Lighthouse, the maker of AI security camera is shutting down,due to a lack of commercial success for its first product. Lighthouse’s first product was unveiled back in May 2017, and it began selling in February of this year for $299.
The camera could perform facial recognition and, over time, learn the faces of familiar people in your home to help you tailor alert settings and better understand when you needed to actually pay attention to the video feed.
The product however has some drawbacks but was a good product to mentioned. It also required a $10 subscription fee that was necessary to enable any of its promised AI features, making it a costly proposition for any customer.
Although Lighthouse arrived at a prime moment for AI in the home, it also happened to be going up against Amazon, Google, and established consumer like other electronics companies. Almost all of those companies, and especially Amazon and Google, began bundling AI features into existing camera lines, making Lighthouse’s product a tough sell from an unproven startup.
“I am incredibly proud of the groundbreaking work the Lighthouse team accomplished – delivering useful and accessible intelligence for our homes via advanced AI and 3D sensing,” writes CEO and co-founder Alex Teichman in a note on the company’s website. “Unfortunately, we did not achieve the commercial success we were looking for and will be shutting down operations in the near future. Customers, please check your email for refund process details.”
