Companies plaster “smart” on everything these days. While that is a generalization, it is clearly a trend that is getting more traction as the years go by only to be overshadowed by the use of AI. From smart hairbrushes to AI-powered toasters, companies come up with incredible ideas to justify premium pricing for their products. Not always do the products benefit from smart functionality.
Amazon offers a range of smart devices. You probably think of Alexa-powered devices, like the Amazon Echo, first. Did you know that Amazon sells Smart Beds as well?
At $2000 and more, beds of Amazon’s Eight Sleep brand are not exactly cheap, but they can control the temperature of different regions individually, support elevation, and come with sound-functionality.
However, to function properly, Amazon’s Smart Beds require cloud connectivity. Without it, they apparently become non-functional, as in, dead weight. With no manual overrides available, users are up for a hellish-experience when connectivity breaks.
The AWS outage exemplified this, according to a post by Dextero. When AWS went down, owners of the bed lost connectivity and could not use the app anymore to control their bed. This left them stuck with the last setting that was active, according to the report.
Even worse, some beds overheated apparently while the cooling stopped in others entirely. One user reported that his bed locked itself at a temperature level that was nine degrees above room temperature, stating that it felt like “sleeping in a sauna”. Others claimed that the bed was stuck in a position that they could not change anymore.
No offline mode
Amazon’s Smart Beds have no offline mode at the moment, which is more than puzzling. Even if the company thought that an AWS outage was very unlikely, it must have considered the possibility of local Internet outages that would then also impact a user’s control?
Should not something like this, a manual override for core features, be at the forefront of one’s thoughts when designing a smart product?
Now You: do you own smart devices? If so, which and for what purpose?
I have a smart ‘fridge that thinks it’s a frying pan and turns all the eggs into omelets in the morning, but doesn’t know how to make toast.
On the subject of smart beds, I’ll buy one if it can guarantee me erotic dreams every night 😀
No, I did not know that Amazon sells Smart Beds. Still laughing.
Far from cow-boys sleeping with hardly a cover on the solid soil under the stars.
All you need is a good mattress and still, not sure. I happened to sleep like an angel on the living’s couch (yep, she happened to refuse it all, bed included.)
Concerning sauna resulting from heat malfunction due to online connection failure, that’s an extra-feature: Smart Beds will make you loose weight as you sleep, no extra charge!
I do not use any smart device. What the heck? What a mad world …