SmartMow Hits Retail In Spring For $749
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 22 of December , 2008 at 2:25 am
Since iRobot is taking its sweet time releasing an efficient and reliable and cost effective lawn mowing robot (we know they’re working on it, though), other companies have stepped in to take advantage of lazy yard owners. The latest robot isn’t a humanoid or a sheep and you don’t have to build it yourself… It’s SmartMow, and (for a limited time!) it only costs $749.
SmartMow features three cutting blades that combine to cut a foot wide swath of grass, stuffed into a lawn-camo body that weighs only 17 pounds. The lithium battery pack will power it for 2-3 hours (enough time to mow about a sixth of an acre), after which the bot returns to its home base for a four hour recharge. One of the problems with robotic lawn mowers is that it’s hard for them to tell where your lawn ends and where exactly you want them to mow, so until someone develops a reliable grass detector (and I’m not sure why this has not been done yet, honestly), SmartMow relies on the traditional if low-tech solution of a manually installed edge wire to keep the robot contained and out of your petunias.
You can pre-order a SmartMow for spring 09 delivery with a down payment of $175 plus another $525 when it’s ready. Supposedly, over time SmartMow will save you a substantial amount of money compared to a lawn care service, but it’s going to be laziness, not financial incentives, that really get this thing moving… Except that you have to clean your lawn of all debris before unleashing SmartMow. Oh well, so much for being lazy.
Video after the jump.
Comments (2)
Category: Consumer
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Comment by Iron Man
Made Monday, 22 of December , 2008 at 11:52 am
750 bucks for that?
i’d just give my lawn mower to the neighbor kid he’ll do just about as good of a job.
Comment by RoboMike
Made Monday, 22 of December , 2008 at 1:39 pm
I like it. My neighbor’s kid won’t cut my lawn for less than $35 / week. A one time fee of $750 is much less than about the $1120 I’d have to pay every year.