iRobot

IRobot

Basic information
Founded	1990
Legal Structure	Public
Industry	Vacuum and mopping robots
Also known as
Official website	https://www.irobot.com/

Company selling vacuum and mopping robots. One of the few companies outside of china that has a substantial market in the consumer robot vacuum segment.

Consumer-impact summary

Overview of concerns that arise from the conduct towards users of the product (if applicable):

• User Freedom
• User Privacy
• Business Model
• Market Control

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• User Privacy: The CEO made a statement in 2017 about selling customers' floor plan data.

Controversies

Most products depend largely on cloud services for their functionality. Functions like

• scheduling cleaning,
• requesting to clean a specific room or area,
• emptying dustbin,
• starting mop pad cleaning

is only possible via their app which depend on their cloud.

Decline and possible shutdown of cloud services

In 2025 it has been reported that the company might run out of cash, and with possible shutdown of cloud servers and loss of functionality in their robots as a result.

Workarounds

There is an ongoing thread regarding solutions for local control of the recent 505 series of robots, see https://github.com/home-assistant/core/issues/146155#issuecomment-3531411934

Products

• Roomba

See also

Link to relevant theme articles or companies with similar incidents.

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Controversies

Most products depend largely on cloud services for their functionality. Functions like

• scheduling cleaning,
• requesting to clean a specific room or area,
• emptying dustbin,
• starting mop pad cleaning

is only possible via their app which depend on their cloud.

Decline and possible shutdown of cloud services

In 2025 it has been reported that the company might run out of cash, and with possible shutdown of cloud servers and loss of functionality in their robots as a result.

Workarounds

There is an ongoing thread regarding solutions for local control of the recent 505 series of robots, see https://github.com/home-assistant/core/issues/146155#issuecomment-3531411934.