A little backstory here. I grew up in a small suburban town in New Jersey. We had a lawn and my dad had one of those big John Deere trackers to mow it. Naturally, I always wanted to drive it. After years begging my father to let me drive it, my father finally acquiesced and let me give it a go. I climbed up into the driver’s seat, licked my lips, turned the ignition and… immediately ran over and destroy a row of my mother’s meticulously-planted carnations. Zero lawn was cut and that John Deere tracker was given to a family friend a few weeks later.
Fast forward about 20 years and there’s a new way to cut your law. (And sadly for kids, there’s really no way for them to screw it up.) The Terra robot mower is the newest creation by iRobot — the company that’s sold millions of Roomba smart vacuums — and it works exactly how you think: just like a Roomba.
After placing a small “beacon” in your yard, the Terra robot mower automatically maps out your yard. You don’t need to set up any type of boundary wires. You don’t even need a shovel. The robot comes with the company’s smart mapping technology so it just knows where (and where not) to cut. You can create custom mowing schedules and adjust how long or short you want the Terra robot mower, via the companion app. And after the robot is done cutting your lawn, it’ll automatically return to its docking/charging station. It’s basically an outdoor version of the Roomba you might already own.
iRobot just announced the Terra robot mower and a few things are still unknown, such as how large a yard it’s able to cut, how long its battery lasts, and, most importantly, how much it’ll cost. There’s no word on whether the robot will be able to fertilize your lawn, either, which seems like it’d be a great trick. What we do know is that it’s not available yet. There’s a slight chance that it’ll be available for purchase later in 2019, but 2020 seems like the safer bet.
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