There’s really nothing more annoying than settling into a show, good book, or a call only to have your robovac come whining around the corner, forcing you to dive for the bot or fire up its app so that you can shut it up.
Every robovac manufacturer promises a “quiet” experience, between 50-60 decibels, about the noise level of normal conversation. Except. That normal conversation is never a combination of whirring brushes, whining motors, and increasing suction.
It’s not the quantity of noise, but the quality.
Matic is here to change how you feel about robovacs, making them the helpful, intelligent companions you want them to be as opposed to the noisy toddlers with mops that they are.
Founded By Google Engineers
In an industry that’s dominated by me-too knockoffs, does it make sense to innovate? Robovacs are mundane. Boring, even. Every year they get a little more powerful, a little better at avoiding obstacles. Their apps improve incrementally. But, at the end of day, you’ve got a circular (or square) bot roaming around on a schedule you set, beaming your data and home layout to some faraway server where it’s used for who knows what.
But what if your robovac was more than just another connected tool? What if it could learn? What if it set its own working hours and let you keep your data private?
Matic, founded by former Google engineers (they worked on a little thing called Nest), is doing just that with a robovac that is poised to utterly transform the industry by focusing on autonomy and privacy first.
Underwhelmed by the robovacs on the market, Matic was designed to operate constantly, with as little noise as possible, being able to mop and vacuum without human intervention or a large dock to support it.
Boxy But Different
Instead of a flat, geometric shape, Matic looks more like…well, a pile of soft-edged rectangles, but arranged in a way that it’s got a bit of a personality. More like a robot companion than an appliance.
That shape means Matic won’t be spending much time under low furniture, there just isn’t enough clearance. But there’s a method to Matic’s break from the norm.
That boxy body contains an onboard water tank and large HEPA dust bag. Rather than rely on a dock to wet mopping pads or to empty the dust bin at the end of a cleaning session (both of which are noisy affairs), Matic carries its water supply with it and compresses dust and gelled liquid waste (it uses the same technology that keeps babies’ butts dry) into the bag.
When Matic needs a water refill, it lets you know. When the dust bag needs to be disposed of, it parks itself by the trash can so that you can take care of things. Incidentally, Matic does have a dock, but it’s a demure affair that’s just for charging.
The Implied “Auto”
Matic uses simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology like many high-end robovacs on the market. It also uses RGB cameras to classify surfaces, identify obstacles, and figure out how and where it needs to clean.
What’s different is that Matic is using an onboard AI algorithm to combine this input into a constantly-updated map of your home that’s accurate down to 1.5cm. Avoiding obstacles as they emerge and finding messes as they occur (Matic will remember high-traffic areas in your home and seek out dirt).
Whether it does this with any consistency remains to be seen. I’ve tested many-a-bot with visual navigation that I still had to rescue on a regular basis. But part of that is due to all other bots relying on the cloud. Without an internet connection, most robovacs are doomed to get stuck, punting back to bump-and-go or just refusing to operate altogether.
Matic isn’t constantly beaming information to the cloud for analysis. Processing is local, your data private. It gives you control and doesn’t force you to upload your data.
But How Does It Clean?
First, Matic doesn’t rely on a set path through your home. The bot patrols your home on a regular basis, identifying messes and cleaning them as it finds them. It can also respond to voice commands, such as asking it to clean up a certain area.
It has a tangle free brush and a microfiber mop roller (rather than rotating or vibrating pads). It can automatically detect surfaces, so it won’t soak your carpets and rugs with the mop. The way it operates is interesting, traveling forward to vacuum, in reverse to mop. It makes me wonder a bit about efficiency but then if Matic is truly as quiet as the company claims, the bot operating for a long time to clean your home won’t be that much of an issue.
The vacuum roller is designed to agitate rugs and carpets, reducing the need for noisy high suction motors (Matic doesn’t have suction metrics available for the system at this time, so I’m making a bit of an assumption here). The roller should also remain tangle-free. Matic has a side brush as well to clean corners. I’ll be curious to see how much noise that adds to the system overall. Generally, it’s the smaller motors of the side brushes that generate that mosquito whine associated with typical robovacs.
I do wonder, without a dock, how clean Matic will be able to keep the microfiber mop. The company says that the system automatically squeezes dirty water out of the mop during operation and that a brush should last about a month with regular usage. You can also wash the mop roller by hand.
Which brings me to everyone’s favorite topic: replacement parts. Like just about every smart thing in your home these days, Matic will come with a subscription service. This will keep you in HEPA bags, mopping rollers, tangle-free brushes, and any other parts that your Matic might need. The membership is free for the first year if you pre-order your Matic and is $180 annually after that.
Only As Connected As You Want
If you use the app, data is sent to your phone via your wifi network rather than the cloud. All data processing happens locally on the bot itself on a chip that’s about as powerful as the iPhone 6. The only time Matic will connect to your bot is to monitor supply levels and provide OTA firmware updates—though even that is opt-in.
Matic doesn’t need the internet and won’t bug you to connect. You can choose to forgo any data communication outside of your home. You can manually purge mapping data from your device at any time.
What Price Revolution?
So what’s the catch for opting in to the next generation of quiet, autonomous, private robovacs? Well, if you pre-order before Sunday, it’s $1,480, with a free 1-year membership. After that it’s $1,795 with $180 annual fee.
The MSRP is steep, considering that current top-end vacs cost around $1,000. However, if Matic can live up to its spec sheet, it could be the biggest breakthrough in a decidedly stagnant product category.
I’m very much looking forward to checking out Matic when it’s released in early 2024.
