With the advent of evolving robotics and AI, the Jetson’s-esque dream of the “smart home” is becoming more of a reality each day. Though it’s far from perfect, Andrew Murray from Rezzi may have the newest addition to the home of the future; it’s called the SmartCan and it’s well…a robotic trash can. 

Okay, so maybe not as cool and shiny as Alexa or a self-driving Tesla but a smart trash can could be more practical than it sounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmvMBUCFStI

Case in point, have you ever forgotten to take out the trash for the week? This could be a thing of the past since the SmartCan can be programmed to drive itself to the curb every week; think of it like a Roomba with a trash receptacle. The SmartCan navigates its route via a pair of docking stations placed at points A and B which are also used to charge the system.

But that’s where the pros kind of end for SmartCan. 

SmartCan’s first issue is that it’s a trash can which are often left battered and thrown across sidewalks by sanitation workers. The second is that though SmartCan has motorized wheels it can’t navigate past obstacles such as a garage doors or gates, which brings us to the issue of needing to let out your robot trashcan. Not so convenient. Then lastly, we have the question of price. 

Though the autonomous SmartCan sounds nifty, how much are people willing to pay for something as lowly and semi-disposable as a trash can? If Andrew Murray wants to make his SmartCan a household name he’ll have to address these issues first. At the rate Tesla is ramping up production self-driving cars are right around the corner, but self-driving trash cans on the other hand may just have to wait until all the kinks are worked out. 

Until then, I think we’ll just stick to dragging our trash to the curb come pick up day.