The Shocking Yet Obvious Flaw In Juicero’s Design
Juicero is arguably one of Silicon Valley’s hottest pieces of food tech. This cold-pressed juice machine squeezes packets of chopped produce with four tons of force to create a healthy, refreshing glass of juice in a couple of minutes, and can connect to the internet while scanning a QR code on each packet to provide you with information on the fruits and veggies inside.
The machines, which sell for $400 a pop plus the cost of the packets of juice, have been popping up in homes, businesses, and restaurants across California. The company has received over $120 million in funding. Yes, business has been good for Juicero.
However, their machines have one flaw in design that was so blatantly obvious, yet nobody picked up on it: you can just squeeze the juice packets with your hands.
Bloomberg Technology did a test to prove this theory, and found that the force from your hands is enough to press the juice at the same rate as the Juicero machines. Between that and the fact that you can scan QR codes with your phone, the machine seems to be completely unnecessary.
SF Gate reported that somebody close to the company said Juicero is now aware of the flaw, but feels that consumers would prefer to use the machine since its cleaner and more consistent than human hands. The Bloomberg test video above doesn’t show that, however.
If you wanted to just order the juice packs on their own and forgo the machine, however, Juicero doesn’t let you buy the packs unless you already have purchased the machine. At least they have some security to ensure people buy their core product.
Still, the design flaw combined with Juicero’s purchase requirements does bring up one interesting question: Is Juicero scamming us all?
