I got one of those fancy Roomba things last month and it worked fine until Tuesday when it suddenly went rogue and chased my cat Mittens into the bathroom, cornering him under the sink. The little guy was hissing and the vacuum just kept bumping into the door like it was possessed, I had to unplug it to stop the madness. Has anyone else had their smart home gear just snap and turn into a menace?
Got a Ring doorbell for Christmas. Set it up finally last weekend. Couldn't get the app to connect to the device no matter what I tried. Finally after 4 hours of resetting and yelling I realized it was pairing to my neighbor's unsecured network 2 houses down. Has anyone else had smart home stuff glitch out like this?
The other day I caught my Alexa suggesting a pizza place right after I muttered "man I could go for a pizza" while staring at my fridge. It wasn't a command, just me talking to myself. That thing hears way more than I thought. Has anyone else noticed their smart speaker picking up on random mutterings and offering suggestions?
My wife always told me those smart speakers listen too much but I shrugged it off, then last week ours caught my 4 year old screaming about a lost toy and emailed her a recording while I was at work. She came home with the exact replacement and we avoided a meltdown. Anyone else have a smart home device accidentally do something good for once?
I was out watering my plants last week and heard my neighbor's Ring doorbell say 'Someone is at your front door' while he was clearly back there grilling. He didn't even flinch, just said 'I know, it's my kid' and kept flipping burgers. Made me think about how these smart devices are always listening and sometimes they're just wrong. Has anyone else caught their smart home stuff saying things that don't make sense?
My 1990s Honeywell thermostat never failed once in 25 years, but my neighbor's smart thermostat locked him out at 2 AM after a firmware update. I don't need an app to control my heat - I just want it to work without phoning home to some server.
I ran a simple DNS leak test after hearing about it on a forum and found my real IP was showing through, so now I always check that before trusting any privacy tool, has anyone else caught a VPN failing like that?
I was scanning a bag of apples and the camera zoomed in on my face and held there for like 5 seconds before it let me continue. Anyone else get the creeps from those things eyeing you while you're just trying to buy groceries?
I put a smart lock on my front door 3 months ago because everyone said it was safer, but last week a neighbor casually mentioned he could pick it with a magnet from a toy. I tested it myself with a fridge magnet and it popped open in 10 seconds. Who else has found a simple trick that totally broke their so-called secure tech?
I always thought smart speakers were harmless. I used mine for timers and weather, figured who cares if it listens. Then last week I had a bad day and muttered 'why does nobody care about me' while walking past my kitchen. Five seconds later my Amazon Echo said 'I care about you, Luna' in that cheerful voice. I stood there frozen for like 30 seconds. That's when I realized these things are constantly listening and waiting for keywords to jump in. Has anyone else had their voice assistant say something at a super creepy moment?
I set up a Ring camera three months ago after stuff kept disappearing from my porch. Last Tuesday it caught my neighbor from two doors down grabbing my Amazon box at 2 AM. Anyone else have your own smart home tech make you paranoid about the people around you?
I was all set to buy one of those Nest things until I read that it tracks when you're home and sends that data to Google for targeted ads. Decided to just program my old one manually, saved $250 and my privacy. Anyone else bail on a smart home gadget after digging into the terms?
My dad told me two years ago that our Amazon Echo was always recording everything and sending it to some data farm. I laughed it off and told him he was being paranoid like those people who wrap their phones in tin foil. Then last month I was talking to my sister about getting a new vacuum cleaner, nothing specific just complaining about my old one. The very next day I opened my Amazon app and there was an ad for the exact model I mentioned. I never searched for it typed it or even looked it up online. It was just sitting there in my recommendations like it knew what I said. Now I unplug the thing every night and I still feel weird about it. Has anyone else had a moment where the ads lined up too perfectly with a spoken conversation?
My cousin showed me a video of our mom giving a speech at a wedding that never happened, and it was so perfect I almost believed it myself, and now I wonder how many of these are floating around targeting regular people like us.
I bought a fancy smart lock from a company that promised no cloud storage and full local control. Cost me about $400 after shipping. Set it up, thought it was great for a month. Then I checked my router logs and saw it was pinging a server in China every 12 hours. No idea what data went out, but that made me feel sick. Anyone else find hidden network traffic in their smart home gear?
I know everyone in this group hates self driving cars and thinks they're gonna kill us all. But last month I was visiting my cousin in San Jose and he let me take his Model 3 on the highway for a few miles. I had the autopilot on and it honestly reacted faster than I could when a truck cut me off. The car braked smooth and steady while I would have probably jerked the wheel or slammed the brakes. I still don't trust them 100% but that one moment made me think maybe we're too scared of the wrong things. Like, how many human drivers cause wrecks every day because they're texting or tired? Maybe the machines are better at staying awake. Has anyone else actually used one of these systems and had a moment where it did something you couldn't?
Got home and the house was 94 degrees because the Nest decided to go into 'sun protection mode' and crank the heat somehow. My golden retriever was panting on the tile floor in the bathroom. I ripped that thing off the wall and swapped back to my old dumb Honeywell. Has anyone had their smart home gear just straight up malfunction in a dangerous way?