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"The refrigerator is dead": Samsung's AI fridges shut down after update, causes outrage
(www.notebookcheck.net)
this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2026
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Why was it even able to fail that way to begin with?
It's not like the functional software in a refrigerator needs to be updated that often at all. You'd think that if the update fails catastrophically, it would fall back to a basic operating mode like a car does.
Do they have a renting system or something in the works that's meant to let them shut the device remotely?
My guess is they tried to save money by reducing controllers.
A smartly designed fridge would be much like a car. In a car you have a number of relatively dumb computers that handle things like the engine or battery and motors. And then you have smart connected computers for things like infotainment and app access and self driving. The smart computers have a relatively simple data path to send instructions to the dumb computers like 'start the engine' and get data back like 'engine temperature is 190F'. In a fridge you would have a dumb controller that handles the compressor, defrosting, temperature control, fan speed, lighting, etc. Then whatever internet AI bullshit would be on a separate smart computer that sends the dumb controller commands like 'set fridge temp to 37f'.
It sounds like in this case they put the smart controller in charge of everything. That is, the touch screen computer is also telling the compressor when to start and stop. This is not great design for a few reasons, and is actively dangerous in a car- imagine if the users kid slams both hands on the touch screen, the computer locks up because it wasn't expecting 10 touch points at once, and suddenly fuel is injected during an exhaust stroke and the engine explodes. And as we see here it's not smart in a fridge either- touch screen crashes and all your food goes bad.
Personally I think the smart play is stay the hell away from all of these smart connected appliances. They offer very little benefit for the user, but provide a pathway for the manufacturer to harvest tons of lifestyle data and sell it.
The update may have made changes to the underlying kernal, to fix unimportant bugs identified by AI - that would brick the whole thing.
Vibe coding for the win !