in the south: $40/cut,4x month, 12 months - 5 years - that's $9,600...
If you don't live in the south: 3 months of 4 cuts per month ($480), 5 months of 2 cuts per month ($400) and 4 months of no cutting (winter)--> $880/year, $3,000 in 3.4 years.
You would have to put one of those spring loaded chickens on the top of it to make a proper paint-ball (bb) gun target.
But $3000? I pay a guy $50 a cut to do my 1/2 acre lot. He does a good job, I don't have to install a perimeter fence to keep him "in bounds", and he takes liability if anyone gets hurt. This is clearly a solution looking for a problem.
Bonus, it's made in France! France made our subway system (here in D.C.) It's only killed a few dozen people in the last year or so. So how bad could a little, French made lawn mower really be?
I agree on the cutting height - see my other post.
I do not have a very large yard - about 1/3 acre, and I pay $120/month for yard service. Another offer I had received was $180/month. This does include some clipping of bushes, removal of dead palm branches, etc... assumin 80% of the work is the lawn cutting, based on time, that is $96/month, $1,152/year (no dormant season for the grass in Florida).
(The Lawn Advisor . com has $20-$40/cut for a 1/2 acre lawn... 1 cut per week would be $80-$160/month, so my $96 is somewhere in-between).
Not including electricity, maintenance of the mower, etc... it would take 2.25 years to pay back the mower. Based on Honda's reliability, this is not an outrageous life, but then the life of the batteries and blades is unknown, plus the cost of installing the perimeter wires.
Golf courses - not sure if they would want to invest in setting up the perimeters for all the greens... they have specific areas that get cut at different heights... and I can imagine an army of mowing robots stuck in the bunkers waiting to be saved.
After I posted I had a serious thought - adding a camera (with sound) that would send images to a server in the house might actually be useful. A couple sensors could be added that would help the mower 'patrol', detect, and observe moving people/animals.
It would also help identify the neighborhood kid that steals your expensive mower. Good luck getting it back in one piece.
Or you can sit in a lawn chair with a beer in one hand and a paint gun in the other and use the moving mower (on 'random' mode) as a target... I wonder if that would be considered an 'impact' - like hitting an object - and make it turn around... I'm sure someone will post it on You Tube.
There's nothing ground breaking here. Robomow has had a robot mower for many years exactly the same as this and in fact I own one. My wife and I couldn't imagine life without it. It mows the lawn every second day all on its own at night while noone is around, docks itself afterwards, re-charges automatically, then goes out two days later again on its own. My lawn always looks like a golf course, and since its running on electricity is far cleaner than a lawn mower gas engine (one of the worst polluters out there). Robomower installs proximity sensors for child/animal detection, as well as bumpers for items left on the lawn and a rain sensor so it doesnt get stuck out on wet grass. Ive had mine for 2 years to cut my 1/2 acre lawn, and am looking for another for my other smaller section of lawn. You can buy these used for around $500-$1000 and you wont believe the satisfaction it brings and the productivity since you can do something else while it cuts the lawn like go for a hike or bike ride and enjoy the excercise you are doing. It saves me hours per week. They also mulch the lawn, and since they do it so often, there is no grass clippings laying about on the lawn and the lawn stays much healthier since you are not removing all the nutrients. Some people say "you are lazy". I dont look at it as lazy, I look at it as an opportunity to do something else while the lawn gets cut for me.
The recommended cutting height for northern US grasses is 2" (50mm) minimum, 3" (76mm) preferred. Some southern grasses do get cut a little shorter (1"-1.5" for Bermuda, 1.5"-2" for zoysia; 3" for St. Augustine and tall fescue). So the range proposed by Honda is not realistic; cutting the grass shorter promotes the growth of weeds, which most people happily treat with chemical fertilizers that go down in the water supply and kill the fauna in the process. So, while using a battery powered mower is better for the environment than a conventional mower, the claim that this 'minimizes environmental impact' is counteracted by an improper cutting height (unless you have a golf course putting green). The fact that it mulches the grass cuttings is a good thing, though, as that would feed the lawn... of course it will pulverise the dog poop at the same time, which will feed the lawn as well!
Maybe the mower could double as a beer tender for those thirsty souls sitting in the shade watching it mow. There are many more creative things it could do as well with other attachments. Paint the fence, wash the driveway, fetch the paper, etc...
While I fathom many fun possibilities, I do not see that this can be left unmonitored in a front yard in America. In Japan no problem. But in America there is the theft of an expensive item almost certain for drug or video game money. And then there would be the certain law suit filed for some intriqued stranger who walks onto your lawn uninvited and is injured. Sorry, only in America can progress be so detoured by selfcentered idiots.
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