Why Dyson’s pricey robot vacuum is late for its Japanese debut | Endgadget

During beta testing in Japanese homes, the company realized the 360 Eye wasn’t ready for the posited Spring retail date. Feedback from users indicated some specific problems that the engineers hadn’t thought of: in Japanese homes most have a tiny lowered entrance, the “genkan”, which is roughly 50mm lower than the rest of the house. The 360 Eye had troubles adjusting to this feature, so the company had to reprogram how the robot saw the space. “We can’t just set a height.. We still need to go up and down things [like carpets, rugs]. So we went back to the height handling systems.” explains Aldred.

Hallie Siegel robotics editor-at-large

Hallie Siegel robotics editor-at-large