Robot | The Verge

Dyson finally made a better robot, but a worse vacuum

2026-05-01T12:09:36-04:00

The Dyson Spot + Scrub Ai is Dyson’s first combination robot vacuum and mop. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

I'm deeply conflicted about the Dyson Spot + Scrub Ai robot vacuum and mop. It's the company's best robotic floor cleaner to date, with excellent mopping performance, good navigation and obstacle detection, and a multifunction dock that takes much of the busywork off your hands. But Dyson's first attempt at a vacuum-and-mop combo is a worse vacuum than its predecessors, and that's because there's no Dyson motor in this vacuum.

You read that right. For $1,200, the Spot + Scrub doesn't get you a Dyson vacuum; instead, you're getting a third-party motor and brush system. "It's not one of our V10 motors, it's one of our partner technologies," N …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Dyson put someone else’s motor in its robot vacuum

2026-05-01T06:33:06-04:00

Dyson’s newest robot vacuum adds mopping capabilities but takes away the Dyson motor of its predecessor. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Dyson, a company built on engineering high-speed motors, has confirmed to The Verge that its newest robot vacuum doesn't use a Dyson motor. The recently launched Spot & Scrub Ai robot vacuum and mop was "co-engineered," Nathan Lawson McLean, senior design manager at Dyson, told The Verge.

According to Lawson McLean, the device merges "new and already existing Dyson technologies with other platforms." Specifically, the new lidar-based navigation tech and the robot's vacuum motor were developed by a third party. "It's not one of our V10 motors; it's one of our partner technologies," said Lawson McLean.

"It's not one of our V10 motors, it's …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Watch Sony’s elite ping-pong robot beat top-ranked players

2026-04-22T14:41:37-04:00

Ace is the first robot that can beat the best human players while following the official rules of table tennis. | Image: Sony AI

Humans have been building ping-pong playing robots for decades, such as Omron's FORPHEUS that challenged amateur competitors at CES 2017. What sets Ace apart from the rest is that the robot, which was developed by Sony's AI division, is the first that can hold its own against top-ranked human players and occasionally even beat them in matches that follow the official rules of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).

AI is already capable of besting humans at games like Chess and Go, but physical games pose a much greater challenge as robots have to be engineered to match the speed and responsiveness of the human mind and body. To b …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Humanoid ‘Lightning’ robot smashes the half-marathon record

2026-04-20T12:03:52-04:00

The autonomous “Lightning” robot finished the race in under an hour. | Photo: VCG / Getty Images

An autonomous scarlet robot named "Lightning" finished a 13-mile race in Beijing on Sunday in just 50 minutes and 26 seconds, less than half the time of last year's fastest robot, which took two hours and 40 minutes. As Reuters reports, Du Xiaodi, one of the engineers who developed Lightning at smartphone company Honor, said the robot "was in development for a year, fitted with legs 90 to 95 cm (35 to 37 inches) long to mimic elite human runners and liquid cooling technology used in its smartphones."

Lightning not only won the half-marathon, beating all 12,000 human runners, but also beat the human world record of 57 minutes and 20 seconds …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Ecovacs’ new robovac spots and pretreats dried stains using powerful jets

2026-04-14T11:25:31-04:00

The robovac sprays a mixture of water and cleaning solution to loosen stains. | Image: Ecovacs

Ecovacs announced a new addition to its Deebot line of autonomous cleaners with a new feature that could make the robovac better at cleaning floors in a single pass. The Deebot X12 OmniCyclone uses cameras and AI to identify dried stains on floors, such as muddy paw prints or spilled soda. Before cleaning the stain with its roller mop, the X12 blasts a mixture of water and cleaning solution in the bot's path to soften tricky messes, making them easier to scrub away.

The Deebot X12 OmniCyclone is available starting today for $1,499 through the company's online store and Amazon. That price includes the robovac's OMNI Station dock, which empti …

Read the full story at The Verge.

I met Olaf — the Frozen robot who might be the future of Disney Parks

2026-03-20T20:10:33-04:00

Olaf, a Disney Imagineering robot that will greet guests at Disney parks. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

You know Olaf. Before KPop Demon Hunters, before the Wicked movies, it was Disney's Frozen that blasted show tunes like "Let It Go" and "Into the Unknown" into our lives. My little girls loved belting those tunes.

So when I met Olaf, the Disney Imagineering robot, I kept thinking: I can't wait for my kids to meet him too.

It's a weird thought, really, because this Olaf isn't a "he" and can't carry on a conversation. Why do I keep thinking "I met him" when he's largely a remote-controlled puppet teleoperated by a Steam Deck gaming handheld?

@verge
Is this the best robot Disney's ever made? Frozen's snowman Olaf will soon greet guests …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Dyson’s new stain-spotting AI robovac is now available

2026-04-08T12:09:22-04:00

Dyson’s bringing the lasers from its handheld vacuums to its new autonomous cleaner. | Image: Dyson

Dyson's latest autonomous robot vacuum cleaner first debuted during IFA 2025 in Berlin last September. The Spot+Scrub Ai Robot is the company's follow-up to its 360 Vis Nav robovac launched in 2023 with upgrades that include a new self-cleaning roller mop, a multifunction dock, and lasers that can identify stains. It's available now through Dyson's physical stores and website, Amazon, and Best Buy for $1,199 - which is the same price as its less capable predecessor.

Dyson has abandoned the vision-based navigation system used on its earlier robovacs for lidar on the Spot+Scrub. It works alongside AI to recognize and avoid obstacles like soc …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Nosh Robotics’ $1,500 robot chef doesn’t need any help with dinner

2026-03-10T17:20:26-04:00

Anyone who finds themselves wishing they could spend less time on meal prep might have a solution in the form of the recently-launched Nosh One from Nosh Robotics, an AI kitchen appliance that can autonomously cook for you.

All users need to do is load their ingredients into the robot's tray then select a recipe. The Nosh One adds the ingredients into its pot at the appropriate time, stirs everything, uses AI to monitor the ingredients with a built-in camera, and completes the meal without needing any intervention along the way. Nosh's app notifies users when the meal is ready. They can also use the app to view and edit recipes and schedul …

Read the full story at The Verge.

iRobot’s Roomba Mini can clean where its larger robovacs can’t reach

2026-03-10T18:29:54-04:00

iRobot has announced its first new robot since the company filed for bankruptcy last December and was later acquired by China's Picea Robotics. At just 9.5-inches in diameter, the new Roomba Mini is half the size of iRobot's entry-level 105 series robovacs that launched last March, allowing the vacuum to access and clean spaces that are too narrow for larger robots.

The Roomba Mini was originally developed for smaller Japanese homes, but iRobot is expanding its availability to the United Kingdom where it's now available for £379, and the rest of Europe for €399. Color options include back, pink, white, and mint. The company currently has n …

Read the full story at The Verge.

This phone starts fires on purpose

2026-03-06T08:30:15-05:00

Until now, most mobile phone companies have worked to ensure their phones won't start fires. (Occasional Samsung devices excepted, of course.) But this week at Mobile World Congress, we found a company that dared to go in a different direction. Oukitel's WP63 rugged smartphone includes a built-in fire starter, and this is what it looks like:

On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge's Dominic Preston joins Nilay to explain the existence of this particular mobile device, as well as wrap up all the weird and wonderful gadgets he and the team saw at MWC. There was also a "robot phone" that dances to (and so far, only to) "Believer" by Imagin …

Read the full story at The Verge.