We thought the rider fell off or something and it was going to crash. Then it turned and kept mowing. Park Roomba!
Another picture:
TIL of the existence and proper use of the word mown
First thing I thought of was "Maximum Overdrive ". Loved that movie when I was a kid.
“This machine just called me an asshole.”
“You sure make love like a hero.”
Tactical EMP’s are necessary now.
I think I would have a genuinely hard time not messing with this or trying to ride it. Both which are objectively terrible ideas nonetheless it feels really tempting.
Seeing this picture, my first instinct was to tell op to stand in front of it. Worst that happens is an easy paycheck.
Run and grab a package of hotdogs and we can finally get the answer to an age old question.
Put a pile of sticks halfway between a mowed area and an area that hasn’t been cut.
Draw a line right in the middle of the camera lense? If that doesn’t do anything then a stick person?
Or just don’t vandalise government property which is there to make life better.
I mean to be fair these are more intrusive thought type things. I definitely probably would never actually do anything like that…
Worst that happens is an easy paycheck.
I would say worse that happens is a lawn mowing robot runs over me and I end up in the ICU.
And then you have every right to sue the beejezus outta whoever unleashed a robot into public that has super fast spinning knives but no obstacle avoidance programming.
Cool. You get cut to ribbons by a lawn mower. I have enough health problems as it is.
Or hacking it to mow a symbol of “I thought what I’d do was I’d become one of those deaf mutes”.
I wonder if it is CAN bus? I bet it is, maybe it even has an unsecured OBD port. It might be super easy to get into its computer. If this would let you turn off or change its wireless connection you could have full control. If nothing I am sure this would mess with the GPS map and get it to do some weird mowing.
If it does have an OBD port they make over the counter wifi and Bluetooth dongle. So all you would do is give it an unexpected obstacle, wait for it to pause and pop the dongle in.
Not sure on these larger industrial mowers, but the little WORX robot mower I have does have a programming port open for firmware updates. There’s been some custom firmwares out there; no need for signed code or anything like that.
I really wouldn’t be surprised if this thing is unsecured. I bet the hardest thing is accessing a port while it is running.
For the curious https://youtu.be/t1__h7vnnKY?si=K-RBu5beMPJYNNMn
Starts of nice and calmly, then the editor goes full on with the metal music thrashing for the title sequence. What a trip!
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/t1__h7vnnKY?si=K-RBu5beMPJYNNMn
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
“Charles, where’d the puppy go?” Sees this thing
Cricket‽
You in the US?
Robot lawn mowers are very common in Europe. You’ll see these small electric mowers in people’s yards all over the place. Businesses also have them running all day out front. Never seen one in the US.
They are equipped with GPS, so they are locked to a specific area to prevent theft.
I am in the U.S., yes.
GPS are very fancy ones, unless that’s changed since I last looked into it. A buried wire, “invisible fence”, has been the norm for all consumer grade ones I’ve seen.
The ones I have seen are GPS locked and they automatically “return home” to the charger when rain drops are detected.
I think the wire ones usually do too. When they’re out of power and possibly if it rains, they go straight until they reach the wire, and then follow it home to dock.
Yes, I believe the GPS ones are also guided by a wire to find edges and find their way home. The GPS is mostly for theft prevention. Won’t work outside a specific area unless it’s unlocked from the backend.
That’s the style we have as well. In addition to the wire it also detects if it bumps into walls.
Probably don’t use them here in the US because they’re afraid people will use them for target practice.
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I saw this for the first time in Brussels! Our Airbnb host got a kick over how enthralled 3 American women were over the idea of a lawn roomba 😂.
don’t like that.
This better not have put someone out of the job
It didn’t. The guy was still there to get the robot to its location and make sure it was working all right and I’m guessing he still had other maintenance to do in the park beyond mowing. But he did get to stay out of the sun on a hot day.
or…?
I guess I can piss on it
Doesnt look battery powered so that would only help it. The controller is likely sealed against weather too
i’m more worried about giving robots literal weapons but that’s also a very good point too.
Why is that worth a post? I suspect there are more lawn robots here in Germany than Dads mowing the lawn. Also, you don’t want to know what those things typically do to Sonic’s babies if they are programmed to mow at night.
I suppose that’s why it’s posted in mildly interesting?
It’s mildly interesting if you’re from a country that doesn’t use these, i.e. the US.
I don’t mean this in a negative way but I swear you’re like the Gallowboob of Lemmy, see you everywhere.
Contributors that don’t post like bots stick out
He’s got some personal issues.
Him and the Picard maneuver
Reminds me of this meme:
How many mowers do you think you could get your hands on before they catch you?
Probably one. I would imagine they have some kind of GPS on these.
You can see the little disks antenna on top.
I don’t know that I could fit it in my car.
we can prob balance it on my skate board and we can tow it.
I’m guessing its mortal enemy is the beach towel.
If it uses actual blades and is not a glorified string trimmer a simple piece of guy wire will jam it
Going to need you to lay down in front of the mower to see if it stops.
The public demands to know.
I’m a bit late to the party, but you can buy small ones of these for your own yards:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Greenworks-Robotic-Lawn-Mower-1-2-Acre-To-1-Acre/5014505685I’ve seen a couple of these on smallish business lawns.
My Landroid is cool. AMA I guess?
I’ve seen the small ones, but I totally didn’t expect that.
I’ve never seen a big one like that either.
I spent a few days working at a house with 4 of the Husqvarna versions. I had a really good time watching them all take off and do a route and dock all minding their own business. The really cool part is you never even see your grass grow because it’s always being maintained.
Are these the immigrants that are stealing all our jobs?
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This is what people should be fearing. Studies have shown that when immigrants come in and “take jobs”, they pay taxes, and buy goods to create a life here, effectively replacing the job they took (since we need people who make beds for them to sleep in, food for them to eat, etc).
This is automation that’s ACTUALLY taking our jobs. This automation doesn’t pay taxes, and doesn’t replace the job it takes.
I have heard an idea floated around that the companies that make these types of automation devices would pay massive taxes on them, and that tax would pay for UBI. I’m not sure how the math works, but to me that sounds like the ultimate endgame. Then we can all enjoy our lives without needing to do tedious or backbreaking work.
Absolutely it’s the best way forward. The catch is that it’s hard to calculate. If I write an app that saves someone 3 minutes of each work day, how much am I taxed on what I automated? We can just tax the rich, and assume they automate away everyone’s jobs.
You sure the automation doesn’t pay taxes…?
Very true, but let’s also keep in mind that automation doesn’t have to be a social evil. If our economic and political systems were better oriented toward lifting up society’s disadvantaged and keeping extreme individual/family wealth in check, automation could benefit all. With better social safety nets (or a UBI), government-sponsored job training (perhaps paid for by taxes on automation), and incentives for starting small businesses, automation could mean less human drudgery in the workforce, and more efficient economic outcomes for all.
I’m not optimistic about that given our track record as a species, but it’s possible.
TL;DR: automated production is good if and only if the people own the means.
If we can fight the owners to keep our shitty back breaking jobs and win, we should have fought the owners to rebuild our economy for automation profits to largely benefit the people from the bottom up.
If we the peasant masses even can win against the tiny owner class oligarchs, lets fight for the right thing. And if we can’t win, well then it’s all masturbation anyway and they’ll do what they want.
It’s irrational to fight for “we demand to continue to break our backs making your shit instead of robots so we can continue to subsist on menial laborer wages with broken backs!” in any event. That’s some coal miner excuse for logic.
Unfortunately the system has laid the framework for it to destroy itself when automation becomes ubiquitous. Imagine if y2k was inevitable but the engineers who’s jobs it was to fix it hands were tied by the software company’s forcing them to install more and more bugged software.
I wish you were wrong, but unfortunately I think I agree with you.
I don’t fear this. Automate EVERYTHING NOW
Speak for yourself. I still want to jerk off manually.
Switches jerk off machine from auto to manual.
100% let’s do this.
