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[–] 331 points 2 years ago (3 children)

This should be a standard requirement for abandoning an internet reliant product (with all IP and internal documentation released and becoming public domain in the event of a bankruptcy, and keys handled by some consumer protection agency capable of facilitating community projects working to unlock them for owners).

But questionable value of the product aside, the fact that they're making the effort to not be assholes and try to do what it takes to give their costumers' products the life they can is better than most, so they deserve credit for that.

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  • [–] 101 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Electronic products and software should get a "at least supported until" label on the packaging and legally obligated to keep the servers running until that time.

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  • [–] 91 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    The company behind this robot is going bankrupt, which is why support ends and they stop working. This law would do nothing in this case because the company seizes to exist.

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  • [–] 24 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    *ceases, a cute voice-to-text error

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago

    It should be considered an obligation to be met in the bankruptcy process. If they sell the IP for the product the purchaser should have to meet it. Failing that the users should be given the IP rights (opensource would meet this def to me) then.

    In just world at least

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  • [–] 24 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    Only if there's an absolute bare minimum they're allowed to choose of 5-10 years after the last device/software is sold.

    And even then, I still think they should be required to unlock devices (and software DRM bullshit/APIs to re-implement server components) to allow people who want to maintain them themselves.

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    [–] 118 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Doing the right thing. How rare.

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  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    once they threatened to abandon it sure. eventually even corporations can be dragged into doing the right thing.

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  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago

    Most companies don't listen, these guys did. Many times when people did the right thing, they had to go through a process first.

    It would have been if they did it completely on their own, maybe even designed the system for this possible outcome from the beginning.

    But it's the end result that matters. They can release the source or they can not. They chose to release it, and that's great!

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  • [–] 81 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    OpenSourcing is a good move

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  • [+] 36 points 2 years ago (6 children)
  • [–] 77 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Startups like this aren’t known for their robust infrastructure design.

    It’s most likely running on some weird unicorn setups no-one has bothered to document.

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  • [–] 51 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Fear of embarrassing code is often a factor too. Amazing how coding standards instantly improve across the board the moment you realize people outside of dev might be scrutinizing what you've been shipping to customers.

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  • [–] 72 points 2 years ago

    Likely they have proprietary or otherwise private information they want to clean out first, or they want to make it more presentable or documented.

    I agree I'm not a fan of the "trying to" phrasing either.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago

    They might rely on parts that have non open sourced drivers or firmware. Perhaps different parts of the code were authored by different people and they need everyone approval.

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  • [–] 57 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Using some creepy robot with a proprietary algorithm to provide "emotional support" to children sounds like a good thing to go out of business.

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  • [–] 41 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    IIRC they were designed for kids with autism.

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  • [–] 54 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    I just don't get it with these proprietary cloud connected devices. Do people just not realize that keeping server infrastructure running for free after a product is sold is not in a company's best profit-seeking interests (maybe they don't even think about how things on the Internet actually work, I dunno)? I thought of this almost fifteen years ago when I started seeing smart thermostats. There should always be an option to go local, even if it requires the consumer to acquire a skillset in IT. Maybe we can start working things like that into right to repair legislation if it isn't already.

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  • [–] 31 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I once had a tech support ticket for a computer not turning on. When I checked it out, they had connected a power bar to itself. This 40yr old man genuinely didn't understand why that wouldn't work.

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  • [–] 26 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Most people don't think about how things work. I'd guess that most customers thought all the smart features were internal and the Internet connection was just an arbitrary requirement

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago

    For home stuff, look for the tech "Matter over Thread". They're protocols* designed to allow your stuff to work with any ecosystem, including local.

    It's been slow to roll out, largely, imo, because companies would prefer to lock people into their own ecosystems and apps. Apple, Google, and Samsung do have some motivations to be interoperable though, and Matter/Thread is that effort. Consider looking at Home Assistant if you want to know more about this ecosystem and local, open control.

    I could go into more detail, but this is already a tangent.

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    [–] 19 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Amazon Dash buttons have entered the chat.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    Yeah, but everybody knew those were a stupid fucking idea from the start. I didn't and still don't feel much sympathy for the people who deliberately bought one of those solely for its intended purpose and then got the rug pulled out from under them.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Amazon was effectively giving them away for free for a large portion of their lifespan. You'd have deals where you'd pay for them and then get a coupon for actually using them equal to the purchase price. I feel like I even remember a few times where the coupon you got worked out to slightly more than you paid for the button. Basically, saying that someone 'bought' one was usually only partially true.

    They did have a few legitimately good uses. Had to have something that needed restocking sporadically but you also didn't think about often and could wait 2-3 days to receive when you realized you were out. A lot of prerequisites there, I used the ones for trash bags and detergent often.

    It's mostly just a shame the amount of ewaste produced at this point. I still have a box full somewhere in hopes of finding a use case.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Is there missing punctuation in that headline or am I an idiot?

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  • [–] 32 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    No, there is no punctuation missing, the headline writing style is just hurting comprehensibility. I'll expand it a bit.

    "A startup, which is set to brick an $800 kids' robot, is trying to open-source it first"

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  • [–] 26 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Cheers, I can read and comprehend the original headline now. I'm Australian so English isn't my first language, at least that's my excuse.

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