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A comment on Why are new devices dependent on the Internet but made with little forethought?. Parent comment

Re:Why are new devices dependent on the Internet but made wi... by mcguire on Monday December 14, 2020 @02:29PM (#25422026)
So you missed the other half of that example? "Now consider current times when your thermostat becomes completely unresponsive in the middle of winter because a vital network goes down. Imagine you're not able to operate your car during a crisis because networks are down?"

Something, something, "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. ... Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something."

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why are new devices dependent on the Internet but made wi... by stickfigure on Monday December 14, 2020 @02:33PM (#25422083)
That statement is also false.

I have a Nest thermostat. It works fine without the network. I have a modern car. It works fine without the internet. Several of my friends have Teslas. They work fine offgrid.

It's just nonsense. Stop defending it.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why are new devices dependent on the Internet but made wi... by falcolas on Monday December 14, 2020 @02:50PM (#25422312)
Wasn't there recently a story of a Lamborghini which wouldn't start because it didn't have a cell signal (it was in an underground garage)? Some sensor had been tripped, which made the car require network validation before it would start back up.

And don't Nest thermostats occasionally have an issue where they default back to somewhere in the 60° range due to a server connectivity issue?

https://support.google.com/googlenest/thread/20510237?hl=en

Doesn't seem like nonsense.

Other fun internet connected car reads:

https://www.wcpo.com/money/consumer/dont-waste-your-money/wo...

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/306338-phone-app-rental-...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why are new devices dependent on the Internet but made wi... by stickfigure on Monday December 14, 2020 @04:08PM (#25423334)
As noted in the HN thread, the Ferrari was disabled due to an anti-theft device and couldn't be unlocked remotely due to connectivity. Lack of connectivity is not responsible for the car being disabled; an attempted "theft" (from the device's perspective) was, and a stuck car is exactly what the owner asked for.

Even if there have been a few historical software bugs that caused some Nests to change temperature, it did not "become completely unresponsive in the middle of winter". Worst case is you walk up to the device and turn the temperature back up. Also, there's nothing in that bug report that suggests it has anything to do with internet connectivity.

A quick google search shows plenty of people getting locked in non-internet-connected cars.

The modern world is complex. Even before I replaced my thermostat with a Nest, my furnace was already way more fragile than my fireplace.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why are new devices dependent on the Internet but made wi... by sokoloff on Monday December 14, 2020 @03:23PM (#25422765)
Was a Ferrari: https://old.reddit.com/r/Justrolledintotheshop/comments/j914...
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why are new devices dependent on the Internet but made wi... by SilasX on Monday December 14, 2020 @03:25PM (#25422791)
HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24754662
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why are new devices dependent on the Internet but made wi... by Broken_Hippo on Monday December 14, 2020 @03:02PM (#25422457)
Old thermostats died from time to time, even when they weren't very old. Same with cars. They just had different problems than the modern ones.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why are new devices dependent on the Internet but made wi... by falcolas on Monday December 14, 2020 @03:03PM (#25422473)
Absolutely! But their failure cases weren't due to the inability to access a network or a server. This is whole new set of failure cases which exists over the top of the old ones.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why are new devices dependent on the Internet but made wi... by mcguire on Tuesday December 15, 2020 @08:49PM (#25438051)
Anybody remember Iris?
[ Parent | on HN ]