Dyson finally made a better robot, but a worse vacuum

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Follow Follow See All Robot Dyson finally made a better robot, but a worse vacuum The Spot + Scrub Ai nails navigation and mopping, but a third-party motor undercuts its $1,200 Dyson price tag. If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Technical Details

by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy Close Jennifer Pattison Tuohy Senior Reviewer, Smart Home Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy May 1, 2026, 11:00 AM UTC Link Share Gift If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

The Dyson Spot + Scrub Ai is Dyson’s first combination robot vacuum and mop. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Jennifer Pattison Tuohy Close Jennifer Pattison Tuohy Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy is a senior reviewer with over twenty years of experience.

She covers smart home, IoT, and connected tech, and has written previously for Wirecutter , Wired , Dwell , , and US News . I’m deeply conflicted about the Dyson Spot + Scrub Ai robot vacuum and mop . It’s the company’s best robotic floor cleaner to date, with excellent mopping performance, good navigation and obstacle detection, and a multifunction dock that takes much of the busywork off your hands.

Industry Implications

But Dyson’s first attempt at a vacuum-and-mop combo is a worse vacuum than its predecessors, and that’s because there’s no Dyson motor in this vacuum . For $1,200, the Spot + Scrub doesn’t get you a Dyson vacuum; instead, you’re getting a third-party motor and brush system. “It’s not one of our V10 motors, it’s one of our partner technologies,” Nathan Lawson McLean, senior design manager at Dyson, told me.

Overall, the robot “merges new and already existing Dyson technologies with other platforms. ” Lawson McLean confirmed that the Dyson tech is mostly found in the cyclonic auto-empty dock, the Dyson-designed roller mop system, and the Dyson-developed AI-powered stain-detection feature that gives the device its name. Hence, my conflict: how do I review a Dyson robot vacuum whose vacuum isn’t a Dyson?

This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.