Have you used one of these robot vacuum cleaners? I sometimes think they spend more time getting caught on obstructions than vacuuming. :)

There's always a sock waiting to be stuck on somewhere...

But I don't get it why they won't make the robot reverse a short bit and try to go around instead of just rolling over and die.

That would solve 99% of the situations I have rescued my old Roomba and current Neato from. It's very seldom they actually got something entangled in their brushes.

I think the concern is probably causing damage. In my home it's usually wires that are a problem.

It already is damaging things as it is. The Neato have peeled a USB cable and an audio cable. It also have chewed on a few laptop charger cables but they seems to be tougher so no damage. Hopefully it won't peel something that could be dangerous.

I doubt it could be that hard to detect an unusually low rotation speed. Now it seems to chug until it really stalls. Instead it should stop the brushes immediately and retreat, then retry with just the fan running.

I'd settle for a garden hose that doesn't perish from UV damage after a season and doesn't kink every 7 seconds. Sounds like a pretty simple thing to get - it isn't.

Market for this is probably people who have the money and think its cool over a real practical use.

You just have to have people convinced it will make their lives easier long enough for them to take it home.