I'm not sure if I'll be able to stomach watching the video so I'll skip that. I'm just happy I'm way too paranoid when it comes to my cat's safety to use anything that works automatically in places the cat can reach on it's own without me being right there.
Even if something works just fine at the start: everything can start to malfunction. I don't care if the chance is so tiny it might not exist, if I can make it even smaller I'm all for it.
But thanks for sharing the danger these things are.
There are much safer designed ones from reputable companies, these ones are drop shipped ones where they'll put anyone's logo on them, and have a very poorly thought out design.
Even products from reputable companies can malfunction. I'd be unable to continue living if a cat of mine died because of some tech stuff I bought which wasn't even needed in the first place. They're my beloved family and I will not be putting them at risk, no matter how tiny and close(!) to zero that may be, when I can just completely zero said risk. I'll keep scooping that litter box manually.
Even products from reputable companies can malfunction
That's true, and always best to look up reviews and analysis of the design, most wouldn't fail in such a catastrophic way if one of the sensors were to malfunction. But yeah, scooping it manually is definitely the safest option.
There are several options out there, and most of them don't have a failure mode that could potentially harm your fur babies. They just stop working when something goes wrong. The one in the video has a design that is just inherently dangerous.