While we greatly appreciate the research done by the fine folks over at Georgia Tech, we can't exactly say that we're shocked to hear that Roomba owners (in particular) actually care about their vacuums. In a study revolving around the intricacies in human-robot relationships, gurus found that "some Roomba owners became deeply attached to the robotic vacuums and that there was a measure of public readiness to accept additional robots in the house -- even flawed ones." Interestingly, the report goes on to state that consumers would be less likely to complain if troublesome / faulty household bots were "emotionally engaging," and considering that some folks were willing to "buy new rugs, pre-clean floors and purchase refrigerators with higher clearances" for their Roomba, we suppose we can't really argue with the findings. Now, robot manufacturers, don't you go ditching quality just 'cause we're pushovers, capiche?[Image courtesy of Halo5]
