Robot vacuums took two decades to become ordinary, and the failures along the way explain the scepticism. Electrolux launched the Trilobite in 1996 and withdrew it after it collided with things and left parts of the floor uncleaned. iRobot's Roomba, launched in 2002, was the first commercially successful model, but it navigated essentially at random - changing direction when it hit an obstacle, detecting dirty spots, sensing steep drops. Systematic navigation only arrived in 2010, when Neato Robotics' XV-11 used laser-based mapping to drive in straight lines rather than bounce around a room, and Dyson and iRobot added camera-based mapping in 2015. Two drawbacks survive all of that. Because the machine is small, it takes an extended amount of time to cover a room, and the units plus replacement parts and batteries are relatively expensive next to a conventional vacuum. A third objection is newer: a machine that maps the inside of a home and connects to the internet has raised documented privacy and security concerns. Someone who bought one in 2005 and someone who bought one in 2025 are not describing the same product.