The Matic is the first robovac to get an FCC ban waiver, not that it needs it

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Unlike the router companies, Matic is publicly committing to US manufacturing.

Unlike the router companies, Matic is publicly committing to US manufacturing.

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The Matic is our favorite robot vacuum and robo-mop, and it’s also now the first to escape the FCC’s Roomba ban.

Here’s what’s actually happening: On October 2nd, the FCC added the original Matic, model 4MA0001, and its charging dock model 4DK0008 to its ban waiver list. That allows the FCC to approve these radio products for import, marketing, and sale.

But the Matic doesn’t need a waiver, because its radios were already approved years ago. The FCC’s foreign drone, robot, and router bans only keep future products from getting imported into the United States, not existing ones whose radios have already been approved.

Besides, Matic’s products don’t get FCC approval to begin with — instead, Matic ships them with an off-the-shelf Intel AX210 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip that gets its own approval from the FCC. (It’s the same kind of Wi-Fi card you’ll find inside a desktop or laptop computer.) Matic also doesn’t need to worry about an import ban specifically, because Matic assembles its robots right here in Mountain View, California.

A waiver could theoretically help if Matic were to build new products outside the United States and try to import them here, except that the FCC hasn’t granted Matic a blanket approval on a brand of robot, like it did with Asus and Netgear’s routers. Instead, it specifically granted a waiver for the Matic models 4MA0001 and 4DK0008, which, again, have already made it through the FCC.