We thought the rider fell off or something and it was going to crash. Then it turned and kept mowing. Park Roomba!
Another picture:
Automation isn’t the enemy.
As ever, the owner class that hoards and wages economic war on you though automation for their exclusive benefit at their society’s expense are your enemy, whether you would fight them or not.
Arguing that we should “save” back breaking, repetitive unnatural movement, manual labor jobs that break human bodies by the time they’re 40 is the WRONG hill to die on. Fight for the citizenry to reap the benefits of automation through taxation, not to keep shitty jobs robots can do faster and better. Fight to change the economy so that everyone doesn’t need meaningless jobs machines can do better so we can have actual time to live our lives.
Taxing the fuck out of automation would let everyone win, because a heavily taxed robot is still far cheaper for the company than a human or possibly several humans for that one robot would be, so automation is here either way. We can riot to change our economy to benefit from this technology as we should, or we can be steamrolled yet again by the dictates of the affluent who will demand and get all the benefits and none of the responsibility if not confronted and countered on revolutionary terms.
Please pick the former. There’s no dignity or meaning to be had shuffling boxes around in an Amazon warehouse. Begging the owners to let us try to continue to compete with literal purpose built repetitive labor machines is not the way.
Fun fact: The Luddites weren’t opposed to technology. In many cases, they built the machines they would later destroy.
What they opposed was the ownership structure. The fact that they could be 30x more productive, yet be paid less than before because the required skill level was lower, and the working conditions were now dangerous and demeaning.
Yet when someone says “luddite” now, what do you think? A dummy who’s afraid of having cool stuff?
Good points, but I have one thing to add. You shouldn’t tax automation. You should increase corporate taxes for all companies. If you funded a UBI with that, it would solve lots of unemployment related problems: crime, poverty, etc. But it’s hard, simple but hard.
Put the corporate tax rate back up to 40% or more and implement a 10% robot tax on top of that. Then after that, implement a UBI starting at $1000 a month for US citizens with no strings attached, increasing with inflation over time. Solved for the next decade.
The top marginal tax rate should be 100%. The bottom marginal tax rate should be negative.
It’s too bad that the first things to be automated are the tasks that people don’t mind doing, leaving the real shitty tasks to be done by people. Riding around on a lawnmower has to be one of the most enjoyable forms of manual labour. Now the robots get the good jobs and we’re left with the backbreaking monotonous bullshit.
Now do AI!
My curiosity got the best of me, here’s the link to Wright: https://www.wrightmfg.com/products/mowers/commercial/stand-on/robotic-zk/
The Mower
- 40HP Vanguard Engine
- Hydro-Gear Smartec Drive-By-Wire 12cc
- 15.5 Gallon Fuel Capacity
- Centimeter-level accurate RTK GPS
- Commercial-grade Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)
- Depth-sensing object detection cameras
- Rock-solid wireless emergency stop
- Remote control mode
- Live Greenzie support: Call for support while in the field for real-time fixes.
The Software
- Mow the boundary once, and the mower fills in the rest
- Remembers maps and can repeat them when you come back. Just place it in the previous boundary.
- Create no-go zones that will be saved with your map to avoid hitting hard-to-see obstacles like drain covers or small pipes sticking out of the ground.
- Record and repeat: Record yourself mowing the entire property, and the mower will replicate your movement.
- Manage the mower with the controller or a smart device in real-time.
- Advanced fleet support: See how your fleet is performing. Replay entire jobs, not just a dot on the map.
- Run multiple units at once.
- Set the stripe angle (for those stunning cross-hatch patterns)
- Seamless automatic updates
Damn, $45k. Though I guess for something like a park it probably has a pretty quick ROI.
Depending on where it is, $45k may be lower than the yearly salary for someone who would operate it (not including the other benefits like insurance or other costs like workman’s comp). So yeah, could definitely pay for itself in as little as 1 year based on that alone.
Depends on how much maintenance it requires. And someone is going to need to be paid to deploy it and watch it to ensure that nobody fucks with it and that it doesn’t eat some park sunbather or something. And to make sure the grounds are clear of debris. Etc.
Don’t think you can count on just removing a salary here.
If a park sunbather gets eaten by a mower, did it really happen?
A second robot deploys to clean out the leaves and dead bodies.
If you want one for your own yard, there are significantly cheaper options. The husqvarna automower is under $1000 and can be integrated into Home Assistant. I’ve seen a lot of positive opinions about it in the HA communities
Nah, my yard is tiny and I don’t mind mowing it. I have a Ryobi battery mower so it’s super-easy to do. If I ever move somewhere with a bigger yard though I would seriously consider it. Especially as I already have Home Assistant running!
Hello fellow Ryobi mower owner. Or as I call it, my $500 gym membership.
I have a big old ride on mower as well but hate all the noise and the smell of exhaust, so rather just take three times as long pushing the Ryobi about.
Nothing quite like the satisfying thwack when it eats a small blackberry bush or snaps a runaway wysteria tendril.
At least the Ryobi is super-lightweight! I can easily carry it out of my garage and even with the battery it’s far lighter to push around than a gas mower. I’m hard on blades though with so many sticks and pine cones, no matter how many I pick up I always miss some.
I agree nice and light.
It’s not really equivalent to a gym membership, although I have to do a fair bit of Hungy Hippo’ing if I leave it for too long.
I’m about to move into my first home with a yard and I’ve been debating it. I have terrible allergies and even though I really wanted to as a kid, I couldn’t mow the lawn because I’d have snot running down my face half way through.
I haven’t had a reason to try again for a couple decades but I was gifted a mower so I’m gonna try doing it myself this summer. If it’s bad and I can’t find a local kid to hire, automower it is!
Oh my allergies are horrible too, I just make sure to take a Sudafed (can’t recall the generic name) before I start. I love that stuff, we always keep a stash around especially as you have to get it from the pharmacy and they don’t keep very much stock it seems.
Ohh Sudafed and I are already well acquainted lol
But if I have to take drugs just to mow the lawn, I’m definitely looking at alternatives.
The lower price for 600m² I saw here is 200$. It’s very cheap.
I built an autosteer called AgOpenGPS for our tractors that pretty much does this. Cost about $1000 per unit. We still sit in the tractor because there’s a hell of a lot going on besides steering the tractor, but it will drive the entire field without intervention.
Fields generally have few, if any, objects to consider. I’m not sure this is comparable.
Okay somehow the words rock solid wireless emergency stop seem oxymoronic. I don’t care how it was programmed what wireless communication system uses or anything else. I have a hard time believing wireless emergency stops can be foolproof.
We know they can’t. Unfortunately the target demographic for this mower probably doesn’t care if the e-stop works.
Never seen a gas powered automatic lawnmower, only electric ones.
This is the size of a huge riding mower you only see used by parks departments and the like.
You in the US?
Robot lawn mowers are very common in Europe. You’ll see these small electric mowers in people’s yards all over the place. Businesses also have them running all day out front. Never seen one in the US.
They are equipped with GPS, so they are locked to a specific area to prevent theft.
I am in the U.S., yes.
GPS are very fancy ones, unless that’s changed since I last looked into it. A buried wire, “invisible fence”, has been the norm for all consumer grade ones I’ve seen.
That’s the style we have as well. In addition to the wire it also detects if it bumps into walls.
The ones I have seen are GPS locked and they automatically “return home” to the charger when rain drops are detected.
I think the wire ones usually do too. When they’re out of power and possibly if it rains, they go straight until they reach the wire, and then follow it home to dock.
Yes, I believe the GPS ones are also guided by a wire to find edges and find their way home. The GPS is mostly for theft prevention. Won’t work outside a specific area unless it’s unlocked from the backend.
Reminds me of this meme:
How many mowers do you think you could get your hands on before they catch you?
I don’t know that I could fit it in my car.
we can prob balance it on my skate board and we can tow it.
That’s one expensive goat.
I had a job offer at a place that makes robotic lawnmowers, but they required you to go to Florida and Texas every year for “field testing”. We have sunshine 300 days a year here, and we also don’t have barbaric laws stripping people of their rights, so I turned it down.
I think I would have a genuinely hard time not messing with this or trying to ride it. Both which are objectively terrible ideas nonetheless it feels really tempting.
Or hacking it to mow a symbol of “I thought what I’d do was I’d become one of those deaf mutes”.
I wonder if it is CAN bus? I bet it is, maybe it even has an unsecured OBD port. It might be super easy to get into its computer. If this would let you turn off or change its wireless connection you could have full control. If nothing I am sure this would mess with the GPS map and get it to do some weird mowing.
If it does have an OBD port they make over the counter wifi and Bluetooth dongle. So all you would do is give it an unexpected obstacle, wait for it to pause and pop the dongle in.
Not sure on these larger industrial mowers, but the little WORX robot mower I have does have a programming port open for firmware updates. There’s been some custom firmwares out there; no need for signed code or anything like that.
I really wouldn’t be surprised if this thing is unsecured. I bet the hardest thing is accessing a port while it is running.
Seeing this picture, my first instinct was to tell op to stand in front of it. Worst that happens is an easy paycheck.
Run and grab a package of hotdogs and we can finally get the answer to an age old question.
Put a pile of sticks halfway between a mowed area and an area that hasn’t been cut.
Draw a line right in the middle of the camera lense? If that doesn’t do anything then a stick person?
Worst that happens is an easy paycheck.
I would say worse that happens is a lawn mowing robot runs over me and I end up in the ICU.
And then you have every right to sue the beejezus outta whoever unleashed a robot into public that has super fast spinning knives but no obstacle avoidance programming.
Cool. You get cut to ribbons by a lawn mower. I have enough health problems as it is.
Don’t disturb the wildlife.
ok what happens if this hits a child though?
I imagine they would make excellent fertilizer.
Plays Circle of Life from Lion King
I feel like things like this should have their safety system as public review of sorts, like a safety system public domain. Assuming this is on public property, but also if you sell to the general public too? It’s a pipe dream anway. It’s just interesting.
Hopefully a major lawsuit at the very least.
I don’t mean this in a negative way but I swear you’re like the Gallowboob of Lemmy, see you everywhere.
He’s got some personal issues.
Took ‘er jerbs
My dog is super fascinated by lawn mower robots. Every time we see one he has to stand and watch for a couple of minutes. I wonder how he’d react to one of this size. Interestingly, he doesn’t care much for our robot vacuum. For the most part he avoids it, sometimes he lays down in its way and freaks out when it bumps into him.
My crazy dog has always wanted to bite the push mower whenever it moves. I suspect he thinks it growls at him. He’s fine until it starts moving, then he goes crazy. Naturally he’s contained for his safety when mowing takes place.
Ooh. Is it like aggressive or playful? My dog gets a mix of playful and scared when the proper vacuum comes out and I suspect it’s because it “stands” in that front down back up playful position, and then howls like a banshee.
Keeping both of our boys away from mowers sounds like a good idea haha.
It’s sorta playful, but seems like it could get out of hand. Mostly goes for the wheels. The playbow must be a powerful piece of dog language. There’s a consistent misunderstanding when anybody tries to tie their shoes here.
Yes!
I’m guessing its mortal enemy is the beach towel.
Going to need you to lay down in front of the mower to see if it stops.
The public demands to know.
