A little while back I blogged about robot vacuums and my desire to get a robotic lawn mower. The Roomba 530 that my wife bought as an anniversary gift has been doing a great job keeping the floors clean and we've even discussed buying a Scooba to eliminate our need for a mop. There's very little these days that I find more satisfying than putting my feet up and reading the paper while Roomba does the chores. Gizmodo has an interesting post this morning regarding the recall of several LawnBott Lawn Mower models because the blades continue to turn if the device is lifted. Seems to me this was a serious design oversight since even Roomba, a vacuum cleaner, knows enough to cease operation when lifted! Even so, you have to be a little daft to even attempt to pick up a lawn mower when running, robotic or not. Which begs the question, would the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issue a recall on this device if it had handles and was propelled manually? Better to fix it though than have a bunch of fingerless half wits running around... besides, you wouldn't want young children, who don't know any better, attempting to lift the thing.
