In 2014, Bluesmart raised an impressive US$2 million on Indiegogo to fund the creation of a smartphone-controlled carry-on bag.

The result is a piece of luggage whose features include Bluetooth-enabled locking, a USB charger, and a self-weighing function. In addition, the bag’s location can be tracked on a traveller’s phone using 3G and GPS—though why they would need to track a carry-on item that’s sitting above them in the overhead compartment remains unclear.

At a time when seemingly everything is going “smart”—from phones and watches to fridges and cars—it was perhaps inevitable that luggage eventually would, too. Bluesmart, which operates out of San Francisco, Hong Kong and Buenos Aires, claims to have made the first real advances in suitcase design “since wheels were introduced in the 1970s”.

But according to some critics, the results have a way to go yet.

In her review of Bluesmart’s original suitcase—or should that be “first-generation device”?—The Next Web’s Natt Garun praised its in-built scales, which “worked seamlessly,” but criticised the size of the battery, which limited its storage capacity. The USB port powered her iPhone but didn’t seem to charge it. Nor did the location tracking app appear to work.

And all this before the bag got her mistaken for a terrorist.

“[The TSA officer] began sorting through my clothes when I looked up at the X-ray monitor and noticed a square around where the luggage’s battery pack would be,” Garun wrote in her review. “Realizing the potential issue, I explained to the officer what he might have been looking for.”

“‘Can you get it out?’ he asked. Unfortunately, it was underneath the lining of the interior, so I couldn’t unless I was willing to cut the bag open and break the plastic box.”

Eventually, a second TSA officer pulled back a velcro strip in the bag to reveal some very suspicious-looking, which-one-should-I-cut-to-defuse-the-bomb wires.

It was only a thorough Explosives Trace Detection swab—the bag’s second—that cleared the good tech writer’s name.

“As these things become more popular, I’m sure we’ll get training on how to better look for them,” one of the officers told her. “But I would suggest to the company that any kind of wiring should be removable so we can properly scan for potential threats.”

The new luxury Bluesmart Black Edition, which became available for preorder last week, is said to address some of these issues. At US$599 retail (A$833), one would certainly hope so. One would also hope, when checking the bag in order to try out its tracking feature, that baggage handlers can recognise the difference between an ordinary suitcase and one that’s essentially a computer. All it would take is one negligent throw…

For all these teething issues, however, smart luggage appears to be the way of the future. Samsung and Sampsonite are collaborating on luggage that relays its location to travellers’ smartphones, letting them know when it’s being unloaded from the plane or about to appear on the carousel. It also let’s them know if it’s being opened without their say-so.

In an interview with the Daily Mail last year, Samsonite chief executive Ramesh Tainwala said the companies were also looking at developing luggage that would digitally inform airlines of its weight and destination, allowing passengers to bypass queues or get their luggage manually labeled.

“There is no reason why luggage can’t get connected,” Tainwala said.