1 month ago
9 ARTICLE AD
SimpliSafe has announced the addition of Active Guard Outdoor Protection to its monthly subscription offerings. The new tier adds an added layer of 24/7 monitoring to the home security service. Outdoor Protection Pro is available for $50 a month, a price that includes the Boston-based firm’s standard $22 indoor monitoring service.
The new offering will only be available via a new piece of hardware, the Outdoor Security Camera Series 2. SimpliSafe says the limitations are due to its predecessor’s inability to run its ‘AI for the Familiar Face’ feature, which assures that users don’t trigger false alarms at their own homes.
If the system doesn’t recognize the person based on past training, a human agent will be alert. Depending on the situation, response, and other factors, the SimpliSafe employee can alert the person that they’re being monitored, trigger a siren and flood lights, and alert authorities as necessary.
Product SVP Hooman Shahid tells TechCrunch that SimpliSafe was intentional in its decision to involve the human agent in the process, so the final decision isn’t being made by AI.
“[The AI] is all to aid the agents,” explains Shahid. “We’ve trained our agents on racial bias and have a pretty diverse workforce that manages our monitoring center. This is really just to help them, as opposed to being a replacement for them.”
CEO Christian Cerda adds that, while Simplisafe – like every other company on Earth – is testing generative AI solutions, the company is taking a cautious approach to how these technologies are deployed.
The Outdoor Security Camera Series 2 is priced at $200 – the same as its predecessor. The camera is waterproof and designed to be mounted to a wall or other surface. It can be battery-powered or hardwired for power. The system shoots in HD with a 140-degree view, catching details up to 15 feet away. Microphones and speakers are also built in for two-way communication.
Founded in 2006, SimpliSafe is one of the top three home security companies in the U.S., along with ADT and Vivint. In those 18 years, the firm has continued to see increased competition as smart home cameras proliferate from the likes of Amazon’s Ring and Google’s Nest.
SimpliSafe does the vast majority of its business in the U.S., adding its first international office in the U.K. in 2019. In April 2023 the security firm’s headquarters moved into a larger Boston office space. The company is also home to a good number of former iRobot employees, including Cerda, who was previously the Roomba-maker’s COO.
