Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

Perceived Causes of iRobot’s Decline

• Many see iRobot as having coasted on the Roomba brand, outsourcing manufacturing to China while cutting real innovation and adding artificial feature segmentation (pay more so it “doesn’t run into things,” etc.).
• Technically, commenters blame a long bet on camera‑based vision (VSLAM) instead of cheap 2D lidar. Their camera robots were pricier, worse at navigation, and needed lights on; cheaper Chinese lidar models quickly outclassed them.
• Others argue the whole robovac space became a commodity: once “good enough” was reached, low‑cost Chinese makers undercut on price, much like GoPro’s story.
• US tariffs and supply‑chain issues were mentioned as additional headwinds; some say Roomba never adapted its manufacturing strategy.

Competition and Chinese Innovation

• Roborock, Dreame, Eufy and others are repeatedly cited as dramatically better: quieter, more capable mapping, easy zone cleaning, mop+vacuum combos, self‑emptying docks, furniture‑integrated bases.
• Debate runs over whether Chinese firms merely “replicate and polish” Western ideas or now lead genuine innovation. Several argue the real advantage is execution speed, dense supply chains, and a culture of constant iteration.
• Broader discussion compares this to Japanese cars in the 1980s and Bambu vs. Western 3D printers: Western companies prove concepts, then Chinese firms industrialize and out‑iterate.

Product Experience and Limitations

• Many found older Roombas high‑maintenance: constant babysitting for cords, toys, thresholds, and notorious “poopocalypse” incidents.
• Fans counter that, in the right layout, daily autonomous vacuuming is a huge quality‑of‑life gain, especially with pets; others say a cordless stick vac plus occasional housecleaner is simpler and more effective.
• Some feel real value would be robots that tidy, handle laundry, or cook, not just vacuum.

Cloud Dependence, Privacy, and Chinese Ownership

• Strong anxiety about internet‑dependent vacuums: several report Roombas becoming unusable when cloud services or apps changed.
• Widespread concern that maps, images, and telemetry may now end up under Chinese corporate or state control, though others note US tech firms already run vast surveillance and are tightly linked to US agencies.
• Projects like Valetudo and dorita980 are praised for “liberating” vacuums to operate fully locally, though flashing them can be difficult.

Amazon Merger, Antitrust, and Policy

• Many criticize US/EU regulators for blocking Amazon’s acquisition, arguing it hastened bankruptcy and made a Chinese takeover inevitable.
• Others defend the block on big‑tech consolidation grounds and even prefer Chinese ownership to further Amazon data integration.
• The thread broadens into industrial policy: outsourcing manufacturing to China is seen as a strategic mistake that hollowed out Western hardware capability; some call for serious reshoring, others doubt it’s still feasible.

Repairability and Long-Term Support

• iRobot earns praise for modular, easily replaceable parts and long parts availability; some users keep decade‑old units running with cheap third‑party spares.
• Competing Chinese models are said to be similarly or even more repairable thanks to a huge gray‑market parts ecosystem—but with more uncertainty about long‑term software support and cloud dependence.