‘Drunk’ robot vacuum cleaners run amok in peoples’ houses after software update

Users of robotic vacuum cleaners have reported that their Roombas are acting “drunk” after a faulty software update scrambled the robots’ circuits.

One Roomba owner wrote in a Reddit user forum: “It works, but it basically now behaves like it's had a stroke and has no idea where it is most of the time. It will bang itself against the same wall 20 times before moving on… I'm thinking of buying it a football helmet.”

Another said: "These robots looks drunk since the update. Mounting complaints in the forums continue.”

Customers claim the devices have been getting lost in owners' houses, bashing repeatedly into walls and cleaning one small area over and over again.

Dozens of users on Reddit and Twitter say the Roomba's recent 3.12.8 firmware update has been causing severe issues.

Manufacturers iRobot have been working on a fix, reports The Verge, but even customers whose vacuums have been restored to factory settings say the problems have persisted, with one saying his £1,500 vacuum cleaner is “getting dumber by the day".

iRobot say they are releasing a new update to address the problems, which they say should roll out “over the next several weeks.”

It added: "We've worked with impacted customers to roll their robot’s software back, and we are also implementing an update to ensure any similar issues are avoided moving forward."

But in the meantime users are experiencing weirder and weirder behaviour from their robot cleaners.

Some say they need to replace the units altogether. One user wrote on Twitter: “Three weeks ago #roomba bricked my 2 month old $1000 S9+ with a firmware update, then me it needs to be replaced, but they are backlogged. “

One Reddit user made a time-lapse video that showed how their Roomba was behaving after the update, as it made repeated attempts to make it home to its recharging station before finally running out of power.

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