I've tried a couple of the self-cleaning litter boxes. Once they got over their initial fear, my cats were okay with it. If the cat was still in the box when it began raking, it would detect that and back off.
My cats were entertained by it. Since it would begin raking within thirty second or so after one of the cats had exited the box, I think they figure it out. They'd go in the box, whether they needed to or not, then step out of it and wait for it to start raking. Sometimes I'd have four cats watching that thing.
For my part of it, while it sometimes seemed like a handy thing to have, the trays were expensive and litter would build up on the rake sometimes that was hard to clean off. Sometimes I wondered whether it would just be easier to go back to scooping, which is what I ended up doing.
The self-cleaning machines don't last forever either. They cost over a hundred dollars and they last only about a year. They had a one-year warranty so if things worked out well, I could get a replacement but, too often, they barely survived the warranty period.
