Answer from cs61c-ee (Michael Shen 15963205) for Question 2
Elevators use finite state machines to keep track of what floor they are on and they take inputs to see what floor to go to next.

VCR's are finite state machines.  They have different modes of operation such as recording and playing and each mode has their own state such as fast forward and pause for the playing mode.

Alarm clocks are finite state machines which may have different modes such as alarm mode, radio mode, and regular time-keeping mode.