Robot Vacuum Starts Hurling Racial Slurs at Its Owner After Being Hacked

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Foul Language

Hackers were able to gain control of camera-equipped robot vacuums across the United States — and at least one of them forced the cleaning robots to yell racist obscenities.

As ABC Australia reports, owners of Ecovacs’ Deebot X2 robot vacuums from Los Angeles to El Paso, Texas, told the broadcaster that their devices had exhibited strange behavior.

One story stood out as particularly alarming. Minnesota lawyer Daniel Swenson told ABC that he initially thought his Chinese-made robot vacuum was malfunctioning when he heard unusual sounds coming from it. Checking the robot’s app, he discovered that someone else had gained access to its camera and remote-control functions.

Swenson promptly reset the vacuum’s password, but the intruder continued to operate the device, sending it zooming around the room while repeatedly shouting the N-word — within earshot of one of his children.

After the incident, Swenson turned the robot vacuum off and never used it again.

Later, he realized that despite the offensive language, the breach could have been far more serious. The Ecovac had been operating on the same floor as the family’s master bathroom, meaning the hackers could easily have captured footage of private moments.

“I just thought of it catching my kids or even me,” Swenson said, “you know, not dressed.”

It was, perhaps, the best possible outcome in such a situation — but given that Ecovacs had been warned multiple times about vulnerabilities in its vacuums, the incident should never have occurred.

Fair Warning

At the end of 2026, a pair of white-hat hackers revealed that Ecovacs’ Deebots were easy to compromise because the app stored users’ PIN codes. With sufficient technical knowledge, anyone could retrieve those codes and remotely control the robots, even after a factory reset.

Earlier this month, ABC enlisted Daniel Giese, one of the white-hat hackers who had previously disclosed the Ecovacs vulnerabilities, to recreate the attack. He succeeded without difficulty, demonstrating to the broadcaster’s journalists how simple it was to view live footage through the robot’s camera.

The company had been notified of the security flaws and had received multiple complaints from users in Australia and the United States. Nevertheless, its representatives expressed surprise when Swenson contacted them about his experience.

Following the publication of the latest report, Ecovacs claimed it had “resolved” the vulnerability. However, Giese informed the broadcaster that security gaps still remained.

As far as anyone knows, hackers could still be accessing these camera-equipped robots, viewing their footage, and using their microphones to direct offensive or unsettling remarks at owners.

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