Dyson gives its 360 Heurist vacuum the ability to see in the dark

By AJ Dellinger September 13, 2018

Dyson

Three years ago, Dyson released its 360 Eye robot vacuum to compete with the Roombas of the world. Now, the company has given that machine a bit of a makeover with the announcement of the Dyson 360 Heurist. The latest addition to the company’s line of robovacs is smarter, faster, and can see in the dark.

Announced this week in Beijing, the 360 Heurist should be Dyson’s most impressive vacuum yet. It comes powered by a quad-core 1.4GHz processors, which is 20 times faster than the processor that equipped its predecessor, according to Engadget. With that new processor serving as the vacuum’s brain, the 360 Heurist is supposedly much better at recognizing its environment. Dyson claims it can identify 60 percent more detail about its surroundings, which shrinks its likelihood of bumping into objects by about 50 percent.

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The upgrade to the robot vacuum also includes the introduction of new LED lights. A ring of them can be found around the device’s camera, which helps the robovac see better in low light situations. In theory, that means if you leave the vacuum to run in the dark, it will navigate around tight spaces without any issues.

Of course, the most important part of a vacuum is how well it actually cleans. The 360 Heurist got an upgrade in that regard as well. Dyson says it has 20 percent more suction than previous models (even though it uses the 78,000 rpm Dyson V2 digital motor found in the 360 Eye), and it has about 1,500 more stiff nylon bristles than the 360 Eye before it, so it should have no problem cleaning up your messes.

The Dyson 360 Eye, as impressive of a vacuum as it was, came with its fair share of shortcomings. When it was first available in Japan, it came with the wallet-emptying price tag of $1,200. It also was so incredibly complex Dyson offered to send an engineer to your home to set it up and make sure that it’s running properly. Dyson has pulled the robovac from its site in anticipation of the launch of the new vacuum, according to The Verge.

The 360 Heurist will launch in China in November with a retail price of 5,490 yuan, or around $800.

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AJ Dellinger is a freelance reporter from Madison, Wisconsin with an affinity for all things tech. He has been published by…

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