from the actually do it dept
A couple of weeks ago, we discussed the implosion of the start-up company Embodied and the resulting bricking of the $800 “emotional support” robot designed for children. Like many other stories about IoT-type products, the post focuses on how these robots will stop working as designed when the backend support infrastructure for closed businesses is shut down. As is often the case with stories like this, there were some comments suggesting that the company could release the source code and allow the open source community to pick up the slack here, so at least the robots don’t become $800 paperweights.
But what not what usually happens in this story is to see a company that is actually trying to do this. But as Embodied planned, the company announced an update and plans for the entire open source community to build its own backend software for the device.
Embodied CEO Paolo Pirjanian shared documents via a LinkedIn blog post today saying people who were once part of Embodied’s technical team are developing “potential” and open-source ways to keep Moxies running. The document reads:
“This initiative involves developing a local server application (‘OpenMoxie’) that you can run on your own computer. Once available, this community-supported option will allow you (or technically inclined individuals) to maintain Moxie’s basic functionality, develop new features, and modify its capabilities to better suit your needs—without relying on Embodied’s cloud servers.
The notice states that after releasing OpenMoxie, Embodied plans to release “all necessary code and documentation” for developers and users.
The company is also pushing the final update to the device that will allow it to support OpenMoxie setup.
Now, none of this is a perfect solution. If people miss an update, their robots will still be bricked. There is no commitment from anyone that the open source code and OpenMoxie will be carefully maintained. And who knows if the quality of OpenMoxie will compare to what the company provides.
However, this is not an ideal solution for parents who are invested in playing emotional support for children and may not have the knowledge or time to keep it alive after Embodied closes. While Embodied has done better than other companies that have bricked or changed the capabilities of smart devices after launch, it remains a disappointing and possibly illegal trend among tech companies that force products to simply change their functionality or stop supporting software after taking people’s money.
But at least Embodied is trying to do something about it. As the quote above notes, it is far from the case in many other cases, where customers are simply cut off from the functionality of the goods they think they are buying, without any real concern from the company that carries out the cut.
As I said in my previous post, a better solution in the long run would be some kind of consumer protection legislation. While we wait that probably will not come, however, this is at least a good step in the right direction by the folks at Embodied.
Filed Under: autism, moxie, open source, robot
Company: realized
