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

Matic 成为首款获得 FCC 禁令豁免的扫地机器人，尽管它并不需要

Unlike the router companies, Matic is publicly committing to US manufacturing. 与路由器厂商不同，Matic 公开承诺将坚持在美国本土进行生产制造。

The Matic is our favorite robot vacuum and robo-mop, and it’s also now the first to escape the FCC’s Roomba ban. Well, sort of — because the Matic wasn’t banned to begin with. Matic 是我们最喜爱的扫地拖地机器人，现在它也成为了首个“逃脱”FCC Roomba 禁令的产品。不过，这得打个折扣——因为 Matic 本身并没有被禁。

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. 实际情况是这样的：10 月 2 日，FCC 将初代 Matic（型号 4MA0001）及其充电底座（型号 4DK0008）列入了禁令豁免名单。这使得 FCC 可以批准这些带有无线电功能的产品进行进口、营销和销售。

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. 但 Matic 其实并不需要这份豁免，因为它的无线电模块早在几年前就已经获得了批准。FCC 针对外国无人机、机器人和路由器的禁令，仅限制未来产品进口到美国，而不影响那些无线电模块早已获批的现有产品。

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. 此外，Matic 的产品本身并不直接申请 FCC 认证，而是随附了一款现成的 Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 和蓝牙芯片，该芯片已获得了 FCC 的独立认证。（这与你在台式机或笔记本电脑中看到的 Wi-Fi 网卡是同一种。）Matic 也不必担心进口禁令，因为它直接在加利福尼亚州山景城组装机器人。

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. 如果 Matic 在美国境外制造新产品并试图进口，这份豁免在理论上或许会有帮助。但 FCC 并没有像对待华硕和网件路由器那样，给予 Matic 整个品牌“一揽子”批准，而是专门针对 Matic 的 4MA0001 和 4DK0008 型号授予了豁免——而这些型号此前早已通过了 FCC 的审核。

The waiver might not be completely symbolic. The FCC is currently trying to close lots of the loopholes that currently make its ban impotent, is weighing whether to make manufacturers disclose all the components in their gadgets, and is retroactively cracking down on some companies it sees as flaunting the rules. While Matic assembles its robots in the US, it admits it doesn’t yet source 65 percent of its components from US suppliers, the threshold for it to be seen as Made in the US, and perhaps one of those foreign components could trip it up if not for the waiver. 这份豁免或许并非完全是象征性的。FCC 目前正试图堵住许多导致禁令失效的漏洞，正在权衡是否要求制造商披露设备中的所有组件，并对一些被视为无视规则的公司进行追溯性打击。虽然 Matic 在美国组装机器人，但它承认目前尚未达到 65% 的组件来自美国供应商这一“美国制造”标准，如果没有这份豁免，或许其中某个外国组件可能会让它陷入麻烦。

Even so, Matic already gets its “core compute platform” from Nvidia, co-founder and CEO Mehul Nariyawala tells The Verge, and sources other “critical components” from US companies “whenever possible.” 尽管如此，Matic 的联合创始人兼首席执行官 Mehul Nariyawala 告诉 The Verge，Matic 的“核心计算平台”已由英伟达提供，并“尽可能”从美国公司采购其他“关键组件”。

And unlike some of the other companies where the FCC has mysteriously granted a waiver, Matic is committing to more US manufacturing and onshoring. 与 FCC 神秘授予豁免的其他一些公司不同，Matic 正致力于扩大美国本土制造和回流生产。

“Up till 3 months ago, both our R&D offices and production facilities were in the same office in Mountain View, about 24,000 square feet,” Nariyawala tells The Verge. “We’ve turned that entire facility into production facility and moved our office to Menlo Park.” “直到 3 个月前，我们的研发办公室和生产设施还在山景城的同一个办公室内，面积约 24,000 平方英尺，”Nariyawala 告诉 The Verge。“我们已经将整个设施改造成了生产基地，并将办公室搬到了门洛帕克。”

He says Matic went from shipping 1,500 robots a year ago to 17,000 now, and is trying to find more and more US suppliers so it can use even fewer foreign parts. 他表示，Matic 的年出货量已从一年前的 1,500 台增长到现在的 17,000 台，并且正在努力寻找更多的美国供应商，以便进一步减少对外国零部件的使用。

“At the moment we might be the only floor cleaning robot built in America,” he says. “That is becoming one of the key value propositions for our product.” “目前我们可能是唯一在美国制造的地面清洁机器人，”他说，“这正成为我们产品核心价值主张之一。”