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In your opinion, given the skepticism you observe here, is there something more that iRobot/Colin could do or say that could better alleviate concerns based on your insider knowledge?


To be honest I'm not sure, PR, marketing and such is not my strong suit. (Also, just wanted to add that any insider knowledge I share is solely on iRobot culture, and I cant divulge any insider info on technology, only whats publicly available. Sorry for the disclaimer, but this account is tied to my real name, haha!)

If anything I would say that there is some good information on the webpage they need to make sure gets out there. I'd also say that they should get out there and talk about their vision for the future more. Colin has talked a lot about his vision of a smart home, and how iRobot can bring a lot to the table by providing users a map of their home that is updated fairly often. As such I think they could get people more excited by not just saying "no we arent selling your data", but by showing the potential. Imagine being able to say "OK google, vacuum all the bedrooms and mop the bathroom", and having it dispatch your roomba and braava. Or saying "Alexa, have you seen the tv remote?" and having it respond "the roomba spotted it inder the couch when cleaning earlier".

(Not necessarily saying this is what is being worked on, again just my impressions I got that Colin / the leadership there is more interested in making cool bots and working to make a true smart home a reality, and willing to let users have access and share the kind of data a mapping robot can bring, and less about becoming a data/ad broker.)




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