this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2025
19 points (95.2% liked)

Smart Homes

806 readers
34 users here now

For the discussion of smart homes, home automation and the like. Because of the instance it will tend to have a more UK flavour but everyone is welcome.

Elsewhere in the Fediverse:

Rules:

NB: looking for moderators.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Hey guys,

I don't know if you'd count vacuum robots as smart home as well, but I guess this might be interesting: Vorwerk, owner of Neato Robotics, has closed down the cloud features for Neato Botvacs - three years earlier than they promised to.

A petition is going strong against it.

I'd be happy if you could sign and share. Even if you are not affected today, it could be a strong sign for other vendors as well...

https://www.openpetition.org/us/petition/online/vorwerk-need-to-stop-destroying-working-hardware-keep-neato-robotics-cloud-alive

top 6 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Or they can patch the robot (if they can send firmware updates) to support local servers and then release the code to deploy a local server

[–] Zachariah@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

It should be the law that for all abandoned devices, companies are forced to do provide root access at end of life.

[–] Ascendor@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

That is one of the demands of the petition :-)

[–] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 2 points 15 hours ago
[–] TootSweet@lemmy.world 7 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Help us Valetudo, you're our only hope.

(No idea if Valetudo supports those specific devices.)

[–] Ascendor@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 19 hours ago

Unfortunately, valetudo is not compatible with Neato devices. There are other great initiatives, including integrating an ESP32 device. Nevertheless, even if we are able to revive the devices, I think a strong statement should be sent to Vorwerk (and others) that we don't accept behavior like this. So please sign and share, even if you are not directly affected this time!