Roomba is dying and your dusty old broom might be making a comeback

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00:00Roomba is dying, and your dusty old broom might be making a comeback.

00:04Remember when your Roomba was the futuristic pet that slurped up crumbs without you lifting a finger?

00:09Yeah, those glory days for iRobot, the brainchild of MIT whiz kids Rodney Brooks, Helen Greiner, and Colin Angle.

00:15Back in 2001, feel like ancient history now.

00:19Fast forward 23 years, and the company that birthed the $199 Wonder Vacuum in 2002,

00:26outpricing snooty rivals like Electrolux's $1,500 trilobite is staring down the barrel of shutdown.

00:33It began when engineer Joseph L. Jones built an early intelligent sweeper,

00:37using simple sensors and cheap parts, and CEO Angle added a basic vacuum for extra power.

00:44iRobot built everything from military pack bots to the flop $98 my real baby.

00:49After tens of millions of $500 plus Roombas and years of dominance, their grip finally faded.

00:54iRobot bought competitors like Evolution Robotics, but fell behind innovators like Roborock,

01:00whose self-emptying bins and advanced AI now make Roomba seem outdated.

01:05The Genius Platform?

01:07Meh.

01:08The Outdoor Terabot?

01:09Cancelled.

01:10Colin Angle bailed as CEO amid the chaos, leaving a company that's continuing to decline financially,

01:16The Verge reports.

01:17Now, iRobot's begging for a loan waiver extension, warning operations could halt without it.

01:23iRobot faces near-immediate bankruptcy unless it finds funding or a buyer within weeks.

01:28Options are few.

01:29Find a buyer, secure emergency investment, or sell assets, restructure through bankruptcy.

01:34If none of those happen, the company will likely cease operations,

01:38and the future for Roomba owners becomes highly uncertain.

01:52There are no secrets that exist.

02:05There are no secrets that exist.

02:06There are no secrets that exist, including this issue.

02:08If there are no secrets, then the future will be monitored.

02:10The homeowner'salksmen are pretty soon.

02:11The homeowner'salksmen is very soon.

02:13I did not live in the future.

02:14There are no secrets that exist.