Why Roomba Died + Tech Predictions for 2026 + A Hard Forkin’ Xmas Song

Hard Fork

The New York Times

Technology

4.5 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“We were roadkill,” says Colin Angle, former chief executive of iRobot, maker of the robot vacuum.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Casey, what's going on? Well, Kevin, I want to get ahead of something before you and all of our listeners read this in the tabloids. I did have to get rescued off a ride at Disneyland this past weekend. Yeah. Really? Yeah, we were over there at Tiana's Bayou Adventure. That's the recently rebranded Splash Mountain, and we were just about to go up
0:22.5	the big hill and come down for the big splash when the ride broke down, and after, you know,
0:29.7	20 or 30 minutes, some very nice people came and walked us out of the Bayou Adventure through the sort of
0:37.0	backstage area. And I won't say that it was
0:40.3	scary, but there is something sort of embarrassing about having to be pulled off of a log flume.
0:46.5	Wait, you're not kidding. This is an actual thing that happened to you? This is a real thing that
0:50.0	happened to me. And this is part of the story of technology, is that you can, you know,
0:55.1	have suspended your disbelief and you think you're floating through a magical Bayou adventure.
0:59.9	But in reality, Kevin, the tech could break at any second. And then you're going to have to get,
1:03.4	you know, pulled off by a man with a hook in his arm. Yeah, it sounds like instead of going
1:08.0	on the Bayou Adventure, you almost went on the dieu adventure.
1:11.7	Yes.
1:15.6	That's, that's, that is exactly right.
1:23.0	I'm Kevin Rusa Tech columnist at the New York Times.
1:24.7	I'm Casey Noon from Platformer. And this is Hard Fork. This week, by Robot.
1:28.2	Roombot co-creator Colin Engel joins us to talk about why the iconic vacuum company went bankrupt.
1:34.6	Then our 2026 tech predictions.
1:37.7	And finally, we're going caroling.
1:40.0	A hard fork in Christmas makes its annual return.
1:43.4	Gloria, get my earplugs.
1:56.0	Well, Kevin, as we kick off the show this week,
1:59.0	a legendary American company is entering an exciting
	...

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