Update: Humane has confirmed the news with TechCrunch, noting in an announcement, “At the moment, we don’t have any further updates, though Humane will plan to offer additional information once its investigation has concluded.”
It’s fair to say the Ai Pin launch didn’t go the best way Humane planned. This week, the well-funded startup is coping with one other problem on an extended list of mounting issues. The corporate Wednesday issued an email requesting customers discontinue use of its egg-shaped charging case.
The warning was issued “out of an abundance of caution,” in line with Humane. The corporate says it launched an investigation following a “single grievance” of a charging issue from a customer. Ultimately Humane determined the supplied batteries to be a possible fire hazard.
“Our investigation determined that the battery supplier was not meeting our quality standards and that there’s a potential that certain battery cells supplied by this vendor may pose a hearth safety risk,” Humane wrote in an email viewed by TechCrunch. “Because of this, we immediately disqualified this battery vendor while we work to discover a brand new vendor to avoid such issues and maintain our top quality standards.”
We reached out to the corporate for more detail and asked whether Humane has any intention of issuing a full recall or refund. Currently, the corporate is offering consolation in the shape of two free months of its $24/month subscription service.
Humane is much from the primary consumer electronics company to ship products with potentially hazardous batteries. The timing of the news is lower than ideal, nonetheless, as its founders have reportedly been shopping the corporate around to potential buyers a mere months after launching its first product.
Based on the note, the Charge Case is the one Humane product affected by this news. Neither its Battery Boost or Charging Pad have been singled out by the corporate.
