Interesting stories

Robot versus human race

Robots are set to race humans in the Beijing half-marathon.
https://www.techspot.com/news/106537-robots-race-humans-beijing-half-marathon.html

Attacking robot vacuums

Robot vacuum cleaners chase owners and pets, yelling profanities. Ecovacs vacuums and lawn mowers can be hacked to do strange things. They get into the robots by using their Bluetooth connections from as much as 450 feet (1.5 football fields). Then, they can take over the machine and connect to their Wi-Fi from inside the robot's operating system. The company responded to TechCrunch with the following disconcerting disclaimer: "Users can rest assured that they do not need to worry excessively about this.” So, apparently, we can worry a normal amount, just not excessively.

I checked, and Amazon is selling these hackable robots for $600-$1,000.

Further reading

Channel 6 News, Knoxville, Tennessee
https://www.wate.com/news/hacked-robot-vacuums-chase-owners-yell-slurs-reports/

Tech Crunch
https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/09/ecovacs-home-robots-can-be-hacked-to-spy-on-their-owners-researchers-say/?guccounter=1

Date: June 2025

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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Home Forms About Current Newsletter subscribe Search All Articles Browse by Category Security Internet Mobile Business Hardware Fun		Interesting stories Robot versus human race Robots are set to race humans in the Beijing half-marathon. https://www.techspot.com/news/106537-robots-race-humans-beijing-half-marathon.html Attacking robot vacuums Robot vacuum cleaners chase owners and pets, yelling profanities. Ecovacs vacuums and lawn mowers can be hacked to do strange things. They get into the robots by using their Bluetooth connections from as much as 450 feet (1.5 football fields). Then, they can take over the machine and connect to their Wi-Fi from inside the robot's operating system. The company responded to TechCrunch with the following disconcerting disclaimer: "Users can rest assured that they do not need to worry excessively about this.” So, apparently, we can worry a normal amount, just not excessively. I checked, and Amazon is selling these hackable robots for $600-$1,000. Further reading Channel 6 News, Knoxville, Tennessee https://www.wate.com/news/hacked-robot-vacuums-chase-owners-yell-slurs-reports/ Tech Crunch https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/09/ecovacs-home-robots-can-be-hacked-to-spy-on-their-owners-researchers-say/?guccounter=1 Date: June 2025 This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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