GoKawiilis a senior reviewer with over twenty years of experience. She covers smart home, IoT, and connected tech, and has written previously for Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, BBC, and US News.
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Robot lawnmowers are finally good enough to take a lot of work out of maintaining a yard, but they’re still not set-it-and-forget-it machines. If you don’t want these autonomous cutting machines to tear up your lawn or go roaming in your neighbors’ yard, you’re still going to need to keep an eye on them. But with some oversight, they can take a big chore off your hands.
This summer I tested five bots on my flat, three-quarter-acre, coastal South Carolina property with sandy soil, centipede grass, and lots of trees. Things went much better than last year’s trials and tribulations, thanks to huge improvements in navigation and maneuverability. Basically, they stopped getting stuck. My lawn has never looked better, and my spouse — who had sworn off robot lawnmowers after a user-error injury — is now a convert. His riding lawnmower has been idle for over a month.
The consistency of robot mowers is impressive. Running daily and shaving just millimeters at a time, these mowers have created a noticeably lusher lawn. I walked out on it barefoot this morning — something I’ve never done before. The best part is that they work quietly around the clock, without bothering my pets, the wildlife, or the neighbors. I also love the professional-looking lawn lines they make.
My backyard has mostly been a dry, sandy, dusty landscape with patchy grass. Three months of robot lawnmowers have helped it look healthier. My chickens don’t appreciate the neat lines, but I do.
What’s better
The key upgrades this year are network RTK navigation, fallback navigation systems, and improved all-wheel-drive to tackle rougher terrain.
RTK — real-time kinematic positioning — is the satellite positioning tech most automowers switched to over the last few years as they’ve ditched boundary wires. It uses stationary ground-based reference stations (antennas), along with GPS, to provide very precise location data, down to a centimeter or two. It’s used for surveying, drone navigation, and anything that needs that fine level of precision.
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