AI security camera maker Lighthouse shutting down 1

A Bay Area based startup, Lighthouse, that was trying to market a $300 security camera with some sophisticated artificial intelligence capabilities, is shutting down. The reason was the lack of “commercial success” of its product.

Alex Teichman, the CEO of Lighthouse, blogged “Lights out”

To our customers, investors, family, friends, partners, fans, and everyone else involved in the Lighthouse journey: It’s been a pleasure, and we can’t thank you enough for your support along the way.

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. 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.

We remain strong believers in a future with AI at your service, and look forward to inventing that future with you.

Onward,

According to writers at The Verge, 

“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 did, however, come with some drawbacks. It was $299, which was as expensive as the most pricey Nest camera. 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. (Most modern security cameras offer better features with a subscription, but still work normally out of the box.)”