Mammotion calls three-source navigation its breakthrough — and left one source out of the successor to the mower that introduced it

Mammotion sells its compact mowers on a navigation idea it calls Tri-Fusion: solid-state lidar, network RTK corrections and camera-based AI vision working at the same time, so that a garden with trees, walls or narrow passages does not break positioning. The company is explicit about where the idea started. On the product page of the LUBA mini AWD LiDAR, listed in its European store on 30 June 2025, it writes that the system was first introduced on this machine and now powers the 2026 flagship LUBA 3 AWD. That machine is now sold out in Europe, and the store sends buyers to its direct successor, the LUBA mini 2 AWD 1500, launched on 8 May 2026. That variant navigates by lidar and cameras alone. There is no RTK antenna to mount and no network RTK service behind it — the manufacturer presents this as a feature, because it removes the one installation step that has always made satellite-corrected mowers awkward. Both statements are true at once, and together they are more interesting than either alone. In the space of eleven months the same company introduced a third navigation source in its compact line, moved it up to the flagship, and dropped it from the compact line again. A buyer comparing the two mowers is not choosing between an old model and a better new one: the older machine positions itself from three independent sources, the newer one from two, and only the older one can fall back on satellite corrections when lidar and cameras are both struggling — heavy rain, low sun straight into the lenses, a lawn that looks the same in every direction. The trade is real in the other direction too. Network RTK on the older mower is a paid service and one more thing to configure; the newer one works out of the box. Neither approach is simply better, which is why the difference deserves to be stated rather than buried under a marketing name that suggests the newer machine has more of everything. There is a second twist inside the successor line itself, and it is the kind a buyer only finds after paying. The cheaper variant, the LUBA mini 2 AWD 1000, listed in the same store on 1 January 2026 at EUR 1,399, is not the 1500 with a smaller battery. It keeps network RTK and drops the lidar instead, positioning itself from three cameras plus satellite corrections carried over a 4G or Wi-Fi link. So two mowers sold under one series name navigate in opposite ways: the more expensive one needs no network at all and sees the garden in three dimensions; the cheaper one needs a working connection and sees it only through lenses. The series name says nothing about which of the two is on the shelf. The list prices do not track the sensor count either. The older mower was listed at EUR 2,299 and cleared at EUR 1,399; the newer one sells at EUR 1,699.