Jonathan Feist / Android Authority
TL;DR
- The FCC’s latest ban on foreign tech has set its aim at “advanced robotic devices.”
- While the announcement specifically mentioned walking robots, the FCC has now clarified that the ban impacts robot vacuums as well.
- Current models (despite some clear examples of security risks) won’t be impacted, but future launches may face the ban.
The current administration has a complicated relationship with China, to put it mildly, and when it’s not wreaking havoc on the global economy with tariffs, it’s fixating on the latest Chinese tech it wants to ban. This week, that has extended to banning foreign “advanced robotic devices,” but as it turns out, “advanced” may be a much lower bar than you’d think — so low, even robotic vacuums make the cut.
The FCC announced the ban yesterday, focusing on humanoid and quadruped robots — basically, anything that walks around — as well as power inverters. That would be a big enough deal, but the FCC has now confirmed to The Verge that this ban isn’t exclusive to robots with legs, and would extend down to the smart home appliances we use to keep our floors clean.
Admittedly, there’s already evidence for why we might want to be concerned about some robot vacuums, following incidents like the one we saw where hackers took control of ECOVACS vacuums a couple years ago, or the more recent one revealing serious security flaws in DJI vacuums. With these kind of camera-equipped, self-propelled devices already in so many homes, that could pose a nation-wide security risk should some entity start compromising them en masse.
Nothing’s happening to robot vacuums that have already been released, but this ban could spell very bad news for companies interested in selling new models in the US.
We’ve reached out to the China-based Roborock to see if the company has any comment on this development. Considering how hungry the US has been for automated cleaning tech, and how many brands are located outside the country, the FCC’s ban has the potential to seriously upend this market.
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