Can AI Mow Your Lawn Now?

Matt is reviewing another Kickstarter product. This time it’s a robot lawn mower. Will Matt think it’s a genius invention or just another variation of what is already on the market?

CapForge has worked with 1000+ ecommerce businesses and other small businesses and has seen some great products out there! 

In this series, we look at new products on the market and see if they are worth investing in. Think along the lines of Shark Tank, but with no real money involved just for fun. 

Video Transcript: 

Product Promo Video:

Narrator: Ah the weekend, the perfect opportunity to mow the lawn. 

Actor 1” “Alexa, have Yuka mow and sweep the front yard.”

Alexa:  “Start working”. 

Narrator: Meet Yuka, the 3D Vision Robot Lawn Sweeping Mower. You may be wondering…

Actor 2: “How does Yuka mow the lawn?”

Narrator: Yuka can cut grass faster with dual cutting discs. Forget about sweeping, Yuka sweeps leaves and debris as it mows. And when all filled up automatically empties itself.

Actor 1: “Is Yuka easy to set up?”

Narrator:  Just walk with Yuka around your yard. Using 3D vision mapping and enhanced RTK, Yuka can create wire-free virtual boundaries.

Actor 2: Iis Yuka smart?”

Narrator: Using an advanced stereo vision system and a rearview camera, Yuka can see its surroundings. AI deep learning allows you to identify just about anything and avoid obstacles in its way. It can even mow in GPS blind spots.

Actor 1: “Can Yuka be customized?”

Narrator: Control Yuka from anywhere. Exactly the way you want. Set where and when you want to mow, and no-go zones. Then let Yuka handle the rest. For those special occasions, express yourself through creative lawn printing.

Actor 2: “How does Yuka mow the perfect lawn?”

Narrator: Yuka automatically adjusts cutting height for a carpet-like lawn and it can even climb hard-to-reach places.

Actor 1: “What else can yuka do?”

Narrator: A lot more. Rest easy when you’re away. Yuka keeps a watchful eye on your property. Effortlessly track its location with anti-theft protection. Yuka is waterproof and can detect rain. When it’s out of power it automatically returns home to charge. RTK is even easier to install. So you wanna spend your weekend doing this [messing with a standard lawn mower] or enjoy doing the things you love most?

Matt’s Review: 

Okay well, I mean it’s a cool concept but I was in Norway last summer and noticed walking around, my wife and I, that a lot of yards had automated mowers. They had things that looked pretty similar to this or like you know a Roomba on steroids, driving around on the lawns and doing automated mowing. So I’m not sure exactly what’s different about this one that, you know, it needs its own Kickstarter and it needs to be added in. I don’t know if the sweep feature is what’s different because I did notice that the ones in Norway that I was seeing there didn’t have collection bags. So I was trimming the grass but kinda leaving the trimmings behind but that doesn’t seem like something that they couldn’t add fairly easily. I also noticed the ones in Norway they could climb hills, that wasn’t a problem, but they had a hard time going around stuff. Meaning it would it wouldn’t run into things but it wouldn’t trim very closely next to

objects that were unusual sizes or like a tree where the roots come down and sort of an uneven pattern. It couldn’t really handle that. So I don’t know if this one is gonna be better than that or that’s gonna be a limitation of almost any automated mower. That is just not gonna be able to handle those unusual angles or figure out how to get into a triangular-shaped space where it have to kind of come in a few different ways to get the whole thing cut. Or just because of the design is not gonna be able to cut as closely but I mean in general, I think it’s a good idea. I think the concept has already been proven. There’s already automated mowers out there, so I guess the challenge for these guys is just gonna be getting some attention versus the existing competition and differentiate themselves for what is unique about this product. And maybe it is just the picking up the stuff in the back or something else about it I missed that the current ones don’t do as well. Maybe it’s the electric fence piece that you don’t have to have a markers on the edge of the yard for this to work and other ones you do. Although pretty sure there wasn’t anything like that for the ones I’d seen before. So I don’t know it’s a, I’m sure they’ll sell some but whether or not they can compete with who’s already out there and whether or not the difference is good enough to make a difference I guess remains to be seen. They raised quite a bit more than their original goal although I didn’t look at what the price of these things is. So I would imagine they’re not cheap and that’s gonna probably be a deterrent too for people,  for widespread adoption of an automated mower versus you know the old standard just walk behind it mower yourself with your own legs. So Interesting.