It's unclear what problem smart guns are trying to solve. Is the point to replace gun safes? Is it to prevent the weapon from being used against you if taken from you in a fight? Is it to deter gun theft? Is it to stop children from firing the weapon if they discover it? The latter scenario seems particularly silly to me. If you're dumb enough to leave a loaded weapon out in a house with children, you're probably not going to have the sense to get a smart gun.
Even if the cost and reliability issues are addressed, smart guns still won't help much. First, the majority of guns used in crimes are obtained through corrupt dealers and straw purchases. Only 10-15% of firearms used in crimes are stolen.[2] Second, this will do nothing to help secure the 350 million guns already in the US.
It seems to me that a much more effective way to reduce theft and accidental gun deaths is to make better safes. Right now, the best safes on the market are mechanical lock boxes.[3] They use no batteries or electronics, and they can make a gun available in seconds. Still, they're less than ideal. Many are hard to program, causing users to leave them on the default combination. Almost all of them have small buttons which are hard to press if your adrenaline is going. I'd love to get something better.
1. https://twitter.com/paulg/status/660920179904266240
2. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/guns/procon/gu...