The Rabbit R1 E-Waste Disaster

As a software developer, I love tech solutions for problems. I bought the Apple Watch Series 0 when its name was simply “Apple Watch”, and didn’t even play Podcasts. I also bought a Blackberry Playbook and a Wii U (true story, both).

However, even I’m starting to be concerned by the endless production of physical gadgets that are likely to end up as e-waste in short order. The case in point is the Rabbit R1, a gadget that simply shouldn’t exist. The AI pocket gadget that seeks to replace your phone…by being a worse version of your phone. You can’t make this stuff up.

A waste of time

Creating a device that could be coded in Android when everybody has a smartphone in their pocket is not a good use of Earth’s finite resources. When it runs Android under the hood, we can all see that it is painfully clear that this device never needed to exist.

That notwithstanding, the device is trash in terms of performance and usability. The touchscreen is turned off for most use cases (?), the camera is 2012 tier and the battery runs out real quick. Your phone with the ChatGPT app is simply better on every level. 

I could write a better app for your phone, and the manufacturer should have produced just that — software.

Software as The Lesser of Two Evils

This hardware promises patched-in features “at a later date”, like Tesla and their never-appearing total self-driving solution.

This tendency to release subpar software and patch it up with endless updates “sometime in the future” is bad enough for software, but when a hardware device is closely bound to software users are likely to toss the device before the software is ever finished.

This approach not only frustrates users but also reflects poorly on us as developers. We are contributing to the world becoming an inhabitable fireball, and I think we should take responsibility.

What’s the Solution?

As developers, we need to advocate for more sustainable practices. It’s about saying no.

I know I’m one to talk, working on tickets that do not have any acceptance criteria — but I feel software developers not saying no is the whole problem.

If we lack thoughtful, well-developed software solutions what we produce needs constant patches and fixes. Releasing barely usable software devoid of features simply makes users averse to purchasing software.

We must push back against the rush to release new unfinished gadgets and software and there is one group who can certainly make their voices heard. It’s us, the software developers. 

Conclusion

Make your voice heard and make the world a better place. How hard can it be?