Key facts

• Price: The Litter-Robot 5 Pro costs $899, the Litter-Robot 4 costs $699, and the Litter-Robot Evo costs $599.
• AI features: Cat ID facial recognition, WasteID waste classification, health insights, and remote camera monitoring.
• Subscription: Whisker Plus costs $8 per month and covers AI health features and video storage.
• Test duration: Six months with two indoor/outdoor cats.
• Performance: The automatic scooping is excellent, quiet, and reliable, but the AI tracking repeatedly failed to identify cats and waste correctly.
• Recommendation: The $699 Litter-Robot 4 is a better buy unless you specifically need the larger globe or the camera features.

The automatic litter box has become one of the most useful inventions in pet technology. It removes the need to scoop waste by hand and gives cats a consistently clean place to go. The Litter-Robot 5 Pro from Whisker is the company's most advanced model, adding cameras, sensors, and AI to a machine that already does the dirty work. After six months of testing with two very different cats, the core scooping mechanism is clearly excellent. The smart features, however, are not ready for the real world.

A better mousetrap

The Litter-Robot 5 Pro is a large, nearly 30-inch-tall device that needs a good amount of floor space. It fits comfortably in a laundry room or a corner of a bedroom, but it is roughly the size of a small side table. Inside is a spacious globe lined with litter. When a cat enters, sensors detect the weight and presence of the animal. After the cat leaves, the globe rotates to sift clumps and waste into a sealed drawer below. This process is quiet, which is a major advantage for homes where the litter box lives near bedrooms or living spaces.

During testing, the robot did its primary job exceptionally well. The waste drawer only needed to be emptied about once a week, and the sealed bin did a good job containing odors. The app allowed remote control of most functions, including starting a cycle, checking waste levels, and seeing the cat's weight. There is also a night light in the globe, which is helpful for older cats or for owners who want to check on their pets in the dark. The 5 Pro's LCD screen is a welcome improvement over the confusing LED indicators on previous models, as it clearly shows what the machine is doing at any given moment.

Both cats in the test took to the robot immediately. The older cat jumped in and used it without hesitation, and the younger one followed soon after. The younger cat sometimes played with the globe while it was cycling, waiting for it to rotate and then batting at the inside. He also shredded an optional litter mat within a week, which is more a testament to his personality than a flaw in the robot. Overall, as a pooper-scooper, the 5 Pro is superb.

AI that doesn't work

The reason to buy the 5 Pro over the standard Litter-Robot 5 is the AI feature set. A front-facing camera is supposed to recognize each cat using facial recognition, which Whisker calls Cat ID. The interior camera is meant to provide a view into the globe, and a suite of sensors is designed to identify whether a cat has urinated or defecated. This information is then tracked in the app to provide health insights. The promise is that the system can catch early signs of urinary tract infections, digestive problems, or changes in bathroom habits.

In practice, the AI failed in almost every way. The front-facing camera could not distinguish between a large gray and white tabby and a small, sleek tuxedo cat. These two cats do not look remotely alike. The system initially registered the wrong weights for each cat, then began merging them into identical profiles. After a week, the app showed both cats at the same weight, even though they were nearly seven pounds apart. The robot did not correct itself, and the owner had to manually reset weights, reassign visits, and fix incorrect video logs.

The Cat ID setup process did not help. The app eventually presented a set of images captured by the camera and asked the owner to select the best ones for each cat. The images were poor quality, and there was no option to upload better photos or adjust the selection. Whisker says that poor lighting and bad initial imaging can throw off the camera, and that the system uses the onboard scale to guess when it is not sure. That explains why a 13.4-pound cat appeared to lose two pounds overnight when the robot assigned his visit to his younger brother's profile. But a $900 machine with advertised facial recognition should not need a wearable RFID tag to tell two different-looking cats apart. Whisker does sell a $29 RFID PetTag to help with cats that look similar, but it should not be a requirement for the AI to function.

WasteID and health tracking

WasteID is another headline feature of the 5 Pro. It is supposed to detect whether a cat has urinated or defecated, and then use that information to provide health insights. The idea is to alert owners to changes in frequency, weight, or consistency that might indicate a problem. During the six-month test, WasteID repeatedly failed to accurately identify the type of waste. It often could not provide the weight of each deposit, which made the health data useless.

Whisker said the test unit's feces-sensing gas sensor was off and that the company was able to correct it remotely. When that did not fix the problem, Whisker concluded that the unit's scale was off. That required a whole new machine to fix. This is a troubling sign for a product that depends on sensors to deliver its core value proposition. The company also said the system is designed to learn and should improve over time, and that the enrollment process has been updated to be more selective about images used for facial recognition. But the owner cannot get back the six months of unreliable data, and the subscription fees were paid during that entire period.

There is a new feature called Patterns that attempts to summarize each cat's day. For example, it might say that a cat weighed 12.52 pounds, visited the litter robot one time, and spent about a minute inside. This is a step in the right direction, but it still lacks details about waste type. The feature rolled out several months after the 5 Pro launched, which means early adopters were paying $8 a month for AI features that did not work.

Camera privacy and practical concerns

The front-facing camera can be useful as a safety feature. It allows owners to check on a cat remotely and see if an alert about an obstruction is real. The camera also recorded video, but only from the front-facing lens. The interior camera only provides a live view, which is nearly impossible to catch on video because cats are quick. The advertising implies that owners will get recorded footage from both cameras, but that is not the case even with the subscription. Whisker says an interior recording feature is coming soon.

The camera also created a privacy issue. Because the robot is placed on the floor, the front-facing camera can capture more than just the cat's face. In one location, it recorded anyone who used a bathroom across the hall, especially if a cat followed the person into the room. There is an option to record only when a cat is detected, but cats often accompany their owners into bathrooms, so the camera may still capture a person's legs or feet. This is worth considering when choosing a location for the device.

Comparing the lineup

Whisker currently sells four models: the Litter-Robot Evo, the Litter-Robot 4, the Litter-Robot 5, and the Litter-Robot 5 Pro. The Evo is the cheapest at $599, but it has a smaller bin, a smaller globe, and no litter-level monitoring. It also does not work with the brand's litter hopper accessory. The Evo's build quality feels flimsier than the other models, and the waste drawer did not always shut properly. It does have an LCD screen, which is helpful, but the tradeoffs are too significant for most buyers.

The Litter-Robot 4 at $699 is the best value for most households. It lacks the AI features of the 5 Pro but performs the core scooping function just as well. It also has a camera mount accessory for owners who want to see inside the globe. The Litter-Robot 5 is a middle option that keeps WasteID but drops the cameras. The 5 Pro is the most expensive at $899 and adds the cameras and facial recognition, but those features are not worth the premium until they work reliably.

There are also physical differences between the models. The 5 Pro has a larger globe that can handle cats up to 30 pounds, making it suitable for bigger cats or households with up to five felines. The Evo is more compact but supports only one or two cats under 19 pounds. The 5 Pro is very quiet, as is the Evo, but the 5 Pro is taller and takes up more space. Both need to be placed near an outlet.

A cautionary tale about smart home AI

Whisker has fallen into a trap that many smart home companies stumble into: putting too much faith in AI's potential capabilities. In a lab, AI can perform impressively. In a real home, the variables are endless. Lighting changes throughout the day, cats move quickly, and camera angles are never ideal. The result is a product that feels unfinished despite its premium price. The Litter-Robot 5 Pro is a great automatic litter box wrapped in AI that just does not work.

The core hardware is solid enough that the machine earns its place in a cat-owning household. The quiet motor, the self-cleaning globe, and the weekly waste drawer are genuine improvements over a manual litter box. But buyers should not pay extra for the AI features in their current state. The company says updates are coming, and it is possible the 5 Pro will eventually do everything promised at launch. As with all modern tech, though, it is dangerous to buy a product based on promised future updates. Today, the AI is not ready.

Source:The Verge News