Segway’s Navimow i-series robotic lawn mowers are now available in the United States, following their launch in Europe earlier this month. As one of the first sub-$1,000 robot lawn mowers that can navigate autonomously without the need for boundary lines, its arrival could be the beginning of robotic lawn mowers going mainstream.
The Navimow i-Series comes in two models: the $999 i105N, which covers 0.125 acres, and the $1,299 i110N, which manages up to 0.25 acres. It uses Segway’s Precision Fusion Positioning System 2.0, a vision-enhanced real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS system with cameras for outdoor mapping. It can also avoid obstacles and maneuver around trees, shrubs, garden borders, and even animals and humans while mowing your lawn.
According to the company, the new lawn robot features AI-powered maps, a ride-on-edge mode for mowing edges, and Map Assist that lets you customize your preferred mowing route in the app.
Until now, to get this kind of intelligence in a lawn mowing robot, you had to spend more money. While there are cheaper wired robots available for under $1,000, these require perimeter wires running around your yard to avoid mowing down your flower beds.
This isn’t Segway’s first robotic lawn mower. The company launched the wireless GPS-powered H series in 2021. These models can handle larger yards but are more expensive, starting at $1,900 for a 0.2-acre yard and going up to $2,600 for a 0.74-acre yard. Both the H and i series support smartphone applications and virtual borders.
Yard size has always been an issue for robotic lawn mowers. Unless a large battery is installed, few can handle the larger sizes popular in the US. This increases size and price. When it comes to the really big yards, there’s still not much to choose from other than arguably the leader in the field: Husqvarna. Its cordless Automower 450X EPOS sells for $5,900 but can handle yards up to 2.5 acres.
1/5
However, as with robot vacuums, as competition in the market increases, we can expect prices to start to drop and features to improve. 2024 is going to be a big year for robotic lawn mowers.
I saw a ton of new robotic lawn mowers at CES 2024, most of which are expected to be released this year (one of which is already on the market). These include Aiper’s Horizon U1, Mammotion’s Luba AWD, Ecovacs’ Goat G1 and Dreame A1. The last two are both from robot vacuums, so it will be interesting to see what new features they bring to the garden.
There are also some interesting innovations in this area. Yarbo has developed a modular yard robot that, among other functions, can be used as a snow blower, lawn mower, leaf blower and trailer to tow yard equipment. The core robot costs $5,500, with mods like the lawnmower adding $1,500 to the price, so this is still an expensive robot. But I’m excited to see all of these innovations in smart gardens and look forward to testing some of these robotic lawn mowers this spring.
