IoT news of the week for Jan. 15, 2021

Appliance makers are the telcos of the smart home: In a conversation with some of the startups showing off their wares at CES, I had a realization. Many of these entrepreneurs were in the middle of working with an appliance company to get their feature embedded as part of a washer, oven, or fridge. And all of them cited a years-long process to make the grade. This makes sense. A consumer buys an appliance with plans to keep it for a decade or more, which means that bad software or a feature from a company that goes out of business during the life of the appliance is a legitimate worry. But it reminded me of the complaints tech firms used to have about the telcos, which also tended to have a hugely long sales and integration process when it came to buying gear or software from startups. The challenges of a long sales cycle changed venture firms’ attitudes toward funding those startups and also affected their business models. So if you’re building a connected product or service designed for the big appliance vendors, maybe find yourself a friend who tried to sell to telcos back in the late nineties and early aughts. They’ll be able to commiserate and offer some good advice. — Stacey Higginbotham 

We’re still far off from our “Total Recall” future of self-driving robotaxis: We shouldn’t expect to see self-driving taxis inside cities anytime during the first quarter of this century, according to Michael Bolle, the CTO of Bosch. Speaking during a Q&A session held after the Bosch press conference at CES, he said that getting to Level 4 and Level 5 autonomy in driving will take a lot longer than anticipated because the AI just isn’t there yet. I guess my 14-year-old daughter will end up having to get her driver’s license after all.  — Stacey Higginbotham 

Samsung SmartThings teams up with Google Nest: On the last full day of CES 2021, as expected, Samsung introduced its newest Galaxy phones. And in a surprise follow-up, the company announced a big new smart home partnership with Google: Samsung SmartThings now works with Google Nest by integrating those products within the SmartThings app. The two companies made a big deal about this tie-up — and rightly so — and said it was just the beginning of a bigger relationship. In the meantime, the SmartThings app will be added to Android Auto next week as well. Given that I’m all in on Google Home, I’m wondering if it makes sense to switch my controls over to SmartThings. Will you? (The Keyword) — Kevin C. Tofel 

Speaking of Google, the Fitbit deal is…done? Another surprise that came during the final day of CES 2021 was this blog post from Google announcing that it had completed its acquisition of Fitbit. That’s even more surprising than SmartThings working with Google Nest given that the U.S. Department of Justice is still reviewing the deal from an antitrust perspective. And last I heard, regulators in Australia still have yet to weigh in, so not all impacted countries have agreed to let the deal happen. It’s been reported that Google could be fined $400 million if the acquisition proceeds without that country’s buy-in. More importantly for consumers is how Google says the deal “has always been about devices, not data.” I guess we may soon find out. (The Keyword) — Kevin C. Tofel 

Ring fixes a “bug” that captures location from Neighbors app posts: Ring started off the week on a positive security note, saying it was adding end-to-end security for viewing video footage. And the day after that, the company said it had fixed a bug that was capturing and storing the precise location of users that posted to its Neighbors app. The location data wasn’t publicly exposed, but the fact that the Ring Neighbors app was actually gathering such data doesn’t exactly give me a warm, fuzzy feeling. Regardless, the bug (if we want to be generous and call it that) has been resolved. (TechCrunch) — Kevin C. Tofel 

Philips Hue expands outdoor wall light selections, which are HomeKit-compatible: I was beginning to think we wouldn’t see many new lighting products from this year’s CES 2021 event. But Philips Hue saved the day on Thursday, introducing its Amarant linear spotlight and a new stainless steel finish for its Appear outdoor wall light. The Appear, an elegant, outdoor sconce-like product, will cost 150 euros in Europe; there’s no announcement of U.S. availability. Amarant is a new linear spotlight that can be mounted to shine light up from the ground or down from any outdoor wall placement. You can daisy-chain multiple Amarant lights via low voltage wiring. Look for the Amarant in the U.S. starting in March, retailing for $170. On a related note in the same announcement, the company also introduced a $40 switch that makes any older switch smart. It has also redesigned its wireless dimmer switch. (Signify) — Kevin C. Tofel 

The top ten IoT events of 2020: This is a nice post examining the news of last year through the lens of the internet of things. When I read these things I’m always wondering how the writer’s point of view ties with my own. It turns out that this particular analysis fits with most of the things I thought were a big deal last year.  (IoT Analytics)  — Stacey Higginbotham 

Just go read this story on the smart home at CES: We wrote about news from Samsung, and news from everybody else over on the Stacey on IoT site this week, but my favorite story was from my colleague Kevin Tofel, who tried to look behind the lack of compelling gadgets to understand what was really happening in the industry. I hope he’s right and the coming year offers us a chance to have some necessary conversations about the role we want tech playing in our lives. (Stacey on IoT) — Stacey Higginbotham 

Updated: This story was updated on Jan. 18 to correct the Bosch item. Due to a translation error, Dr. Bolle meant to say that he didn’t expect self-driving robotaxis in cities during the first quarter of this century, not the first half.