Yeah, how dare handicapped people want to be able to take care of their own homes without needing someone else to come vacuum for them.

I know that empathy is a problem in tech, but this thread is something else...

Tell me why a robot vacuum should require Internet connectivity.

If you need a robot vacuum because using a regular one isn't a realistic option for you, whether it should require internet access is irrelevant. It does, and making fun of people whose fault it isn't is mean.

The mean ones are the manufacturers who are selling hobbled crap to handicapped people without being honest about its limitations.

More than one thing can be true.

Also, the people making the imperfect solution are definitely less mean than the Nelson-wannabe bullies.

It is not irrelevant - it is the central point of most people’s argument: that you don’t need smart devices connected to the cloud.

Certainly you are able to imagine smart devices that work locally without the need of an external server.

It's totally irrelevant because it doesn't exist. Imagination doesn't matter in this instance, reality does.

But it does exist.

It really isn't irrelevant, it should be top on their list of things to know about. As we're seeing here, it's a source of unreliability and if you want a robust home automation setup you should look for tools that don't require internet connectivity.

You keep talking about handicapped people, but a cloud server is not required for accessibiliy.

You are entirely missing the point.