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Nest Thermostat Bug Leaves Owners Without Heating (thestack.com)

Posted by timothy on from the bit-chilly-in-here dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Google-owned smart homeware company Nest has asked users to reset their connected thermostats after a software bug forced controllers offline and left owners unable to heat their homes. The company has confirmed that a software update error had caused the thermostat's batteries to drain, therefore making it unable to control the temperature. Users of the smart home device took to social media to express their anger at being left with cold houses. Some feared that the fault had put water pipes under pressure, risking burst plumbing.

8 of 432 comments (clear)

  1. The Cloud: 1, Users: 0 by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When you cede control of your world to The Cloud and automatic updates, you should not expect reliability.

    1. Re:The Cloud: 1, Users: 0 by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What part of "you should not expect reliability" did you not understand....

    2. Re:The Cloud: 1, Users: 0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There's nothing wrong with the Cloud for this.

      Found the millenial. ^^^

      When I recently encountered a person who thought it was normal to have to reboot their light switches (some brand of automated switch) I finally realized that what old people say is true: sometimes the old way of doing things is better.

    3. Re:The Cloud: 1, Users: 0 by bonehead · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The thermostat being the front end in this case, I would expect it to be as reliable as a complex system can be.

      See, there's where you get off track.

      I would expect something as simple as a thermostat to be "not complex" in the first place.

    4. Re:The Cloud: 1, Users: 0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The correlation is high enough to believe it is causation ;-)

    5. Re:The Cloud: 1, Users: 0 by Hydrian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It is not the older is better. It is that tested and vetted is better. That takes time. Never get the newest and greatest unless you are willing to deal with the chance of it breaking or acting in appropriately.

      --
      No good deed goes unpunished.
    6. Re:The Cloud: 1, Users: 0 by boristdog · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well, the "Baby Boomers" didn't name themselves. The previous generation did. But that generation named themselves "The Greatest Generation."

  2. Often the simplest tool is the best job. by kent_eh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And this is a pretty good demonstration of a less simple tool not being better.
    At it's core, a thermostat has a simple job to do.
    The more complexity that is added to the design, the more points of failure there can be.
    And, really, how much benefit does internet connectivity really add to a thermostat anyway?

    --

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    "I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh