Almost exactly two years after its announcement, HVAC company Johnson Control has announced the coming removal of Cortana from their Azure-powered smart thermostat.
GLAS was powered by Windows IOT and Azure Cloud, and features voice control powered by Cortana Voice Services.
Today Slashgear reports that the company has sent out a notice to customers informing them that a coming software update will excise Cortana functionality.
Interestingly this means the device will have no built-in voice control, and will be relying on a separate Amazon Echo or Google Home to control the thermostat – somewhat less than what buyers were paying for.
In the letter, Johnson Control does not give a reason for the move, but given that Microsoft has itself excised Cortana from Windows 10 (to turn it into a separate app), likely not much reason is needed.
See Microsoft’s original promo video, made in better times, of the device below.

Via ZDNet