LG's robot mower uses GPS to keep your grass cut
The manufacturer says the robot will work with the virtual assistants Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
There's no word yet on when or where the LG Lawn Mower Robot will be available.
LG wants to take the aches and pains out of lawn care by letting you control its latest smart mower with your voice. The manufacturer's LG Lawn Mower Robot will work with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, the virtual assistants that you can cue with your voice. That means you should be able to say, "Alexa, cut my grass" or "OK, Google, mow the lawn" to your Alexa- or Google Assistant-enabled smart speaker when the grass is too long, and the Lawn Mower Robot will automatically do its thing.
LG showed off the Lawn Mower Robot Thursday at the IFA consumer electronics trade show in Berlin. The company first announced the mower at the CES 2017 consumer electronics show, but it made more details available this week:
- Along with integration with Amazon and Google, LG equipped the boxy mower with GPS tracking that collects data about where it needs to go in your yard. That GPS will also let you know where your Lawn Mower Robot is if someone steals it from your lawn.
- You have to install a perimeter wire around your yard so the robot mower knows where to stop mowing.
- The mower takes 30 minutes to fully charge.
- It can mow 5,500 square feet in 2.5 hours.
But there's still a lot we don't know about the Lawn Mower Robot. LG didn't release information about when it will be available, in which countries you can buy it or how much the mower will cost. It's sure to be expensive -- robot lawnmowers tend to start at about $1,000 (about £775 or AU$1,260) and increase from there depending on how large your yard is.
Whenever the Lawn Mower Robot becomes available, it does seem to have some advantages over similar gadgets, such as the $1,600 Robomow RS612 we reviewed last year. Integration with virtual assistants is cool, and the built-in GPS adds some security to robot lawnmowers since you're supposed to leave them outside rather than locked away.
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