The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is at it again. After recently targeting drones and routers made in China, the FCC has updated its list of banned devices to include a new category of “advanced robotic devices.” While the rule covers humanoids and quadrupeds, it goes much further, as some of the best robot vacuums also fall under the new ban, according to a report from The Verge.
The new category covers just about any software-controlled autonomous robot that weighs more than 4.4 pounds, including its dock, can sense its surroundings and connects to a wireless network. In addition to household robot vacuums, this also includes everything from robot lawn mowers to curbside delivery robots and even warehouse robots. This doesn’t mean that the robot vacuum sitting in your closet is suddenly illegal or that you should get rid of it. This simply means that retailers will no longer be able to continue selling unapproved models.
This particular ruling only affects newer models, and just like the FCC’s router ban, these companies can still get permission to continue selling. Beyond robot vacuums, the FCC is also currently considering targeting burner phones and adding other restrictions across the board. So while the router ban may have sparked this recent string of developments, it’s likely that the bot ban is the last we’ll see outside of the current administration.
Why Robovacs are being swept away by the ban
There are a number of reasons why the FCC is going after robots made in China, and much of it has to do with overall concerns about the safety and security of American homes. It’s the same reason we’ve seen the FCC ban some DJI routers and drones. With robot vacuums in particular, we’ve seen some interesting issues crop up in the past, including a major incident where a man was able to hack thousands of DJI robot vacuums and access data like home layouts and more.
The problem here, however, is that the FCC isn’t just targeting companies like DJI that had poor security. It actually focuses on all things Chinese technology, and some of Robovac’s biggest brands, like Roborock and Ecovacs, are based in China. Even Roomba, which started as an American name in the market, actually became owned by a former manufacturer based in China. One analyst even told The Verge that non-Chinese robot vacuum brands make up such a small portion of the market that they’re not even worth tracking, and added that Matic, a robot vacuum fully assembled in California, doesn’t source enough components from the U.S. to clear the bar set by this new ban. So even though the focus is on robots incorporating Chinese components, this seems to affect the entire industry as it currently exists.
