reason, I found myself carrying them a lot. I don't know why. I mean, they don't.
Starting point is 00:11:13 Yeah, because they get stuck. They get stuck. We got to babysit them. You really do. That was my biggest frustration with these. when I first started testing them in 2024 was I was picking them up because they were like they dug themselves a hole in the sand in my backyard. I live in the south. I live near the coast.
Starting point is 00:11:30 My soil is not designed for robot lawnmowers. In fact, I spoke before I started all my testing last year, I spoke with Huskavana, who is the company that originally developed the first robot lawnmower. And they said, yeah, basically the original robots weren't really designed for American yards. They weren't designed for sandy soil. They weren't designed for much terrain or rough terrain. And what's changed now and Hascavana's newest models and many of the new models we tested, they have like all-wheel drive and much better traction. Give us a little feel for how your yard is and whether this has helped having all-wheel drive
Starting point is 00:12:08 versus how they worked before. Yeah, dare I say too much traction in some people's cases might rip up your yard a little bit. But my yard is a typical suburban yard. So I think we're like a third of an acre. But when you're picking out a robot mower, it's important to know that the size on the box is not the size of your lot. It's the size of the grass. And so since you have a house sitting in the middle and a driveway, you actually subtract that out. So you may need a smaller or you could get by with a smaller robot.
Starting point is 00:12:45 And they base that off of like how many times does it have to go out within a 24-hour period? You really would like to size up if you can because it means that the mower might not have to go back as often. And with the way batteries work and how they degrade over time, you'll be able to use it a lot longer. So something to think about there. But our yard, you know, I'm in Minnesota, so I've got clay and then we have a wetland behind us. We have longer grass. So we do require the high cut versions of these mowers. And some people might notice there's different ones.
Starting point is 00:13:23 And it's not always intuitive which to get. But here we cut our grass to about two and a half to three inches. I have a slope on the side of our house because it's a walkout backyard. And again, I mentioned earlier, it's about 10 feet between the houses. So that can be a challenge not only because of the slope, but also with a signal bouncing. And then in our backyard, which I really call the gauntlet, we've got a wetland behind, which that grass tries to get underneath the fence there. And then we have garden beds and landscaping. And so any of those robots with the castor mowers or castor wheels, those might get caught like on the landscaping edges, which is frustrating.
Starting point is 00:14:06 And those are like more the smaller wheels that don't have as much traction. Yeah, I think about like a shopping cart. Yeah. what it would have on the front. So easy maneuverability. They use the big wheels in the back to turn as opposed to ones that have those omni wheels where they kind of turn on, like the back wheels are still doing the turning, but the other ones kind of are able to turn the other way as well.
Starting point is 00:14:30 And then a few of them have turning wheels in the front now, which I think is really the way to go, more like a car. Yeah. And we've got the Yarbo, which is tank tracks, which is just a recipe for ripping up. your yard if you have a smaller yard. Not such a big deal if it's a big yard, but small yards. It's too big for the space. We had, yeah, I have not tried the Yarbo.
Starting point is 00:14:53 We actually had, Sean Hollister of the Verge, did get to have a run in with the Yarbo because it had some pretty poor security issues, and he actually had one run him over. So, although they have addressed those flaws, but this is one of the problems that you're going to notice going forward. with robot lawnmowers is that they will fall under the new FCC ban on robotic mowers. So the ban is actually on all mobile robots that operate in and around a home or businesses in the US. Companies are not going to be able to import new robot mowers without a special waiver.
Starting point is 00:15:37 So if you are interested in a robot mower, it's the ones that are currently available that you're going to be able to buy, but new ones coming. We're going to wait and see what happens here, but right now it looks like those. We may see slowdown on innovation, although some of the innovations we've seen already in the pipeline are quite exciting. So I hope they find some ways around this. But yes, security is one of the problems. These are outdoor.
Starting point is 00:16:01 So in terms of privacy issues, somewhat less of a concern, but they have blades. They are remote control robots with blades. is that you mentioned you didn't have any issues with that. Do you think that is something people should be concerned about? Oh, definitely. I mean, don't be picking them up. When you're moving them, it's important to be careful because the blades are on the bottom and you lean it against yourself.
Starting point is 00:16:26 You're going to get cut. I know you may have some experience at that, yes. And I noticed that because I wrote about that in my review and I noticed that all of the ones I unpack this time all came with polystyrene around the blades. It's like they all read my review. Yeah, they're listening. I mean, they are little tiny razor blades.
Starting point is 00:16:45 So, like, this thing is not, this isn't like having an actual robot lawnmower. Like, you're thinking of that, the lawnmower that you push around your garden, this is not that. These aren't big giant spinning blades. They're just actually little tiny razor blades that sit on a cutting disc. And this is one of the things that I actually really loved about lawn mowers this year, because they worked, because they could get around my yard and they could connect. So they did actually do the job right. And that is that because they only cut a tiny bit of grass, it actually really helps your lawn get better.
Starting point is 00:17:18 And my lawn looks so much better this year than it has ever looked. And I put it all down to the robot lawn mowers. What about you? Have you seen an improvement in your yard since you started using them? Yeah, definitely. And I am by no means a lawn care nut. Like, I just, it's there. I don't like mowing the yard.
Starting point is 00:17:37 I want my time back. It's kind of a set-it-it-it-type situation. And yeah, definitely improvements in the yard overall. And you could even see it in my videos. Like if we look at older ones to newer ones, like much more green and fluffy-looking, if you will. No, and they do help. Yeah, for sure.
Starting point is 00:17:55 It still struggles around the garden beds and the fence, of course. It's not getting all the way up to there, which really highlights my lack of trimming that I personally do because now that I'm not mowing weekly, or whatever it was previously. I don't really feel the need to get out there with the trimmer, but I probably should. Yeah, well, and so one of the things that I wasn't expecting,
Starting point is 00:18:21 and this is only on a couple of the models, but that my husband is like, oh, my God, these are amazing. They can do the stripes. And, I mean, that is something that you can't really, well, if you're a professional or you're a real lawn geek, you can get your own lines. But the idea of just being able to, like, sit one of these robot mowers down in your backyard, press go. And then, like, in two days, you've got these beautiful lawn stripes.
Starting point is 00:18:45 It's like, that's a good selling point, I think. Did you manage to get stripes in your yard? Oh, I'll take it one step further. They actually allow you to put. Yes, so you can put the different shapes and things. And so I did one in our backyard. And I just wanted to see, like, how long would it take for my wife to notice? It didn't take a long, actually.
Starting point is 00:19:07 It's just like, is there a heart in our backyard? I was like, yes, there is. Oh, you did our heart. How sweet. Then I removed it to see, like, how long it would take for it to disappear. It didn't take long. I haven't tried that yet. How long was the process?
Starting point is 00:19:23 Yeah, so, I mean, it's the spring season here. So the grass is growing pretty darn quick, and we've had a lot of rain. So a couple weeks until it was very noticeable that it was there. And then it took probably a week until you didn't notice anymore. and back to just being the strides. Support for the show comes from Horizon 3. In cybersecurity, the scariest thing isn't the attack you see coming. It's the attack path you didn't know existed.
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Starting point is 00:22:30 $12 month plan required $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. I've noticed this new batch that I've tested. This year, and we're going to, we'll go over quickly, which ones we tested. I know we haven't mentioned them in detail yet, but is that they're much faster. They seem to complete the job a lot quicker. I think that's also because they've gotten bigger, to my point earlier about they've realized, the manufacturers have realized for most American yards, you need a bigger machine that's going to cover more space and have a longer work period. But yeah, I've definitely noticed that they've work, they work faster. And also you can adjust the speed, which is for some of them, which is nice
Starting point is 00:23:12 to have that sort of flexibility, you know, if you want it done quickly or if you want it much more methodical. What are some of the other things that you've liked about robot lawnmowers? And then we'll talk about some of your favorites. And then we'll talk about some of the issues. Yeah, definitely. So I think navigation's got to a point where I can actually recommend it for most people in most yards, which is not always true. So that's big. I'm not worried about them running things over. I think the obstacle avoidance is plenty with where it's at. I think for most people, you should be able to mostly set it and forget it. This year, the thing I was the most excited about was trimming. However, I feel like for me, that fell short just because of our fence and our
Starting point is 00:23:59 garden beds. Lots of people have fences and garden beds. Yeah. Yeah. So, by I didn't have that, though. I would say that the goat did the best job of the three that I tested with trimmers because that one, it could do it on its own. So it didn't require supervision. And it did get a pretty good job of it. But with offense, that's a little bit challenging. And that's the EcoVex, right? EcoVex, Goat A3,000 Pro.
Starting point is 00:24:23 Right. Yeah. Yeah, it was one of my favorites from last year. So at CS when I saw they added a trimmer on there. That made me really excited. That one also used as LIDAR for navigation, which I found. It was pretty good. Although I did Austin Powers itself in between our garden beds, and it managed to get stuck.
Starting point is 00:24:41 Austin Powers itself. What do you mean? People of my age might get the reference, but there was a movie where the main character was going through the tunnel, and he tried to turn around in this little cart, and then he managed to get parallel, and he was stuck. And so it's just him going back and forth. trying to get out. Yeah. Yeah, it is funny watching them get themselves stuck and trying to figure their way out.
Starting point is 00:25:09 Also, it's good if you see that happening, then you can stop it because this is, if you don't stop it, you can end up with a buried robot lawn mower that's dug its way into your garden. I was out of town, and last year I was testing so many robot mowers that I had to rely on my neighbors for some of the testing. And so this one had gone out and it was working on my neighbor's yard, but somehow between when it went out and that time, something got in the way of its path. I think his son had came home and blocked the driveway. And so it would try to go back to the dock, but then realized it couldn't. And so they would try to go back the other way.
Starting point is 00:25:50 It was blocked. And so it was just in an endless loop going in circles in his front yard. And he's messaging me like, hey, man, you've got to make this thing stop. Like, it's just going back and forth. And I'm like, well, try moving the car. That didn't work. So I had to, like, remotely stop it and then manually drive it back from another country using the camera, which was quite the feat, I might say.
Starting point is 00:26:15 I couldn't get it to dock, but when I got it back into my yard, then it could figure it out on its own. Robots are going to take over the world one day, but they currently can't figure out how to go along your driveway. Yeah. There's a lot of AI references there where I'm not too worried. But what were your favorites after your testing? What would you, yeah, which ones would you buy for your yard if you were going to shell out the third, 3,000 or so dollars that most of these things cost? I mean, definitely get it when it's on sale. There's always selling these things. So I think $2,500 is probably about where you want to be, $2,000 if it's on sale. But the Mimotion Luba 3 all-wheel drive is probably my favorite. I kept that one and then the EcoVax Goat A3,000 Pro, which has that trimmer attachment. That one was really impressive.
Starting point is 00:27:10 I've got that in my front yard still because there's the fences and up there. And so that one's nice because I don't have to worry about the edging. It can get right on that landscape line. It handles the hills perfectly. That one, I haven't had any intervention since I've been. installed it. So those are probably my two go-to ones. If you were already invested in the works system, like you have a bunch of their batteries already. That was kind of neat because it uses the same battery system. So it comes with that. I thought that was kind of cool. But
Starting point is 00:27:40 if you have a really big yard, Yarbo. But my yard is way too small. Yeah, I'm still not sure about the Yarbo. I'm going to, we'll wait for the next generation, I think. Yeah. No, I agree. I really liked the first time around I tested it. I just couldn't get it to work in my yard. And this new one, the Louber 3 now with the net RTK does work. But I do worry about that subscription. And also when you're reliant on anything that requires the cloud to operate, that's a bit of a concern. I wish they could maybe get to the point where it could learn and like keep your location in its memory so it doesn't have to constantly be pinging. GPS or the RTK system.
Starting point is 00:28:28 I would say I'm actually a big fan of the dreamy A3 all-wheel drive pro. Because these guys have great naming conventions. Keith is that you got the all-wheel drive. Uh-huh. Yes. I know. I tested the A1 last time, which doesn't have the all-wheel drive. And that one used to get stuck all-wheel drive.
Starting point is 00:28:48 But the all-wheel drive on this one is really good. And I also like that it acts as a security camera. So you can have it patrol at night and patrol your backyard, which is, that's, I mean, when you add the cost of not having to buy outdoor security cameras into that, you've got a bit more of a value prop there. And it does a really good job. And it has an edge trimmer. It shifts its cutting blades out to cut along the edge. So that one's been really good. But the Navamo, the new Navamo, X430, which is also an all-wheel drive one, has the coolest way. of like it can turn its front wheels entirely 90 degrees and just like spin on a dime. It's really fun to watch it go. And so that one I've found really worked very well in my backyard. Although it does rely on GPS to start and I had to spend a good 45 minutes finding a tiny sliver of my yard where it could catch a satellite.
Starting point is 00:29:48 But once it got it, it didn't need it again. So that has been useful because it uses, like four different types of navigation. So it knows where it is and now it can navigate. It hasn't got lost once and my backyard has got, is full of trees. So yeah, that one's been, I've been impressed with that. There are also cheaper models. If you just have a small front yard or backyard, you can get that. So Roborock has its new rock Neo that I've just started testing. That's under $1,100, I think. Segway has a couple smaller ones. I think you tested a sub 1,000 one, right? Yeah, Anthbot was surprisingly good. If you have a smaller yard, I think it's perfectly adequate.
Starting point is 00:30:30 Yeah. I like that one a lot. It's interesting that the robot vacuum manufacturers, so dreamy, robo-rock, eco-vax have really come in and kind of taken over this space. There are a few specialized robot lawnmower companies. Like you mentioned works and then Huskavana, Mimotion is sort of a general robotic. company. But it's interesting to see how the robot vacuum companies are kind of taking over this space. I'm really interested if they're allowed to continue selling models here, new models here, what kind of innovations we're going to see. In particular, there's one innovation I'm excited to bring or see come to the market. And you've had some experience with this, which is, can they open my gate for me? So tell us about your experience there. And then we'll kind of I rack it up.
Starting point is 00:31:26 Yeah. So Navimo actually has a gate. It recognizes the robot as it approaches and it releases the tension on it. And so it's able to push its way through. So the robot, in theory, it could work with other brands if you could turn off its sensing because normally it wouldn't want to ram into a solid object. But for this one, it's going to tell the robot, okay, this is okay. And it can go through.
Starting point is 00:31:52 So I have that available. I haven't installed it yet just because it's a very permanent change. And, you know, I'm cycling through these. And if we move, like, you know, is this going to be a negative for the next person that they don't have it? And so we'll see. Maybe I'll set up a demo rig somewhere where we can test this out. But it's certainly going to get a lot of attention.
Starting point is 00:32:15 And, you know, is it a solution or is it better to just have two? I kind of compare this to, you know, in your house, If you have stairs, yes, they're creating these robot vacuums that can climb stairs or an exoskeleton that can go upstairs. But like, do we really need that? Is it more expensive? Or would it be cheaper to just get two robots? And I think that we're still at the point where like, I probably can just get another robot and it'd be easier and less permanent. Well, we'll get to the point, I think, maybe where they have little arms and they can just reach out and open the gate.
Starting point is 00:32:50 And that won't be terrifying at all. So we'll all be fine with our robots with limbs and blades roaming around our backyard so that we don't have to mow the lawn. Yeah. Unfortunately, I don't think it's happening anytime soon. I mean, we saw the Switchbot robot attempt to do laundry. Yes. I don't know if you tried the Yarbote or the Robo rock that has the arm of the vacuum. It's so limited in what it can do.
Starting point is 00:33:17 It's like, well, if you perfectly place the sock where it's folded in a way that it could grab it, And then you only have a certain type of shoes that are incredibly lightweight. It could pick them and move them into a designated spot. But any other scenario, no, that's not going to work. Yes, no. So I think it sounds like you agree with me that the robots are useful today, but currently still not at that level where we perhaps everyone needs one. And also, you don't need to be worried.
Starting point is 00:33:46 They're not taking over any time soon. I do think we're going to see more purpose-built robots. I don't think that we're going to see a general use robot anytime soon in a household. Agreed. Agreed. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for spending time with us today. Brandon, it's been really useful and helpful to get your insights and appreciate your time. Is there anything you want to tell us about what you're doing next or what's up or where people can go find your work? Yeah, you can find my articles on Realtry Magazine. They're actually, written for consumers. So it's published every month. I'd pick a different category or something
Starting point is 00:34:23 that's exciting to me. I share it there. And then on social media, it's just at Brandon Doyle MN. So you can find me on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, all that. I share behind the scenes of testing. And yeah, I'm really excited about all that. Great. Well, thanks so much, Brandon, for joining us. And we'll talk to you soon. Thanks for having me. Take care. That's it for today. As always, we love to hear from you. thoughts and questions to Vergecast at theverge.com or call the hotline 866 Verge11. To support everything we do and to get access to ad-free episodes, subscribe to The Verge.
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