Before you buy a robot vacuum, read this

The world's first robot vacuum was a scam. Whirlpool and RCA built it for the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow to fool the Soviets into thinking that America was really like the Jetsons. In reality, the "robot" was controlled remotely by engineers hiding in a control room. Today, robot vacuums are real--and they're some of the hottest gifts for 2016. But if you buy the wrong one--or pay too much--you could also be fooled, just like the Soviets.