I deploy my Yarbo/s from my ramp truck to mow on my farm property.
The process is:
Power on
Drive down the ramp
Turn on blades
Drive to the work zone and start the mowing job for that zone
While the blades are running and I’m in transit to the work zone on Saturday, Buzz lost contact with the app controller and went into “rainbow lights” mode. BLADES WERE RUNNING without contact with the machine. It then auto updated with firmware and restarted.
This is a safety problem along with denying the operator the choice of when to accept the update. If I’m in the middle of a job, and the update impairs the behavior of the Yarbo, I may be a) unable to finish the job, b) in a precarious position (hillside mowing) when it goes dark on me, or c) unable to get the Yarbo back to my truck due to some other unforseen control issue. At least it was not moving with the blades on (uncontrolled) at the time of the disruption.
Been preaching this for I don’t know how long. Everything, including updates should 100% be user controlled and choice. The robot should not make decisions unless we have enabled a toggle to allow it to do so. Updates, object avoidance, turning modes, safety features, cloud, remote access, 4G, etc. If I turn it on, leave it on. If I turn it off, respect my decision and leave it off.
Updates need to be something the user can schedule checks for, manual check on demand, install on demand or automatically based on a schedule, and opt to NOT install.
We’re really sorry for the inconvenience and concern this situation has caused. Thank you for sharing the detailed scenario and your feedback regarding the update behavior during operation.
We’ve shared your feedback with our product team for further consideration and future optimization, especially around giving users more control over update timing and improving the overall safety experience.
We truly appreciate you taking the time to share your experience with us.
@bryan.wheeler@rcguymike Also, thanks for adding your thoughts as well. We’re aware of your need for this, and we’ve shared this feedback with our team for further consideration.
I asked my wife go out to the garage, open the door, and unplug the charger so I can drive Bumble to the back yard (through smart vision from my office) to start mowing. 2 Seconds after she unplugs the charger it decides to update the firmware. My wife’s standing there like, “WELL???”. We had to wait a couple minutes for the firmware to install then he had to reboot. I had a break between meetings and had to wait on Bumble to update. Grrr.
We really need the ability to approve the updates to occur only when we are ready.
Thank You,
Kevin Schlosser
Castle Pointe Farms & Apiary
Yarbo Y’s: Buzz Lightyar and Bumble
Sorry for the inconvenience caused. We completely understand the need to have more control over when firmware updates are installed, especially when Yarbo is about to be used.
