We thought the rider fell off or something and it was going to crash. Then it turned and kept mowing. Park Roomba!
Why is that worth a post? I suspect there are more lawn robots here in Germany than Dads mowing the lawn. Also, you don’t want to know what those things typically do to Sonic’s babies if they are programmed to mow at night.
It’s mildly interesting if you’re from a country that doesn’t use these, i.e. the US.
I suppose that’s why it’s posted in mildly interesting?
I admit, it’s very impressive and cool to see in person, but at what cost? This particular instance has taken away someone’s job. There is no human remotely controlling it. Now imagine how many of these are currently out there and will be deployed in near future? For each one there is someone’s income being taken away. Sure, we can argue that this autonomous machine has create jobs becuase, some had to build it. Yes, it’s true, but those hired to manufacture are fraction of the lawnmowers needed to cut grass not one but throughout the spring had summer seasons. In a broader context, this is becoming an issue for many low skill jobs and essential jobs. (i.e. self-checkouts at fast foods and other retailers, security posts in airports, malls, etc.) Look up Amazon Digit to see what amazon is up. While many will find it beneficial and this is really hurting the class that needs the money the most, needs the health benefits that comes from there income.
Who the fuck is sad that they can’t mow a lawn for a living? There are better things they could be doing.
A tale as old as the industrial revolution
Oh no, instead of someone doing mindless busy work, they can now live their own lives all day with no loss in productivity!
Whatever shall we dooooo!
Mowing lawns are boring and you look at it the wrong way. In a better future less people have to work their ass off, enjoying more free time to do whatever they want to do. Maybe spend time with your kids, go out fishing, hiking, do whatever. This is a future I want to see and the more jobs “lost” to robots, the better.
Now for this to be true there have to be large changes in how everything works. Basic income is one thing for example. Nobody should be suffering over not working their ass off but we are not there yet and today exactly as you say, there is probably someone who doesn’t need more money just getting more cash in their account instead, sadly.
I share this sentiment, however, you are talking about the system wide change. This is a long-term solution or a mid-term with revolution. I am talking about in the context of the current social and economical environment where no such system exisit. First there needs to an effort to more towards eliminating human labor for the benefit of the people BEFORE human labor is eliminated. Corporations and the rich do not care about the former. We cannot fall into this trap. AI and autonomous machines can be great for society as long as it is not at the cost of the working class. Technology is there or fast approaching, but society is not, policies are not. Corporations are.
This, we really need to steer the world in the right direction for these automation improvements to actually benefit all of us.
Going to need you to lay down in front of the mower to see if it stops.
The public demands to know.
Seriously? Even the lawn mower guys get to work from home now?
Wow I didn’t know they were commercially available. That is so cool!
I’d don’t mean this in a negative way but I swear you’re like the Gallowboob of Lemmy, see you everywhere.
Contributors that don’t post like bots stick out
He’s got some personal issues.
You in the US?
Robot lawn mowers are very common in Europe. You’ll see these small electric mowers in people’s yards all over the place. Businesses also have them running all day out front. Never seen one in the US.
They are equipped with GPS, so they are locked to a specific area to prevent theft.
Probably don’t use them here in the US because they’re afraid people will use them for target practice.
GPS are very fancy ones, unless that’s changed since I last looked into it. A buried wire, “invisible fence”, has been the norm for all consumer grade ones I’ve seen.
The ones I have seen are GPS locked and they automatically “return home” to the charger when rain drops are detected.
I think the wire ones usually do too. When they’re out of power and possibly if it rains, they go straight until they reach the wire, and then follow it home to dock.
Yes, I believe the GPS ones are also guided by a wire to find edges and find their way home. The GPS is mostly for theft prevention. Won’t work outside a specific area unless it’s unlocked from the backend.
That’s the style we have as well. In addition to the wire it also detects if it bumps into walls.
I am in the U.S., yes.
I saw this for the first time in Brussels! Our Airbnb host got a kick over how enthralled 3 American women were over the idea of a lawn roomba 😂.
that’s not a fucking combusion engine is it? a robot mower that runs on gasoline would be the stupidest thing i’ve seen in a while.
Why?
Pure electric mowers have gotten really good. Even for a more industrial-sized mower like that which covers a lot of land, there’s not much reason that any new mower should be gas.
When it comes to robot mowers, all the more so. Even if it can’t handle the entire area all at once, that’s OK, it’s a robot. Program it to do one area, go back to charge, then do another.
Why does the fact that it is riderless have anything to do with it being combustion powered or not. How are those two things connected.
See the second paragraph. It changes the entire approach to mowing.
(Though I’m headed towards natural lawns that don’t need this kind of maintenance at all.)
Yeah. The whole idea of growing something, watering it, fertilizing and caring for it, so you can chop it down is pretty crazy.
It doesn’t look like this is dedicated to one lawn. It looks like it is meant to be moved from place to place, to provide a service.
Then you have plenty of opportunity to do battery swaps as part of the usual setup. Or charging it with an inverter in the truck in between jobs.
I am not saying they couldn’t be all electric, but at the moment may not be the ideal choice, for efficiency and quality. Consumer electric mowers favor have independent motors for each blade. Not sure if this has to do with the physical size of the motors or something to do with voltage needed for larger motors or something else. Regardless this means that when a blade gets bogged down it doesn’t have the additional rotating mass of the other blades to help it power through.
Also Looking at top of the line consumer zero turn mowers there seems to be about a 1 to 1 ratio of charge time to acres cut. With a limit of 3 acres with the largest battery pack which is about 16 Ah
According to the American Planning Association’s Standards for Outdoor Recreational Areas(yes this is a thing). It seems that large parks start at 3 acres in size and parks with Athletics fields start at 10 acres. Even with a swappable battery it probably is impractical to try to do multiple parks in a day.
Simply to get early adopters on board your product you have to show your product doesn’t has any decreased capability compared to current legacy options. I am sure this thing already costs more I don’t think it would sell if it also mowed less.
I am sure we can get there, but it will require transition products like this.
Consumer electric mowers favor have independent motors for each blade
Big blades are unnecessary with robot mowers. I’m sure there are examples of it, especially in the bigger zero turn mowers that are probably retrofits of existing riding models, but there’s actually a simpler approach that works with how automation changes the way it’s done.
When you’re mowing every day with a robot, you only need to clip a little bit each day. When you do that, you don’t need a big heavy blade. Many of those robot mowers have nothing more than a wheel with three or four razor blades screwed on at the edge. They aren’t going to hit something heavy, because again, it’s doing it every day and keeping everything trimmed all the time. It’s safer, too.
When I’ve talked about my own robot mower at home to friends and neighbors, the thing people have trouble getting over is how you don’t just do what you’ve been doing, only robot. I tell them it trims a small amount every day, and they snicker a little. Then they think about it for a moment and it makes sense.
This cascades down to how the lawn is handled by services. Instead of trying to do the current system, only robot, change the approach. Even if each park isn’t going to have its own mower, there can be one truck delivering mowers all over town. Perhaps there are other models that would end up working better, but the point is that swapping out the current equipment for a robot version isn’t the way to think about it.
The controller board should scale up without a big jump in cost. A larger zero turn mower doesn’t need a significantly different controller to a residential mower. A big cost on those is the GPS sensor. It has to be a relatively high accuracy one for it to work, and that ability has only come down to <$300 in the last few years (it used to be “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” territory). Otherwise, it has to use a boundary wire or something like that, which is the biggest downfall of the one I have. Boundary wires suck.
Once it has enough circuitry to handle the sensors–a larger mower probably needs a few more, but not a huge amount–then it’s good enough. Even if it adds $600 to the cost of a residential mower, it may only add $700 to a big zero turn. Cost gets proportionately less as the mower scales up.
You can’t automate them getting gas without serious safety risks.
Which you can do with electricity.
Meaning, you still will need someone to go around with a gas can to make sure they are all running.
It is a combustion engine for sure.
TIL of the existence and proper use of the word mown
That’s one expensive goat.
I’m a bit late to the party, but you can buy small ones of these for your own yards:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Greenworks-Robotic-Lawn-Mower-1-2-Acre-To-1-Acre/5014505685I’ve seen a couple of these on smallish business lawns.
My Landroid is cool. AMA I guess?
I’ve seen the small ones, but I totally didn’t expect that.
I’ve never seen a big one like that either.
I spent a few days working at a house with 4 of the Husqvarna versions. I had a really good time watching them all take off and do a route and dock all minding their own business. The really cool part is you never even see your grass grow because it’s always being maintained.
don’t like that.
This better not have put someone out of the job
or…?
I guess I can piss on it
For the curious https://youtu.be/t1__h7vnnKY?si=K-RBu5beMPJYNNMn
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/t1__h7vnnKY?si=K-RBu5beMPJYNNMn
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
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I think I would have a genuinely hard time not messing with this or trying to ride it. Both which are objectively terrible ideas nonetheless it feels really tempting.
Seeing this picture, my first instinct was to tell op to stand in front of it. Worst that happens is an easy paycheck.
Run and grab a package of hotdogs and we can finally get the answer to an age old question.
Put a pile of sticks halfway between a mowed area and an area that hasn’t been cut.
Draw a line right in the middle of the camera lense? If that doesn’t do anything then a stick person?
Or just don’t vandalise government property which is there to make life better.
Worst that happens is an easy paycheck.
I would say worse that happens is a lawn mowing robot runs over me and I end up in the ICU.
And then you have every right to sue the beejezus outta whoever unleashed a robot into public that has super fast spinning knives but no obstacle avoidance programming.
Or hacking it to mow a symbol of “I thought what I’d do was I’d become one of those deaf mutes”.
I wonder if it is CAN bus? I bet it is, maybe it even has an unsecured OBD port. It might be super easy to get into its computer. If this would let you turn off or change its wireless connection you could have full control. If nothing I am sure this would mess with the GPS map and get it to do some weird mowing.
If it does have an OBD port they make over the counter wifi and Bluetooth dongle. So all you would do is give it an unexpected obstacle, wait for it to pause and pop the dongle in.
Not sure on these larger industrial mowers, but the little WORX robot mower I have does have a programming port open for firmware updates. There’s been some custom firmwares out there; no need for signed code or anything like that.
I really wouldn’t be surprised if this thing is unsecured. I bet the hardest thing is accessing a port while it is running.
Tactical EMP’s are necessary now.
