SimpliSafe has announced the addition of Active Guard Outdoor Protection to its monthly subscription offering. The new tier adds a layer of 24/7 monitoring to your home security services. Outdoor Protection Pro is available for $50 per month. That price includes the Boston-based company's standard $32 indoor monitoring service.
This new product will only be available through new hardware: Outdoor Security Camera Series 2. SimpliSafe says this limitation is due to its predecessor's inability to perform the “AI for the Familiar Face” feature. Cause false alarms in your own home.
If the system does not recognize the person based on past training, the human agent becomes alarmed. Depending on the situation, response, and other factors, SimpliSafe employees can alert the person that they are being watched, sound a siren or floodlight, or alert authorities if necessary.
Product SVP Hooman Shahid told TechCrunch that SimpliSafe intentionally made the decision to involve a human agent in the process, so the final decisions are not made by AI.
“[The AI] It’s all about supporting the agents,” Shahid explains. “We train our agents on racial bias, and we have a very diverse workforce that manages our surveillance centers. This is really to help them, and to replace them. It is not something that will happen.”
CEO Christian Cerda says that while Simplisafe, like every other company on the planet, is testing generative AI solutions, it is taking a cautious approach to how it deploys these technologies. I added.
The Outdoor Security Camera Series 2 is priced at $200, the same as its predecessor. The camera is waterproof and designed to be mounted on a wall or other surface. Can be powered by battery or wired. The system shoots in HD with a 140-degree field of view, capturing every detail up to 15 feet away. It also has a built-in microphone and speaker, allowing two-way communication.
Founded in 2006, SimpliSafe is one of the top three home security companies in the United States, along with ADT and Vivint. Over the past 18 years, the company continued to face increasing competition as smart home cameras became more popular with companies like Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest.
SimpliSafe operates the majority of its operations in the United States, and added its first international office in the United Kingdom in 2019. In April 2023, the security company's headquarters moved to larger office space in Boston. The company also includes many former iRobot employees, including Mr. Cerda, who previously served as chief operating officer (COO) for the Roomba maker.