Nest Thermostat glitch reveals small fault can cause big problems

Problems with smart devices, such as Google's Nest Learning Thermostat, which suffered a mysterious software bug that drained its battery thereby causing heating to plummet, or wireless fobs for keyless cards making it easier for thieves to break in, reveal that small glitches can cause huge problems. Recently, Fitbit was hit with a class action lawsuit stating that the wristbands failed to "consistently and accurately record wearers' heart rates", which is vital for those with certain medical conditions, and there are dozens of stories from people locked out of their homes by malfunctioning door touch pads, or security alarms going off. To make it worse, many of these companies, such as Nest, have in their service agreements a clause prohibiting customers from suing them or joining a class-action suit. 

The Nest Learning Thermostat is dead to me, literally. Last week, my once-beloved “smart” thermostat suffered from a mysterious software bug that drained its battery and sent our home into a chill in the middle of the night.

Although I had set the thermostat to 70 degrees overnight, my wife and I were woken by a crying baby at 4 a.m. The thermometer in his room read 64 degrees, and the Nest was off.

This didn’t happen to just me. The problems with the much-hyped thermostat, which allows users to monitor and adjust their thermostats on their smartphones (Google purchased Nest Labs for $3.2 billion in 2014), affected an untold number of customers when the device went haywire across America.

Users vented on the company’s online forums and on social media. The glitch also coincided with plunging temperatures throughout much of the country.