[WesternCulture]

In five years, these things will be produced in China and will be sold in the West for the equivalent of $300.

An automower at work:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QOBlW1TXJVs&feature=related

[Ronin]

I’m not very impressed. Seems like it would miss a lot of places, cover and recover a lot of the same territory, would be prone to loops, and generally waste a lot of time and fuel.

If you’re that lazy pay one of the neighbor kids five bucks and watch him mow the lawn.

[FreePaul]

The "grass" that the Automower is running over in the video needs a lot more than a mower. From its appearance it may never need mowing again.

They probably will be made in China and programmed to kill their owners on a signal from the home country. But if they save work that's OK.

[Reeses]

The design mistake here is they are cutting the grass as a human would. Computers can bend time to think faster or slower. The way grass should be cut by a robot is very very slowly and continuously. For one thing slow is much more fuel efficient allowing solar power. Also it allows the machines to be made with much less strength and weight. Some day a lawn will be mowed by tossing out 100 little $2 solar mowers that work so slowly you can’t see them move. The slothbots would keep the lawn mowed continuously, never stopping.