The name iRobot might not be as well-known as its
main product, the Roomba, which has been made
popular in part by shows like American Dad,
Arrested Development and Gilmore Girls.
Did you put googly eyes on the Roomba?
I just find my housekeeper, but I've already found
a replacement.
You know if we died right now and
decomposed, it would vacuum us up.
The company just launched some big updates to its
product line, including a new mopping robot
called the Braava jet m6.
It also will soon release a lawn mowing robot
named Terra.
iRobot is building a complete home cleaning robot
fleet so you never have to mow, mop or vacuum
again. But since the beginning, iRobot has dealt
with competition and knockoffs — lots of them.
And now, with higher tariffs on goods produced in
China, iRobot has to stay more vigilant than
ever. CNBC got an inside look at its lab to see
the latest products in development and to learn
more about its goal to have a self-cleaning home
filled with robots to take care of our dirty
work.
iRobot has had a material impact on the market by
creating it, in my opinion.
The Roomba began cleaning homes in 2002, but
iRobot was quite busy before then.
iRobot was founded back in 1990 based on the
notion that it was about time that these robots
that we had been promised became a reality.
When Colin Angle co-founded iRobot, the company
was focused on military robots.
It then started making toy robots and lessons
from both led the company to create the first
robotic vacuum.
Everyone thought of Rosie the Robot from The
Jetsons and this idea that the thing that robots
were supposed to do for us in our everyday life
was clean the house.
It wasn't hard for us to recognize that this was
a good idea, we just didn't know how to do it.
And the Roomba actually was the coming together
of technologies from work we had done in the toy
industry, learning to make low cost complicated
devices; from the defense industry, where we had
designed algorithms that would allow a robot to
go sweep a minefield.
And so the algorithms on Roomba that make sure it
goes everywhere in the room actually were
mine-hunting algorithms.
A couple of years later in 2002, we launched the
first Roomba.
Roomba robotic floor vac.
If it's down there, we'll get it.
This is the original Roomba called Scamp.
It wasn't yet a vacuum.
It had a little bit of a sweeping system on the
inside. Here's the original Roomba.
This was the first Roomba that was launched and
sold. Worldwide sales of consumer robots reached
5.6 billion dollars in 2018, and it's expected to
reach 19 billion dollars by the end of 2025.
And that's in no small part thanks to iRobot,
which has a market cap of 2.5
billion.
iRobot is one of the first companies to offer a
product that does the automation of domestic
tasks in the home.
And so I think it is a market leader. It is
a pioneer.
And people get really attached to these autonomous
cleaning machines.
Humans have an amazing ability to anthropomorphize
almost anything. Probably
within three weeks, 90 percent of Roombas have
been given a name or are called Roomba as if it
were their name, and a bond appears.
We'll get these phone calls to customer service.
My Roomba is broken.
Send it back we'll send you a new one.
No. No, I'm not sending you Rosie.
Can't you send out an ambulance?
Which is a bit different from most
consumer-product interactions.
The newest addition to the iRobot family of
cleaners is the Braava jet m6, a mopping robot
that has a larger tank and improved connectivity
over its predecessor.
For the first time ever, we have what we call our
iAdapt 3.0
navigation technology.
So not only does it map your home, it also learns
your home.
We've expanded the range, so now instead of
cleaning a single room, it can actually clean
your whole home up to 1000 square feet.
And we have much larger pads and much better
cleaning performance.
This is the wet single-use pad and the robot
automatically knows what kind of pad is on
there, so it'll have the correct behavior. If
it's a dry sweeping pad, it knows obviously
enough to spray water.
If it's a wet pad, it knows to spray, but it also
knows to notify you if you don't have water in
the tank.
Some concerns about privacy have been raised,
though, as newer iRobot products map a user's
house in order to clean it more accurately, and
that data can make consumers uneasy.
Privacy concerns associated with these household
robots are common across all consumer
electronics.
So, in order for Roomba to vacuum the kitchen, it
actually needs to know where the kitchen is.
And, you know, that's some information which the
users need to feel in control of.
If you don't want us to collect the data in the
first place, you don't have to go give us
permission to do so.
The robot just won't know where your kitchen
is. It will still vacuum very, very well.
But now more than ever, between the long list of
similar, cheaper products, and the escalating
trade battle with China, iRobot has to make sure
consumers know what sets its products apart from
the long list of similar products.
Naturally, there have been copycats.
So the question for iRobot is, how does it
maintain a distinct competitive advantage with
its existing product line, and how does it
continue to expand into other product lines?
25 percent of all money spent on vacuum cleaners
are now spent on robot vacuum cleaners.
The Roomba is the number one selling vacuum
cleaner in the United States, which is amazing.
And of course that's invited in and attracted
copycats and competition into the marketplace.
One of the lessons that our competition always
learns very quickly is that building a robot is
really hard.
Trying to build a robot at lower prices often
leads to robots that don't have the durability or
effectiveness.
Perhaps even it might be worthwhile to explore
other products that would be integrated into
these products, just like what Apple has done
with its products, to be able to make a very high
barrier to switching over to other competing
products.
iRobot has had to deal with tariffs before, in
2018 when the U.S.
enacted a 10 percent tariff on products produced
in China.
Back then, iRobot decided to absorb the higher
cost of its products, but today it might have to
find another way.
The tariffs and the recent increase is very
challenging for the consumer robot industry.
You know, these tariffs are not free, they're not
paid by China.
They're largely paid by the U.S.
consumer. That makes this great new technology
more expensive and slows down the growth of this
new industry.
iRobot continues to innovate through the
challenges. Along with the new Braava mop, iRobot
has also previewed Terra, its lawn mowing robot
which will start selling in Germany this year and
will enter beta testing in the U.S.
this year as well.
Terra is finally, we've been working on this thing
for 10 years, is finally launching.
With these three horsemen, the Roomba, the Braava
and the Terra robots, we could see a much larger
business in a few years.
Companion robots have revolutionized many things,
from cleaning our houses to mowing our lawns to
keeping us company.
You're hungry.
And iRobot wants to stay at the forefront of this
revolution.
We've created a new level of intelligence because
we know where we are and we're starting to know
where things are.
It's like a whole new chapter in robotics was
just begun.
And so for me, for iRobot, it's a very
interesting time.