Roomba: Hitting the Wall | The New Space Race | 3
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Hey Business Wars fans, have you heard? Audible subscribers can listen to new episodes of Business Wars early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts. From Audible Originals, I'm David Brown, and this is Business Wars.
In the early two thousands, roombas began whirring around millions of US homes sucking up pet hair and Cheerios, among other things. The circular vacuums were a success story for their American inventors, bringing us one step closer to this scene on the Jetsons where robots do the work while we play. But the good times didn't last forever. iRobot, Roomba's parent company, declared bankruptcy in December of twenty twenty five, and Piscea Robotics, its Chinese supplier, acquired iRobot. To some, that bankruptcy feels like more than just a business loss. It seems like yet another win for Chinese tech. In recent years, visitors to China have come back to the U.S. shaking their heads, saying we've been outmanufactured, outsmarted, just plain outdone by the Chinese.
Here to talk about all of this and a whole lot more, Christopher Mims, a tech reporter at the Wall Street Journal. He's the author of How to AI Cut Through the Hype, Master the Basics, Transform Your Work, as well as another book Arriving Today from Factory to Front Door: Why Everything Has Changed. About how and what we buy. We're going to talk about innovation, AI, and robots. Lots of robots. All that is coming up.
Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of the podcast American Scandal. Our latest series tells the story of college counselor Rick Singer, who thought he'd found a way to rig the admissions process for his wealthy clients until an unrelated FBI investigation inadvertently exposed the largest college admission scandal in American history. Listen to American Scandal on Audible or wherever you get your podcasts.
James Arthur Ray was a charismatic self-help guru who promised his followers a path to wealth and enlightenment by becoming the best versions of themselves. But not all who followed him finished their journey. For the best bingeable series, listen to the Audible True Crime podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Joining us today, Christopher Mims, Tech Reporter at the Wall Street Journal. Christopher, so glad you could join us on Business Wars. It's a pleasure to be here, longtime listener. Well, thank you so much. And obviously longtime reader here. Uh so what was your reaction to the news back in December that iRobot had declared bankruptcy? Was that sort of the end of an era for for you as you saw it? Or what? Yeah.
Was a bummer. I mean, it was uh iconic American company that had been in decline for a long time. It had seen layoffs, and it ultimately felt like a classic tale of China kind of consuming an American company by copying what it did best and and out competing it. But iRobot is not a failure because it Made this completely genre-defining product, the Roomba. This was the first, and really still for most people, the only successful mass market robot in history, right? Do you have any other robots in your house? I mean, does the dishwasher count? This really was singular. And it felt like a little piece of the future was peeking into the present. You know, I've spent time with Colin. Alan Angle, you know, the founder of iRobots since then.
And his next act, which he has told me was what he wanted to do all along, is a form of emotionally intelligent robot. So it's like a companion. It's funny that, you know, the guy who gave us the Roomba really always wanted to um make a pet that would comfort us and keep us from feeling too lonely. What what does it look like? It looks like a cross between a teddy bear and a dog. And this is just the first of many, they say.
Do you believe there are legitimate security concerns about the acquisition of iRobot by Piscea Robotics? Is there anything that we need to be concerned about there?
I do think that if you're going to have an internet connected device in your home that has some kind of camera on it.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–15:53
2
What led iRobot to declare bankruptcy and how did it impact the Roomba brand?
15:53–21:20
3
Why are companies focusing on humanoid robots instead of task‑specific machines?
21:20–22:55
4
What security and privacy risks arise from Chinese ownership of IoT robots like the Roomba?
22:55–28:32
5
How does outsourcing manufacturing to China affect U.S. intellectual‑property advantage?
28:32–41:12