Homeowner goes viral for using robot to clear snow-covered driveway

One homeowner is going viral after revealing the unique way he cleared his driveway following a winter storm over the weekend that hit numerous states.

Tom Moloughney, a New Jersey resident, recorded his autonomous robot blowing snow off his path as he stayed inside, kept warm and drank coffee on Jan. 25.

The result? “I had it running all night, and when I woke up this morning, my driveway is done," he told New York TV station WABC.

Moloughney said he turned the robot on when it started snowing, and it immediately got to work, ultimately clearing his 6,000-square-foot driveway. It periodically returned to its charging port when it needed more battery.

What kind of robot was Tom Moloughney using?

Moloughney said he was reviewing the robot, a Yarbo, for his YouTube channel, as part of his experiment. The robot sells for roughly over $5,000 on Amazon.

But Yarbo is not for the faint of heart, Moloughney cautioned. He told broadcasters he spent a lot of time programming the machine.

“I'll tell you right now, this isn't for people that just want to buy something, take it out of a box and use it," he said. "I have probably 30 hours invested in assembling, programming it, walking it around my driveway."

One part of setting up the robot includes settling the perimeters and the angle so it knows where to throw the snow, according to Moloughney.

"It's actually a lot of setup, but there's a big reward waiting for you at the end of that set up because it actually works," he told the New York-based TV station.

The now-viral video is of him using the robot for a third time. He said the first two times he needed to reprogram the machine because it wasn’t blowing the snow in the right direction.

Michelle Del Rey is a trending news reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected]

Our team of savvy editors independently handpicks all recommendations. If you purchase through our links, the USA TODAY Network may earn a commission. Prices were accurate at the time of publication but may change.