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There’s a handy trick. We’ve seen many a Roomba trundling around floors and we’ve taken great delight in messing with the little automated vacuum cleaner as it sweeps up our crumbs. But we’re not going to be sticking our feet in front of Kobi, lest we lost the appendage.

Kobi is an automated garden maintenance tool. Think of it as a lawnmower that goes about its job without needing a human being on hand to direct the action, so to speak. Its creators say that the Kobi just need to be shown the perimeter of the property being worked on, where any immovable obstacles are, and where to dump… stuff. After that, it’ll go about its business of keeping your lawn neat by itself

But it isn’t confined to just mowing the lawn. The Kobi has other features not really required in South Africa. There are interchangeable modules for lawn-mowing, leaf-blowing (or collection), and also snow-clearing. That’s where the aforementioned ‘stuff’ comes in — Kobi will drop off leaves and snow at a designated location… like a neighbour’s yard? We’re asking for a friend.

There are other features involved, too. Users can take manual control using a smartphone app and, in the case of snow-related duties, Kobi keeps an eye on the weather and will pop out when needed to keep driveways clear. It’s also got an ant-theft feature, since it’s actually small enough to be nicked. It’s got an alarm, and it’ll automatically disable itself in the case of a theft. Neat.

Pricing might be an issue when Kobi finally launches but not excessively so compared to other less-autonomous mowers. The three-in-one smart mower will retail for $4,000 (R56,250) when it lands in 2017. Besides the price, finding one in South Africa will probably present your biggest obstacle.

Source: The Next Web