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Smart houses are a deathtrap đ imagine having to ask your overlord Alexa to open the door... any emergencies would like to have a word.
Emergency exit? Solve this captcha, motherfucker!
"Click every square that includes a lethal object."
One square is a picture of your house
"I'm sorry Dave, I cannot do that."
Thats just bad design. I get that you're joking about it BTW, this is more of a general info comment on the reality.
A door lock should always have a mechanical locking method in addition to the electronic, or the electronic would need to default to open (mostly a security door thing for default open BTW, for fire emergency scenarios).
The same applies to anything else. I mentioned just yesterday that I have (aside from some wled managed lights, which are not critical use and dont need it) a physical button which can control my regular lights. Its a momentary switch and a relay, so I can control it automatically, or physically by pressing the button. If I press it, the state changes and its reflected in my home automation (home assistant, as others mentioned).
Next problem - Alexa/Google Home/etc. I personally would never use a commercial solution like theirs, but let's say I did - it should only ever be an augment to the system not the sole means of control. So a spoken command should trigger an action, the same action that could be run by a local device (whether its a zigbee button, a wall mounted wired momentary, or even a trigger based on a PIR sensor - whatever).
I'd say a good design for a smart home includes local operation, withno internet connectivity requirement, and a physical method of managing any critical endpoint (door locks as the example above). Anything critical should also have a battery backup for continued operation, and in the case of something like a door lock, needs to default to a safe selection in case of both wired + battery failure.
Plenty of tech folks have a smart home. Most of the non enthusiast-style techs I know use home assistant, but all of them use a local system.