I'm not going to go into the controversial world of assisted and some level of self driving, but its clear that's making a lot of progress and today is just seen as a boring feature on your car, like seatbelts or ABS.
I've been watching videos from Chinese robot manufacturers and we definitely are 'getting there.' What getting there means is the big question, but this isn't Omni magazine in 1985. You can see videos of these things doing a lot right now, even if its rudimentary. Unitree especially, considering how they aim for a 'low' price point. Of course a lot of these are carefully staged demos, but the fundamentals are here. Even non-staged stuff is starting to look relatively good.
The recent leak about Apple's robot is interesting too. Apple is very conservative, so if they're testing one, even if its a tabletop (with an arm?) that says a lot on what's practically possible and affordable right now. The same way when Apple was testing the PR waters for an electric car, it was a great time to move into electric cars.
Since we're already in the "submarine" sub-thread, make/model please :)
The Ecovacs died twice, each just after a year (ie just out of warranty) needing to have main board/motor replaced. The bells and whistles didn't seem to be worth it. Self emptying station barely worked in an apartment with two people with long hair. Needed a lot of disposable replacement parts (main brush, side brushes, filters). Mopping feels like a bit of a gimmick.
The much cheaper Roborock so far has been solid but we've only had it for 4 months. Mapping is marginally better (it is FAR less likely to reset the map on you which is a real annoyance). Filter is washable, main brushes need to be replaced less often. Has a better mechanism for collecting long hair off the brushes. Mop attachment still feels like a gimmick.
About two or three years ago my old robot vacuum was finally dying and I did a lot of on and off searching for what was out there. When I started looking almost every competitor was better quality and features than what iRobot had, for around the same price, and they were just starting to play catch-up.
I don't know how much they've improved in the past year, though.