Thread

Owners mourn spoiled food after firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges

323 points · 336 comments · nonfamous

9cb14c1ec0 · 1790257028 · focus · HN ↗
Meanwhile, my non-smart fridge continues to run just fine. Why do we need smart fridges? That was always a bad idea.
1. Legend2440 · 1790258111 · focus · HN ↗
  The trouble is that 'smart fridges' turn out to be just a regular fridge with an android tablet on the front. Which is useless.
  I would love a fridge with a camera inside and a smart enough AI to tell me (1. what's in the fridge (2. how long it's been there and (3. what I've eaten from it. Some companies have tried making this kind of fridge, but AFAIK they don't work very well.
  1. LoganDark · 1790258662 · focus · HN ↗
    The trouble here is that this smart fridge put safety-critical features behind a single internet-connected piece of shit. Appliance manufacturers really need to take inspiration from automotive manufacturers in terms of redundancy and localizing failure.
    Skwid · 1790263803 · focus · HN ↗
    I hate to break it to you, but those guy's aren't far behind on the path of enshittification.
    Remember this classic? <a href="https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/" rel="nofollow">https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-hig...
    LoganDark · 1790266958 · focus · HN ↗
    You break nothing much, don't worry - I was taking about equipment failure or malfunction, not targeted attack. Like, your power brakes or ABS can fail but you can still brake. Power steering can fail but you can still steer. Hell, steering wheel can pop right off and the steering geometry should still try to relatively prefer the center (not always ideal, but like, better than going fully insane like a shopping cart wheel). My point is there's no single CPU executing the entire vehicle where any malfunction can spontaneously cause the entire vehicle to stop functioning so badly that it won't perform any of its duties. Sure an ECU could fail and not run the engine, but that won't make you lose the ability to brake or steer if it happens in the middle of a highway. Something malicious can still command the rest of the vehicle to stop functioning one by one, but there aren't many single sources of that much failure.
    At the very least, the system that maintains the temperature of the fridge (critical for food safety) should not be brought down by an exception in the system that displays advertisements on the front panel...
    wildzzz · 1790521496 · focus · HN ↗
    Right, I'm sure the fridge has the ability to set the temperature through the touchscreen or remotely but the inverter controlling the compressor should default to a medium setting when no commands (a specific temperature or an off command) are given by the computer. It would cost only a couple dollars to drop in a microcontroller between the computer and inverter to monitor for a periodic temperature command. No command after 1 hour? Set the inverter to cold and wait for further instruction.
    I could see this being kinda annoying if you've told the fridge to be off (like in an unoccupied house) but it instead turns on because the computer has bricked itself but considering fridges usually have food in them for the majority of their lifespan, defaulting to cold is a fail-safe mode.
    Fridges are one of the more critical home appliances. Sure, it's not going to be the end of the world if your beer fridge cuts out but hundreds of dollars of food is not something everyone can easily replace. EBT doesn't cover buying replacement food if it spoils. People also keep expensive prescriptions in fridges. You probably have at least two appliances for heating up food, a stove, oven, or microwave, such that you have some less convenient alternative available. But most people do not have an alternative fridge they can simply move all of their food to.
    [deleted] · 1790602195 · focus · HN ↗
    [deleted]

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.