Silicon Valley invests $120 Mill. in $400 juicer that works as well as hands

[mc172]

Can someone translate this into meaningful English?

"It was frustrating to read that something we always knew about, and that our customers simply aren't interested in doing, was somehow new and relevant. But you overcame the distraction and I appreciate your unflappable focus."

Does it make sense to you if it's written like this:

"It was frustrating to read that something we always knew about (and that our customers simply aren't interested in doing) was somehow new and relevant. But you overcame the distraction and I appreciate your unflappable focus."

?

[MarkS]

Can someone translate this into meaningful English?

"It was frustrating to read that something we always knew about, and that our customers simply aren't interested in doing, was somehow new and relevant. But you overcame the distraction and I appreciate your unflappable focus."

Does it make sense to you if it's written like this:

"It was frustrating to read that something we always knew about (and that our customers simply aren't interested in doing) was somehow new and relevant. But you overcame the distraction and I appreciate your unflappable focus."

?

I can read quite well. What is he talking about? What was new and relevant? What distraction? If he is talking about squeezing the packet by hand, he totally missed the point. This was a rather random quote added to the article that didn't quite fit with the rest of the article, at least not without context.

[mc172]

You asked if someone could translate into meaningful English, not explain the context.

[xrunner]

Can someone translate this into meaningful English?

"It was frustrating to read that something we always knew about, and that our customers simply aren't interested in doing, was somehow new and relevant. But you overcame the distraction and I appreciate your unflappable focus."

I have no idea what he's talking about.

The only way it would make sense to me (I'm adding my own comments) would be like this:

"It was frustrating to read that something we always knew about,

[the possibility of applying computer control and internet access to a simple every-day activity]

and that our customers simply aren't interested in doing,

[not interested in applying computer and internet control to squeezing fruit/veggie packets]

was somehow new and relevant.

[Applying computers and internet access is not new and relevant to other everyday activities such as banking and gaming]

But you overcame the distraction and I appreciate your unflappable focus."

[So is that what he meant? I have no idea.]

[691175002]

"It was frustrating to read that something we always knew about,

[the possibility of applying computer control and internet access to a simple every-day activity]

My initial understanding was the same as yours, but the quote came from the CEO and was supposed to be motivational.

Juciro knew that packets could be squeezed by hand, but did not consider it revelant as their customers would not be doing that.  The final bit at the end ("But you overcame the distraction and I appreciate your unflappable focus.") is just thanking staff for continuing to work despite the bad press.

[sibeen]

Looks like they've gone bust and shutting down.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/01/juicero-silicon-valley-shutting-down


Such disappointment.

[EEVblog]

Looks like they've gone bust and shutting down.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/01/juicero-silicon-valley-shutting-down
Such disappointment.

And the collective tech community gasps with shock!
How could it have possibly failed???

[xrunner]

Looks like they've gone bust and shutting down.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/01/juicero-silicon-valley-shutting-down


Such disappointment.

I guess they got squeezed out (sorry).

[Gary350z]

Juicero shuts down.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-juicero-death-20170901-htmlstory.html

[digsys]

WAIT !! There's HOPE !!!
"The company will try to find a buyer “who can carry forward the Juicero mission,” he added."

[AndyC_772]

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/01/juicero_now_a_fruitless_endeavor/

So, of course, not only are they not able to fulfil any new orders, but every machine they've ever shipped becomes an instant boat anchor. But that's OK... somehow they can afford:

Juicero says that it will be offering full refunds for the next 90 days to anyone who dropped the $400 on a juicer.

That should make them highly attractive to any potential acquirer, I'm sure.

[iampoor]

Juicero says that it will be offering full refunds for the next 90 days to anyone who dropped the $400 on a juicer.

That should make them highly attractive to any potential acquirer, I'm sure.

Im actually surprised they are offering refunds. It seems like a decent thing to do, I wonder what the motivation is....?

Isnt looking for someone to aquire the business just a normal course of action for these crazy VC backed startups? Im sure the "tech" they developed is worth something to someone. 

[Halcyon]

Can someone translate this into meaningful English?

"It was frustrating to read that something we always knew about, and that our customers simply aren't interested in doing, was somehow new and relevant. But you overcame the distraction and I appreciate your unflappable focus."

"We knew out product was crap and a complete waste of money but we didn't think the public would realise so quickly"

[AndyC_772]

Notice that what they're offering is a refund, which of course they can't afford to do for everybody, rather than a free firmware update which enables a trivial new feature: "press and hold the button for 2 seconds to begin pressing without first asking for permission over the network".

I'd love to see them put on the spot and asked, in a very public forum, why they haven't made this simple change. It would take about 10 minutes to implement, and would ensure that nobody is left with a machine they can't use.

I'd like to ask them why they feel that allowing all those otherwise perfectly serviceable machines to end up in landfill is acceptable.

Perhaps the only consolation here is that we may end up with another good example of failure to use in engineering lectures.

[iampoor]

Maybe they will add that feature if no one buys the company assets. 

[Halcyon]

Notice that what they're offering is a refund, which of course they can't afford to do for everybody, rather than a free firmware update which enables a trivial new feature: "press and hold the button for 2 seconds to begin pressing without first asking for permission over the network".

I'm sure it won't be long until some tech-savvy user writes their own code that does just that.

However that being said, if the company is going under, where are the users going to buy their over-priced fruit pouches from? I assume they've stopped manufacturing these as well.

[AndyC_772]

That's the point; the only reason for the machine to have its IoT features at all is to enforce dependency on the manufacturer's consumables with their unique, individual QR codes, and the central server that authenticates each one and 'allows' the machine to press it. If the supply of those dries up, the machine becomes completely useless.

[cdev]

That response letter sounded to me as if he was trying to contain the damage by making the revelation look too boring to even go look at. That is to say they were trying to do damage control by pretending to have more credibility, confident that most people would be fooled by it's tone into thinking it was nothing/never investigating the situation.

Which actually is quite newsworthy as we have seen.

I think the Juicero situation is illustrative of a number of disturbing changes in society but its challenging to put them into words in a way that does the situation justice.

[madires]

That's the point; the only reason for the machine to have its IoT features at all is to enforce dependency on the manufacturer's consumables with their unique, individual QR codes, and the central server that authenticates each one and 'allows' the machine to press it. If the supply of those dries up, the machine becomes completely useless.

And the sad thing is that most people will figure that out only after it happened to them, not while considering to buy such an IoT device.

[Ampera]

The people who bought the juicer don't DESERVE refunds. They deserve to have that 400 dollars go down the drain so they can learn not to shove money into worthless IoT things that do LESS than that the traditional counterparts do. IoT needs to DIE in a fire. It's a complete and total undercooked GIMMICK that has formed into one of the largest botnets in the world that is capable of taking down a considerable chunk of the internet.

[CopperCone]

For some reason I don't see any objective opinions in this thread.

1) It claims to be calibrated

This means,
1) Fruit control - particular ripeness level, fruit size, possibly sugar content, cut quality, etc is sampled (i.e. chemical inspection at packaging plant), also possibly assured vendors, supply chain control (like buying parts from digikey vs ebay china), good wash, pesticide test, etc. They may have an expert fruit tester present in their facility, similar to a wine tester, to assure quality.


2) Calibration on fruit - the pressure is tailored to the cut and type of fruit in the bag, to provide some kind of calibrated experience with the squeeze contents of the solid.

I'm sure there were significant R&D costs to developing fruit calibrations. You need to do tests to determine what is the most accepted flavor profile of a squeeze. Then figure out how to maintain that flavor profile throughout the seasons, different fruit suppliers (you probably wont be buying from the same guy the entire year around), etc

3) Emergency Convenience- late, tired, etc... you still get what you consider (im not sure if it actually is) healthy, even in really bad situations where you can't be fucked preparing a meal. Even the most dedicated people have situations where they will eat a bag of cookies for dinner. Now, its theoretically possible that having the fruit etc might help stave off a disease or provide an immune boost to dodge some kind of illness that can occur due to poor nutrition in a weakened state. Also, you might heal faster, lets say your sick with a cold and you feel tired.

Doing these things yourself requires shopping prowess, the fruit wash in the sink, the cutting, inventory management

So you need to keep a fruit stockpile and schedule your meals based on ripeness. This is what a wife typically does.

It's expensive or time consuming either way. Some people just don't like going grocery shopping and prep work etc.

Now, what you get it scheduled deliveries, this saves you shopping time and cuts down on inventory space. You also (I don';t know if they do it right) get guaranteed fruit of some particular quality. This depends on the manufacturer standards.


Now, if you have family/wife/friends that take care of you, the value of this invention drops drastically. On the other hand, if you are alone, or everyone is busy, its not the stupidest thing in the world. Obviously its being charged to a premium, but people do alot of weird ass expensive shit, like massages, vacations, yoga, drinking fancy alcohol,titty bars, hookers, drugs, tea (ever check out the price of premium teas?), aromatherapy, etc.

In some ways, it does seem more logical then hiring a thai hooker for a massage, but each to his own.

I for instance enjoy Snapple iced tea, even though I can make some good tea at home. It costs like 2.5$ a bottle. Cheap, but you can argue the I am completely retarded for all the plastic waste etc, compared to a teabag or better loose tea, which only incurs typically a small metal or plastic waste. 

And, some fruits are just unpleasant to eat, but the juices are OK imo. I don't like eating apples very much, but apple juice is quite good. Unless someone provides me with a free apple, I will not purchase one. And sometimes you fill up on junkier food but still want the fruit nutrients without filling your stomach further (i.e. go out to a burger joint). This may help with digestion.

[Halcyon]

IoT needs to DIE in a fire.

I generally agree, however at first glance, the Nest smoke/carbon monoxide alarm seems to be at least one IoT product worth having. I say this because it doesn't rely on the internet (or even your own Wi-Fi network) to continue functioning. Once set up and if your internet/power fails, it will continue to work autonomously and will communicate directly with other units using their own mesh network.

The downside to the Nest is that it contains a microphone (for it's "self test" feature) -- A smoke alarm does NOT need a microphone!

If you're going to design a GOOD IoT device, it needs to have a fall-back mode where without the internet or the company existing any more, it's still perfectly usable for the most part.

[MarkS]

...snip...

So, basically, what you're saying is that this overpriced and gimped piece of junk was needed because people are too stupid and/or lazy to select good pieces of fruit to squeeze themselves?

If you're going to design a GOOD IoT device, it needs to have a fall-back mode where without the internet or the company existing any more, it's still perfectly usable for the most part.

^^This!

[AndyC_772]

...Calibration...
...Convenience...
...scheduled deliveries...

I think perhaps you've misunderstood the technical implementation of the product.

Suppose you think there is value in having a juice pack squeezed with a certain pressure for a certain amount of time. Personally I can't believe it's that big a deal, but I've nothing against anyone who can taste a difference and has a preference one way or the other. That's up to them.

The Juicero packs contain a QR code which is unique to each one. There is no technical reason whatsoever why that code couldn't contain, say, "press at 70% of full power for 20 seconds", which would tell the machine absolutely everything it needs to know to deliver the optimum end product.

But they don't, though. What they contain is "this is pack serial #12345678", and the machine has to contact a server with this ID to get a response back. That response contains the calibration data, and much more importantly, a 'yes / no' flag as to whether or not the machine is permitted to use that pack at all.

The features which benefit the owner of the machine could have been (trivially) made to work with no network connection. The only reason for needing a network connection is to enforce total dependency on the manufacturer's consumables, and to lock out competition.

[madires]

Yep, Juicero's business model was: complete vendor lock-in and full control of devices = profit