Do robotic lawn mowers still need a perimeter wire?

Not anymore. Most 2024–2026 launches in this list (Mammotion LUBA 3, Worx Landroid Vision Cloud, Eufy E15, Segway Navimow i110N, Husqvarna iQ series, ECOVACS Goat) use some combination of RTK satellite positioning, LiDAR, or AI vision instead of a buried wire. Reviewers consistently call wire-free setup the single biggest quality-of-life upgrade, though each navigation type has tradeoffs — RTK struggles under tree cover, vision-only models can get confused by mapping changes, and LiDAR adds cost.