Robot snow plow: Viral video shows autonomous Yarbo blower at work in Chester, New Jersey

CHESTER, New Jersey — As the snow piled up across New Jersey, one homeowner in Morris County decided to let a robot handle the cleanup while he stayed warm inside.

Now the video of his autonomous snow blower is going viral and racking up millions of views.

Tom Moloughney said skeptics weren’t hard to find — especially given the size of his driveway.

“I have a big driveway over 6,000 square feet, over 300 feet long up an incline,” Moloughney said. “So this is a challenging driveway. If it could do this driveway, it can do most driveways, I think.”

Instead of firing up a traditional snow blower this weekend, Moloughney, of Chester, New Jersey, put an autonomous one to the test.

But he says it didn’t come easy.

“It takes a while to set them up, 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, programing it, walking it around my driveway. Because you have to settle the perimeters. You have to set the angle that the shoots are going to throw the snow. 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.”

Once programmed, the machine works on its own, starting when the snow does.

“So you turn it on when it starts snowing and you just let it run continuously,” Moloughney said.

It ran through the night and returned to its charging dock as needed.

“I had it running all night, and when I woke up this morning, my driveway is done,” Moloughney said.

Moloughney says this is a glimpse of how technology is changing everyday chores.

“That’s how robotics and AI helps us live better lives,” he said. “Who wants to be outside clearing your driveway?”

And he believes this is just the beginning.

“This is first gen and like any tech, you know, it only gets bigger, better and less expensive as time goes on,” Moloughney said. “So I 100% can see these things eventually being used at municipalities much larger scale than what mine is.”

The Yarbo snow blower is priced at $4,999.