In 1997, Electrolux introduced the Trilobite, the first automatic vacuum cleaner, to the world. Featured on BBC’s Tomorrow’s World TV show, the Trilobite gave the public a reason to believe that they would one day own a piece of real-world sci-fi tech that would clean up all of their floor messes.
Decades later, robot vacuums, or “robovacs,” as they’re affectionately called, are now a $4.5 billion market, with models ranging from $100 to nearly a grand.
But no matter how advanced or intuitive these robovacs get, you’ll never find one in my home — and it’s not because I’m afraid of a full-scale robot invasion.
1. They don’t really work on carpet
Robovacs excel at cleaning hard floors. Don’t expect one to do very well at vacuuming your rugs and carpets, though.
It’ll do perfectly fine at suctioning up the debris on the surface level of your carpet. But the higher the pile and the longer the fibers, the more dirt and debris that gets stuck toward the base.
Robovacs have neither the suction power nor bristle length to get deep down into rugs or carpets.
Robovacs have neither the suction power nor bristle length to get deep down into rugs or carpets, making their cleanings purely superficial.