Sorry if this is obvious, but are there actually any systems that "choose one over the other"? My impression's always been it was either vision + LIDAR, or vision alone. Are there any examples of LIDAR alone?
Don't ultimately even the ones which are vision + LIDAR ultimately have to choose priority in terms of one or the other for "What do you do if LIDAR says it is blocked and sight says it is clear' or visa-versa?" Trying to handle edge-cases where say LIDAR thinks that sprinker mist is a solid object and to swerve to avoid it and say vision which thinks that an optical illusion is a real path and not a brick wall.
Since the current traffic infrastructure was built for human drivers with vision, you’ll probably need some form of vision to navigate today’s roads. The only way I could picture lidar only working would be on a road system specially made for machine driving.
Roomba (specifically the brand of the American company iRobot) only added lidar in 2025 [1]. Earliest Roombas navigated by touch (bumping into walls), and then by cameras.
But if you use "roomba" as a generic term for robot vacuum then yes, Chinese Ecovacs and Xiaomi introduced lidar-based robot vacuums in 2015 [2].
> Earliest Roombas navigated by touch (bumping into walls)
My ex got a Roomba in the early 2010s and it gave me an irrational but everlasting disdain for the company.
They kept mentioning their "proprietary algorithm" like it was some amazing futuristic thing but watching that thing just bump into something and turn, bump into something else and turn, bump into something again and turn again, etc ... it made me hate that thing.
Now when my dog can't find her ball and starts senselessly roaming in all the wrong directions in a panic, I call it Roomba mode.
