In the wake of new pet tech CES announcements, I can’t help but to be worried about pet safety.
Smart pet tech seems great, in theory. All smart home tech is meant to alleviate some of the tedium of everyday life, and pet tech generally promises that so you can have more time with them. For example, automatic pet feeders and pet cams are commonplace now, and companies are looking to expand into even more complex, helpful gadgets.
Pawport announced its smart pet door at CES, and it sounds extremely convenient at first blush. Using a sensor on the sensor on the dog’s collar, the pet door automatically opens and closes, and you adjust the speed, angle, and other metrics in an app. Pawport even assures consumers on its website that the door opens and closes slowly for the pet’s safety.
That’s all well and good, but I simply can’t trust pet tech to work perfectly one hundred percent of the time—because if it fails, the results can be disastrous. You don’t need to look any further than smart automatic cat litter boxes to see the issue.
Around September last year, videos and articles about Amztoy’s and other companies’ self-cleaning litter boxes started circulating. These particular litter boxes are enclosed, with a self-opening door that senses when a cat is nearby. It opens when the cat is near, and closes when they’ve done the deed to clean up. The problem is that the doors don’t always work correctly, and when they fail, they could injure the cat—and in some cases, the failure was lethal.
Looking at Pawport’s pet door, I can’t help but think of those litter boxes malfunctioning. Even with the great pains Pawport has taken to showcase the device’s safety, just the design of the pet door makes me uneasy. No matter how many safety measures are in place, tech can and will eventually fail, and when it does, how will it affect my pet? Even in the best-case scenario, your pet will be trapped inside or outside for an unknown length of time. No one wants their dog stuck outside if it’s raining or snowing, and pet messes because they’re stuck inside, while preferable, are still frustrating.
To me, some pet tech can be helpful if you have a backup plan (like having extra food out if the automatic feeder fails when on vacation). But for products with motorized aspects like this pet door, the convenience isn’t worth the risks.