Matic Makes the Home Robot a Reality

Everyone hates doing household chores. For almost a century, science fiction novelists and illustrators have imagined a future in which automatons handle that drudgery for us. But getting there is a lot more difficult than you might imagine, and the start-ups racing to make it a reality are taking a variety of approaches.1X, Figure, and Tesla are starting with the humanoid form factor, gradually improving the hardware, software, and intelligence until they can iterate their way to that sci-fi future. Their bet is that the world — our homes included — was designed around human bodies, so accepting that reality and attacking the hard problems immediately offers the fastest route.Matic is starting from the other direction, taking the most widely accepted form factor of household robot — the robot vacuum — and upgrading it. Previously, that meant improving the mapping and cleaning software and making more cleverly designed hardware. Its new AI features bring it a lot closer to the robot future.Introducing Cues: Voice & Gesture control for MaticWe raised $115M and spent 9 years to make the world’s first intuitive home robotSay you spilled coffee: Point to the spill and say, "Hey Matic, clean this" and it will hear, see, locate in 3D, and go clean on its own.Matic… pic.twitter.com/tPsUnLh76v— Matic Robots (@maticrobots) August 13, 2026Until now, operating Matic typically meant opening its app, choosing or drawing a cleaning zone, and starting a run. The new Cues update offers something far more intuitive. Say “Hey Matic,” point at a spill, and tell it to “clean this.” Matic says the robot will combine the spoken request, your pointing gesture, its camera view, and its three-dimensional map of your home to work out where to go, then clean it.Matic Robot Vacuum. Courtesy of MaticYou can also tell Matic to come to you, follow you, or clean a named room or surface. If gunk tends to gather at the edges of your carpets, tell it to clean those edges, and Matic says it will. Best of all, Cues arrived in the August 12 software release, so existing owners need no new hardware.Matic says it detects the wake phrase on the robot, so no audio leaves your home before the chime. Afterward, Google’s Gemini processes the request anonymously, and Matic says the request is never stored. Owners can disable Cues in Settings.For the unfamiliar, Matic is a premium robot vacuum that vacuums and mops in the same run. Its 600-milliliter tank is rated to mop 800 square feet, while its battery is rated for two and a half hours of vacuuming or three hours of mopping. Recent software releases, Matic says, have made it better at recognizing mirrors, cords, clothes and other soft items, floor vents, and pet waste.It is an expensive vacuum: $1,495, or $1,245 through September 9. Matic currently ships only within America, and this is a competitive category. Yet if Cues works as well as advertised, Matic may be the first useful home robot to feel like a helper rather than another appliance. It cannot cook your dinner, empty the dishwasher, or fold your clothes. But you point, speak, and it gets to work. That is a start.Matic Robot Vacuum. Courtesy of Matic

Matic Makes the Home Robot a Reality

Matic Makes the Home Robot a Reality

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