Having trouble potty training your recently adopted pandemic pet? You might want to ditch your current robot vacuum and switch to the new iRobot Roomba j7+.
Announced on Thursday, the latest addition to iRobot's lineup can't stop your dog from pooping in the house, but if your fur baby does have an accident, the Roomba j7+ won't smear it all over your floors.
According to iRobot, the new vacuum uses a built-in camera and machine learning technology to detect and automatically avoid common obstacles as small as phone charging cables, even in low-light conditions. It won't be able to avoid shoes and socks at launch (iRobot plans to add those objects to its algorithm in the future), but the company says it has already trained its machine learning software to identify and steer clear of pet waste. iRobot is so confident in its new technology that it's offering the j7+ with a P.O.O.P. (Pet Owner Official Promise) guarantee: If the robot fails to avoid solid pet waste within a year of your purchase, the company will give you a new one for free.
"The Roomba j7+ incorporates many of the things we know our customers look for in a premium robot," iRobot chief product officer Keith Hartsfield said in a statement. "It’s a powerful, hands-free cleaning system that detects and avoids obstacles, adapts to the user’s needs, cleans based on individual preferences and schedules, and gets smarter over time."
Recommended by Our Editors
The Roomba j7+ isn't the first robot vacuum with AI-powered obstacle-avoidance technology. The $799.99 Ecovacs Deebot Ozmo T8 AIVI, our current Editors' Choice winner among premium floor-cleaning robots, offers similar technology, and in our testing, successfully avoided dog toys that have tripped up competitors.
iRobot won't be bringing its new poop-avoidance feature to older models, even the premium Roomba s9 series, which starts at $1,099.99, due to the location of their cameras. With the j7 series, iRobot moved the camera from the top of the robot to the front, giving it a wider field of view, and allowing it to see objects on the floor.
Like iRobot's Roomba i3+, the j7+ comes with a Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal dock that charges the robot and holds around 60 days worth of debris in its AllergenLock bag (depending on how often you vacuum and how dirty your home is).
The Roomba j7+ is available for purchase now for $849. As a more affordable alternative, the company is also selling the Roomba j7, which doesn't come with a self-emptying base, for $649. The Roomba i3+ and s9+ both earned four out of five stars in PCMag's reviews; stay tuned for our review of the j7+.