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Robot ou humain ?

Home lawn mowing

Lawn service (per visit) vs Wire-free robot mower

Estimations modélisées par Whirrwork, pas des faits. Méthodologie · Bilan des prévisions

Humain · Par an1 505 $USLawn service
Robot · Par an1 189 $USBuy a robot mower
Délai de retour sur investissement33 mois
Année de basculedéjàBase-case year (earliest to latest across scenarios)

On these numbers the robot option is clearly cheaper. The robot would sit idle most of the time; it pays off at higher volume or longer hours.

États-Unis · USD · BLS OEWS May 2025 national medians by SOC occupation

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Charge de travail
Hypothèse

Mows per month in season (weekly).

Hypothèse

Hours per day the robot may run.

Hypothèse

Days per month.

Hypothèse

Mowing months per year; depends on climate.

Personnel
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

BLS OEWS May 2025 national median hourly wage, SOC 37-3011.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Wages and salaries were 70.0% of total employer compensation cost for private industry workers in June 2026 (ECEC), so total cost = wage / 0.70.

ilostat.ilo.org

Nominal 4.4% a year, 2015-2025 (ILOSTAT hourly earnings).

Prix
HomeGuide

Average per visit for a 1/8-1/4 acre yard ($30-$85).

Robot
Hypothèse

Mows completed per robot-hour for a quarter-acre yard (about 2 hours per full mow).

Mammotion US store

LUBA 3 AWD entry tier; larger tiers up to $3,299.

Zippy Lawnz (installer)

Professional installation up to 1 acre; DIY is $0.

Calculé Smart Lawn NY (installer)

$199 a year (midpoint of $149-$249 care plans) as a share of the entry price.

Hypothèse

Useful life in years.

Hypothèse

Share of allowed hours the mower can work (rain, charging).

Hypothèse

Mows lost to faults or stuck robots.

Hypothèse

Edging and trimming the robot can't do, as a share of a service visit you still pay for.

Hypothèse

Your own time is not costed here (you would spend it anyway, or enjoy it).

Hypothèse

kWh per robot-hour.

Hypothèse

Electricity price per kWh (USD). Check your bill; energy is rarely a big line.

Finances
Hypothèse

Annual financing / discount rate. Nobody publishes yours; 8% is a round mid-2026 commercial borrowing guess.

Hypothèse

Years in the NPV comparison.

Hypothèse

Share of a human service price that is labour (rises with wages). Used to escalate and to adjust US service prices to other countries.

Hypothèse

Share of a robot service price that is labour (pilot, technician). The rest is equipment, which learning curves make cheaper.

Hypothèse

Share of a lease or RaaS fee that pays for hardware (learns down). The rest is service and support (moves with wages).

Download these results (CSV)

Résultats

OptionPar moisPar anPer unit (mow)Coût initialDélai de retour sur investissementBreak-even utilisation5-year NPV vs baseline
Humain Lawn service Référence 125 $US1 505 $US50,00 $US— — — —
Robot Buy a robot mower 99,12 $US1 189 $US39,52 $US2 898 $US 33 mois 2 %
Utilisation 3 %
 1 638 $US

What moves the answer most

Each bar shows the 5-year NPV of the best robot option when one input moves to the low or high end of its range, with the rest held at your values.

5-year NPV vs baseline: Buy a robot mower5-year NPV vs baseline: Buy a robot mowerLawn servicelow value: 30 → -504 $UShigh value: 85 → 5 387 $USActive months per yearlow value: 4 → -657 $UShigh value: 10 → 3 933 $USRobot purchase pricelow value: 1500 → 2 844 $UShigh value: 3299 → 431 $USWork that stays humanlow value: 0 → 2 583 $UShigh value: 0.35 → 378 $USUseful life or contractlow value: 3 → 286 $UShigh value: 8 → 2 242 $USMaintenance per yearlow value: 0.04 → 2 062 $UShigh value: 0.15 → 977 $USIntegration and setuplow value: 0 → 2 137 $UShigh value: 799 → 1 338 $USFinancing and discount ratelow value: 0.05 → 1 985 $UShigh value: 0.12 → 1 227 $USWork lost to failureslow value: 0 → 1 804 $UShigh value: 0.1 → 1 251 $US1 638 $US0low valuehigh valueSource: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/lawn-mowing/). Modelled estimate, not a fact.

Cost per unit to 2035

Real terms (today's money). Robot hardware follows Wright's law; wages follow each country's history. Shaded band: robots-slow to robots-fast scenarios. Estimations modélisées par Whirrwork, pas des faits.

ChartCoût humain par unité (Base), Coût robot par unité (Base), Coût robot par unité (Robots : progrès rapide), Coût robot par unité (Robots : progrès lent). Source: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/lawn-mowing/). Modelled estimate, not a fact.0,00 $US20,00 $US40,00 $US2026202720282029203020312032203320342035USD / mowscenario rangeCoût humain par unité (Base)Coût robot par unité (Base)Coût robot par unité (Robots : pr…Coût robot par unité (Robots : pr…Source: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/lawn-mowing/). Modelled estimate, not…

Année de bascule: déjà

What the spreadsheet misses

Sécurité
Blades plus children, pets and hedgehogs: pick a model with lift sensors and do not run it at night.
Qualité
Frequent small cuts look tidy; edges still need trimming.
Flexibilité
A service also blows, edges and spots problems.
Edge cases
Steep slopes, many separate patches and poor GPS/RTK signal break wire-free mowers.
Customer experience
You are the customer: no scheduling, no noise from big engines.
Jobs and redeployment
Small landscaping businesses lose the weekly mow but keep higher-skill work.
Réglementation
Mostly none; some towns restrict night-time running.

Voir aussi

Sources de cette page

Les notes et les sources sont en anglais ; la version anglaise fait foi.

  1. Lawn mowing cost: $30-$85 per visit for a 1/8 to 1/4 acre yard, about $50 on average HomeGuide, 2026
  2. Mammotion LUBA 3 AWD robot mower: $2,399-$3,299 by coverage tier Mammotion US store, 2026-10 · vendor
  3. Robotic mower installation: up to 1 acre $499, over 1 acre $799 Zippy Lawnz (installer), 2026-10 · vendor
  4. Annual robotic mower care plans $149-$249 Smart Lawn NY (installer), 2026-10 · vendor
  5. Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (median hourly wage by occupation) U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025-05
  6. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026: wages and salaries 70.0% of private-industry compensation (series CMU2020000000000P) U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-06
  7. Mean nominal hourly earnings of employees by sex and occupation (ISCO-08), DF_EAR_EHRA_SEX_OCU_CUR_NB ILOSTAT (International Labour Organization), from national labour force and earnings surveys, 2025
  8. Labour cost levels by NACE Rev. 2 activity (lc_lci_lev): Germany 2022-2025, total labour cost vs wages and salaries per hour Eurostat, 2025
  9. Rates and thresholds for employers 2025 to 2026 (employer Class 1 NIC 15% above £5,000) HM Revenue & Customs, 2025-04-06
  10. 令和6年賃金構造基本統計調査 (Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2024), table 1 by occupation Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan (via e-Stat), 2024-06
  11. Average monthly earnings of employees by sex and economic activity, DF_EAR_EMTA_SEX_ECO_CUR_NB ILOSTAT (International Labour Organization), 2022
  12. Average annual wage of employed persons in urban units in 2024 (by position and by region) National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2025-05-20
  13. Euro foreign exchange reference rates (cross rates to USD), via Frankfurter European Central Bank, 2026-10-23
  14. Wright, T. P. (1936). Factors affecting the cost of airplanes. Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences, 3(4), 122-128 Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences, 1936
  15. Nagy, B., Farmer, J. D., Bui, Q. M., & Trancik, J. E. (2013). Statistical basis for predicting technological progress. PLoS ONE, 8(2), e52669 (62 technologies; Wright's law among the best hindcasters; errors grow with horizon) PLoS ONE, 2013