Technology
Whisker's $899 Litter-Robot 5 Pro delivers on scooping, but its AI features fall flat
The premium model's dual cameras and facial recognition promise to track cat health and behavior, but six months of testing revealed unreliable AI that can't tell two distinct cats apart.
The Verge
Robotic litter boxes have become indispensable for many cat owners — removing the daily chore of scooping while keeping waste contained and odor minimized. Whisker's latest premium offering, the $899 Litter-Robot 5 Pro, aims to go further by layering AI health monitoring and cat identification on top of an already solid scooping machine. Yet after six months of real-world testing, the AI promises remain largely unfulfilled.
The basics: a genuinely useful appliance#
The Litter-Robot works through a simple, effective design: your cat enters a large globe lined with litter, sensors detect their presence, and once they leave, the drum rotates to sift waste into a sealed bin below. The core product excels at its job. Users need to empty the waste drawer roughly once a week rather than scooping twice daily, and the design hides the litter box from view while containing odors.
The 5 Pro improves on its predecessor with a larger bin, more intuitive controls via an onboard LCD screen, and an expanded dome for bigger cats. An app provides remote monitoring, including litter and waste levels, plus an onboard scale tracks weight. For frequent travelers, the automatic cleaning keeps the box in better shape during absences.
AI health monitoring that doesn't deliver#
The 5 Pro's premium positioning hinges on its intelligence features, particularly the $8-per-month Whisker Plus subscription. Over six months of testing, these AI capabilities repeatedly failed to provide actionable insights:
- WasteID shortcomings: The system purportedly distinguishes between different waste types and adjusts collection speed, but consistently misidentified waste and often failed to provide accurate deposit weights
- Unreliable facial recognition: The Cat ID feature struggled dramatically with two visually distinct cats — one large gray-and-white tabby, one small tuxedo. The cameras eventually confused them entirely, at one point registering them as identical twins
- Faulty weight tracking: After misidentifying cats, the system recorded one cat as losing two pounds overnight, with the false data persisting even after reassignment
When investigated, Whisker confirmed the test unit had calibration issues: both a gas sensor for detecting feces and the scale were off-spec. Fixing the scale would have required a complete unit replacement — a troubling response for a $900 machine.
