Safety
Researchers at Germany's Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research found robot mowers often fail to notice small animals such as hedgehogs and can badly injure them, though some models tested were harmless.
A crash, recall, injury or investigation
What the source says
“Our results show that some models can injure hedgehogs, while others are harmless to them.”
What it means
Robot lawn mowers, from Husqvarna, Segway Navimow, Mammotion, Worx, is at stage 5 of 5 on our ladder: regulator-cleared or mass market. Safety events don't move a stage on their own, but they stay on the robot's record.
Human help: Our sources report it working without human help.
More on Robot lawn mowers
- An FCC notice dated October 16, 2026 listed Husqvarna's robotic platforms among robots cleared since September 9 to avoid the US ban on approvals for new foreign-made robots.
- IDC said 1.32 million wire-free robot mowers shipped in 2025, two-thirds of all robot mowers, up 182% on the year before. Robot mowers were the fastest-growing type of home cleaning and garden robot.
- IDC said the six biggest makers of wire-free robot mowers in 2025 were all Chinese companies, among them Segway-Ninebot, Dreame and Ecovacs.
- Segway said it would bring more Navimow mowers to the US. None of its models need a boundary wire; in open space they steer mainly by GPS.
- Husqvarna recalled about 1,400 Automower 435X and 535 all-wheel-drive robot mowers in the US because the battery could overheat. It had five reports of overheating, including two fires.
- Husqvarna released a solar-powered robot mower nicknamed 'the turtle', which it calls the world's first fully automatic lawn mower.