Luba robot lawn mower by Mammotion

Kickstarter:

Meet Luba, a revolutionary robotic lawnmower that delivers the picture-perfect lawn with a hands-free experience. Thanks to more than 80 patents, Luba features advanced RTK navigation and an interconnected smart system that allows users to program virtual zones in the app schedule. It can autonomously map and mow with higher cutting efficiency and lead off-road capability for all types of lawns, including complex terrain.

Since robot vacuum cleaners are so common nowadays, it is only a matter of time before we start to see robot lawn mowers. Why? Because we are lazy. Or want to enslave robots.

The robots won’t rise up and kill us, right? Well, look at the shit that robot vacuum cleaners cause. Like, literally, shit hits the ceiling. And that’s with a robot that is supposed to suck.

Now we’re making a robot that cuts grass because we are too lazy to mow our own lawn. I wonder what could go wrong with equipping robots with sharp blades.

Sure, the Luba robot lawn mower has the obstacle detection function and will avoid obstacles, but what if it doesn’t and ends up mowing down things that it isn’t supposed to. I don’t think it’ll cut down the dog, but it might just mow the dog’s poop all over the lawn. I guess this turns it into a nice fertilisation device to spread the nutrients all over the garden. Equality for all grass. Yay.

Background check

The Mammotion brand is owned by Songling Robot (Shenzhen) Co, Ltd. We did a check and they are owned by Songling Robot (Dongguan) Co, Ltd that is in turn owned by Songling Intelligent Technology (Dongguan) Co., Ltd.

The parent company are in the AI and robotics field under the brand AgileX.

These companies seem to have developed quite a number of robots so they appear to have the ability to bring a project like Luba to life. Whether the product itself delivers what it promises is another matter altogether, though it is one that we’ll only have an answer to once backers start to receive their products.

We appreciate that the team is being fairly honest by not trying to hide under a fake identity or brand image. However, they do try to avoid saying who they are outright by not talking about the team behind the project at all. It could also be due to them being a large corporation and hence it doesn’t make that much sense to present a team.

The campaign is from Hong Kong, a typical move by Shenzhen and China-based companies since they are unable to launch a campaign with a Chinese company. They would usually have a Hong Kong company to facilitate their international operations.

Red flag 🚩

We noticed one of the collaborators is Longham. We have encountered campaigns run by them before. Check out the Trustpilot reviews where they have a 2.1 out of 5 rating by backers who claim to have been scammed by them.

Alternatives

There are many robot lawn mowers in the market. They range from between USD 500 to USD 1,300 on Amazon. Luba costs USD 1,299 during Kickstarter and will retail at USD 2,499. The steep discount shows how much margin it has with such a product, unless it is just a marketing tactic to get more people to buy during the campaign. After all, the price sits at the higher end of what’s available in the market.

We dislike how they try to mislead people by comparing the Luba with competitors that they claim to cost USD 2,850 and USD, 4,999. There are cheaper alternatives and it isn’t really hard for people to do a quick search. Be honest about it.

And no, don’t give me the crap that you only compare with the more expensive products because you don’t consider the cheaper ones your competitors.

Hi, I’m Takeshi.

I’m a cyborg bear. You might think I go for techy stuff, but I do have an artistic side and appreciate good design.