Should you let a robot mow your lawn?

0:02Welcome to The Vergecast, the flagship podcast of robot lawnmowers. I'm Jennifer Patterson-Tui, 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.

0:40My 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 13, 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, the base model iPhone 18 will skip the full launch and instead arrive in early 2027.

1:26That'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 rumored 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 has announced it's 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.

2:10The changes include shortening the default period it keeps data from 30 to 7 days, moving closer to the limits suggested by its critics like the ACLU, 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, Petlibro, 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.

2:49You can read more on all these stories at TheVerge.com. That's 90 seconds on The Verge for Thursday, August 13th.

3:34This episode is brought to you by Facebook. So you were scrolling on Marketplace, and there it was, the bike you'd been searching for. You sent a message and it turned out the seller was super chatty, kind of funny, and an avid cyclist. The next thing you know, you're in a cycling crew. Well, a community cycling group. The thing about Facebook, you might find more than what you're looking for. From a browse to a bike ride, this summer, find more on Facebook. Hey, Brandon. 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.

4:13Yeah, I'm really excited to get started. Thanks for having me. My first year testing Robot Ormos 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. It's like the early days of robot vacuums, right? Exactly. So would you say that's changed? What are robot lawnmowers 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 and, you know, some babysitting.

4:59But 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? 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 in 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.

5:40And 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 to. I spent hours in my backyard sticking these antennas, like 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 it was so frustrating and i was like this is not something a regular user is going to want to go and spend three thousand or four thousand dollars on one of these things and then have it not work because of satellites yeah we just have the one tree in our front yard but i live in a suburban neighborhood and so you know the houses are 10 feet apart from each other or whatever it is.

6:30And 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. We can't have it mowing my neighbors, 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-Slam 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, which is nice. And then they've gotten rid of that base station requirement.

7:11A 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 Memotion, theirs just would not work, refused 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 a real... Apparently you've 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 their model for this year. And I think right when... The three all-wheel drive. There we go.

7:45And then right when I got it, they launched this new iNavi, I think they call it, but it's NetRTK. 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 the net RTK 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. But that just is a sign of times to come.

8:27I'm like, OK, 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, OK, well, that's really nice to have. And that I want that. But then down the line, OK, the models change. And so you're reliant on that. 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.

9:07It's not like your push mower that you maybe take out once a week or once a month. Yeah. Just to keep on the navigation real quick, you mentioned combining these technologies. I'd noticed 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 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 RTK is great. I do have concerns about subscription costs in the future.

9:45Obviously, as reviewers, 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 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 chickens kind of like face it down.

10:21Oh, yeah. Our dogs just grew up with robots. So 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. 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.

10:59I 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. 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, 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. My soil is not designed for robot lawnmowers. In fact, I spoke before I started all my testing last year, I spoke with Husqvarna, who is the company that originally developed the first robot lawnmower.

11:38And 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 Husqvarna'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 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 But my yard is a typical suburban yard.

12:18So 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. 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.

13:01So 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. Some people might notice there's different ones, 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 the signal bouncing.

13:40And 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 caster wheels, those might get caught on the landscaping edges, which is frustrating. And those are like the smaller wheels that don't have as much traction. Yeah, think about like a shopping cart. Yeah. 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.

14:26And 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. 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. I have not tried the Yarbo. 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. Oh, no. Although they have addressed those flaws. But this is one of the other problems that you're going to notice going forward with robot lawn mowers is that they will fall under the new FCC ban on robotic mowers.

15:17So the ban is actually on all mobile robots that operate in and around a home or businesses in the U.S. companies are not going to be able to import new robot mowers without a special waiver. 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.

15:56These are outdoor. So in terms of privacy issues, somewhat less of a concern, but they have blades. They are remote control robots with blades. 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 herself, you're going to get cut. I know you may have some experience with that. And I noticed that because I wrote about that in my review and I noticed that all of the ones I unpacked this time all came with polystyrene around the blades.

16:35It's like they all read my review. Yeah, they're listening. I mean, they are little tiny razor blades. So like this thing, it's not, this isn't like having an actual robot lawnmower. Like if you're thinking about 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 lawnmowers this year because they worked, because they could get around my yard and they could connect. So they did actually do the job right.

17:07And that is that because they only cut a tiny bit of grass, it actually really helps your lawn get better. And my lawn looks so much better this year than it has ever looked. And I put it all down to the robot lawnmowers. 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. I want my time back. It's kind of a set it, forget it type situation. And yeah, definitely improvements in the yard overall. And you can even see it in my videos. Like if we look at older ones to newer ones, it's like, well, it's much more green and fluffy looking, if you will.

17:49No, they do help. Yeah, for sure. 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, 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.

18:34But 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. It's like, that's, that's a good selling point. I think. Did you manage to get stripes in your yard? 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 her long, actually. It's just like, is there a heart in our backyard? I was like, yes, there is.

19:09Oh, you did a heart. How sweet. Then I removed it to see like how long it would take for it to disappear. It didn't take long. How long was, I haven't tried that yet. How long was the process? 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 of 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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21:26Cold take. When it comes to quantum computing, if you need a million qubits to calculate anything, it sounds like you need a quantum computer the size of a football field. So why are we even trying? My name is Olivia Lanes. I am the global lead for content and education at IBM Quantum. So you will not need a quantum computer the size of a football field. The quantum chip is really, you know, the size of a stamp. So the chip itself is never going to be the size of a football field. What could be a very large footprint is all of the infrastructure that goes around cooling it, housing the chip, and controlling it.

22:09IBM has really been, I think, the biggest pioneer in terms of making this technology accessible. IBM has deployed, at this point, over 90 quantum computers worldwide. So if we talk about scaling, I will just say we have a plan. We have what it takes, engineering and science-wise, to make these computers work and to build them up to the scale that we know they will be useful. If you would like to learn more, you can do so at ibm.com slash quantum. If there's anything we've heard about this entire summer, no matter where we go or who we talk to, it's about gas prices. I want to show you something.

22:53Look at these gas prices. They're ridiculous. I don't drive as much. I think they're just skyrocketing day in, day out. Gas prices are up since Donald Trump started his war with Iran. But how much does a little pain at the pump actually affect people's vote? Who is telling the truth and who is going to represent us and do something about it? And if gas is still near$4 a gallon come November, is it game over for Donald Trump and the Republicans? The most important is you can't deny the reality that Americans feel. People see what they're paying. You know, Trump trying to not recognize what people are struggling with and then to ignore the severity of it is just not a winning strategy.

23:36That's this week on America Actually. Catch us every Saturday on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

23:46I'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 worked they work faster and also you can adjust the speed which is for some of them which is nice to have that sort of flexibility you know if you want it done quickly or if you want it much more methodical.

24:27What are some of the other things that you've liked about Robot Lawn Mowers, 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 most excited about was trimming. However, I feel like for me, that fell short just because of our fence and our garden beds.

25:08Lots of people have fences and garden beds. Yeah. So if 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 a fence, that's a little bit challenging. And that's the Ecovacs, right? Ecovacs Goat A3000 Pro. 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 uses LiDAR for navigation, which I found was pretty good.

25:43Although I did Austin Powers itself in between our garden beds and it managed to get stuck. Austin Powers itself? What do you mean? Yeah, if 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. Yeah, it is funny watching them get themselves stuck and trying to figure their way out. um also not it's good 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 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.

26:48I 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. 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 got to make this thing stop. Like it's just going back and forth. And I'm like, 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. 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.