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Recall of Segway Announced by CPSC
mshiltonj writes "The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced a voluntary recall of the Segway human transporter. The hazard is that under certain operating conditions, particularly when the batteries are near the end of charge, some Segway HTs may not deliver enough power, allowing the rider to fall. This can happen if the rider speeds up abruptly, encounters an obstacle, or continues to ride after receiving a low-battery alert."
some Segway HTs may not deliver enough power, allowing the rider to fall. This can happen if the rider speeds up abruptly, encounters an obstacle, or continues to ride after receiving a low-battery alert.
or if the rider is fresh from a tennis match with Poppy, rushing to an appointment to bomb some unsuspecting nation back to the stone age.
I'm much funnier now that I'm a subscriber.
It looks like there's going to be 3 very dissapointed people out there.
I love the imagery involved in this..
*VROOM* *VROOM* *put* *put* *put* *creeeeek* *thump* OW!
Heh
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
Damn. Nobody ever recalled a poor boy's bicycle because it fall sideways when the riders energy runs out.
Toyota recalled all cars manafactured since the start of the company. Under certain circumstances, when speeding up, ignoring a warning about a cliff and not braking, the car might fall down from a great heigth and kill the occupants. According to Hiyasuka Miamoto, official Toyota spokesperson, the recall will be effective immediately and no new cars will be produced "untill people stop being so fucking stupid!".
Moral of the story; warnings are called warnings for a reason.
Hate me!
In other news, bicycles around the world have been voluntarily recalled. It seems that if the rider stops moving their feet, the bike could potentially tip over. A minor flaying of the skin has also been reported to occur during such accidents.
Oops, damn, there goes another pedestrian....
Making trouble today for a better tomorrow...
Yes, I think we can put off 'redesigning our cities' for a bit, untill they sell a few more of them.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
The decision we made when we designed the thing was based on the idea that people would stop riding it when the battery low light came on. Since then we've realized a few things:
1) People treat battery low as "still works under all conditions" as they might if it were a gas tank. But the battery is unable to deliver the instantaneous power needed to go over certian obstacles when partially discharged.
2) The battery low signal is set too low, since even a mild partial discharge will not supply enough instantaneous power for critical maneuvers.
3) Li-Ion batteries are dieing in a pattern which we did not expect. The processor needs to assume there is less power available than what it was previously calculating.
Upshot: The software "upgrade" will give you about 10 minutes of ride time on a full charge before turning on the low battery light, then the alarm. Shortly thereafter the unit will stop in place and use its remaining power simply to stay upright.
Internal memo: Design an "upgrade" battery pack that doubles the range to 20 minutes! We'll make a killing!
-Adam
Yeah, it was funny when Quayle couldn't spell "potato."
But not half as funny as your even-more-illiterate attempt to spell "broccoli."
Third grade called. They have an opening for you.
I agree. Using analogies on Slashdot is like comparing apples and oranges.