Following its launch in Europe earlier this month, Segway’s Navimow i series robot lawn mower is now available in the US. As one of the first robotic mowers under $1,000 that can navigate autonomously without a boundary wire, its arrival could be the beginning of the robot lawn mower going mainstream.

The Navimow i series has two models: the i105N costs $999 and covers 0.125 acres, and the $1,299 i110N can manage up to 0.25 acres. It uses Segway’s Exact Fusion Locating System 2.0, a vision-enhanced real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS system with a camera for outdoor mapping. It can also avoid obstacles and navigate around trees, shrubs, garden borders, and even animals and people as it cuts your lawn.

According to the company, the new lawn bot has AI-powered mapping, a ride-on boundary mode to trim your edges, and a mapping assist feature that lets you customize your preferred mowing route in the app. 

Until now, to get this type of intelligence in your robot lawn mower, you have to spend a lot more money. While there are cheaper wired bots under $1,000, these require laying perimeter wire around your yard to avoid mowing down your flower beds.

This isn’t Segway’s first robot lawn mower. It launched its wireless GPS-powered H series in 2021. Those models can tackle bigger yards but are more expensive, starting at $1,900 for a 0.2-acre yard and going up to $2,600 for a 0.74-acre yard. Both the H and i series work with a smartphone app and virtual boundaries. 

Yard size has been an issue for robot mowers; very few have been capable of tackling the bigger yards popular in America unless they pack in a big battery. This increases the size and the price. For really big yards, there are still not a lot of options beyond arguably the leader in the space: Husqvarna. Its wireless Automower 450X EPOS will set you back $5,900 but can tackle yards up to 2.5 acres.

However, as with robot vacuums, with more competition in the market, we can expect to see prices begin to drop and features improve. And 2024 is shaping up to be a big year for robotic mowers.

I saw a slew of new robot mowers at CES 2024, most of which are slated for release this year (one is already available). These include Aiper’s Horizon U1, Mammotion’s Luba AWD, Ecovacs’ Goat G1, and the Dreame A1. The last two are both from robot vacuum makers, so it will be interesting to see what new features they bring to the garden.

There’s also some interesting innovation in the space. Yarbo has developed a modular yard robot that can function as a snow blower, lawn mower, leaf blower, and trailer to tow yard equipment, among other features. The core robot costs $5,500, with modules like the lawn mower adding $1,500 to the price, so this is still an expensive bot. But I’m excited to see all this innovation in the smart garden, and am looking forward to testing some of these robotic mowers this spring.