No internet required. No Linux powered microcontroller required. My bed couldn't get hacked. I slept in comfort.
Let’s assume I have some sort of motor disability: it could be anything from Parkinsons to quadraplegia. Having a bridge out to a common controller that maybe works on speech or some other standardised input method that works for your disability is a massive benefit. And avoids having to deal with the complexities of each individual products’ inability to meet your own accessibility needs in different ways.
So much smart home stuff is basically pointless to those of us fortunate enough to have currently able bodies, and a lifesaver to the rest.
They may care in a passive sense -- the same way that most people care about social causes. They (myself included) agree that some situation is bad, but they don't inconvenience themselves improve the situation.
As an example, many people have some story about creepily being shown ads after talking about something with a friend. It's concerning to them, but no action is taken.
What manufacturers like about cloud enabled devices is that they can automatically upgrade the firmware and they can get semi-accurate counts for usage.
I presume you personally could set that up. I probably could too. But 99% of the world isn't tech experts and can't do that. Or fix it if something goes wrong. Even if you can, you might just want to go to bed and not have to debug a broken assistant integration first.
The benefit of cloud integration, for that 99%, is that there is a professional out there to keep it working.
I got a fancy new one a bit later with an adjustable frame and remote control and all that... $2200, and even that felt crazy expensive!
1. That's exactly why I prefer a plain old analog mattress that needs zero tech or support from anyone ever
2. Even with that being the case, for the average consumer who wants an electronic/controllable bed, it's still a better deal than anything that requires a custom home automation setup. Check out the prices for hiring somebody who can actually troubleshoot that.
What they like is that they can charge you a recurring subscription for "service"
Extending this idea to how devices operate or are maintained it seems like we're still in a nascent stage. I benefit from a few smart devices but even in a very simple setup, things fail sometimes and then I have to fix it. My mom might benefit from some of these things but she feels better off foregoing the benefits because resolving any issue would be far more costly or impractical.
Unless these devices respect their users, they're simply profiteering off of the disadvantaged, which in my mind should be just as rage inducing.
I prefer to think "How can this be used against someone" because while there are a lot of "smart" devices that can help people, they are often also being used to exploit those same people by collecting massive amounts of data and using that data against them or selling/leaking it to those who will use it against them, or allowing hackers to gain access to their data/network.
People with a disability or those with accessibility needs shouldn't need to give up their right to privacy or security to take advantage of every technological advance that might make their lives easier. Even people without a disability don't need some company collecting a detailed record of when/how often/how long they have sex, or how many nights they sleep alone, or what days/hours they spend in bed, or what times they go to sleep or how much sleep they get.
Devices should be designed to protect users and not to collect as much data as possible, or push ads, or expose them to hackers.
A bridge to a common controller doesn't need an applications processor with millions of bytes of memory to run millions of lines of code to change the firmness of a stupid mattress. Stop using hammers to solve all your problems, other tools exist.