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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.
Perhaps the most interesting thing in this recall is that it provides information
about the total number of Segway's out there: 6,000. Given that Amazon
sells them about $5,000 that means that there are $30M of Segways out there.
Of course many were probably sold below that price and Segway LLC will be sharing
that with the retailer, but still not bad for scooter.
Second, interesting thing is that the problem is fixed by a *software upgrade*
and not something physical.
John.
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.
The Solution in Search of a Problem that is the Segway is inherantly unstable, and has to burn power just to stand still (balancing at an unstable equilibrium point).
That when the power starts to drain, the device becomes unstable (as the motors no longer have enough power to keep it upright after a mild upset) is hardly suprising, and indicitive of the fundimentally stupid design (but fantastic engineering) that is the segway.
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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!
Oops, damn, there goes another pedestrian....
Making trouble today for a better tomorrow...
Actually, that is not true in many vehicles. Most vehicles have vacuum assist brakes and they are not electrically activated (the engine must be running). See http://autos.yahoo.com/repair/results/ques145.html .
As for power steering, there are a very limited number of cars with electric power steering. To quote Jim Kerr, "So what vehicles have electric power steering? While TRW did make some systems in the early 80's, such as the Fiero that used an electric motor to drive the hydraulic power steering pump, the first real application had to be the Acura NSX. Compact, light and responsive, the steering system matched the characteristics of this aluminum bodied sports coupe. Honda again introduced a system on the S2000 sports car. Steering response and feel are excellent. Smaller, lighter electric units are also used on Honda's Hybid Insight and Civic sedan.
Saturn is using electric power steering on the Vue SUV and the Ion sedan. QuadraSteer, GM's rear wheel steering system optional on some full size trucks is a true electric steering system with no mechanical connection to the steering wheel. When GM introduces the 2004 Malibu, it will use Delphi's new E*STEER unit. Other OEM vendors of electric power steering systems are Visteon with EPAS and ZF Freidrichshafen AG with ZF Servolectric."
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How about a Segway battery?
There's a much bigger margin for error on the car. A better analogy would be, wouldn't they recall cars if your car steering and brakes failed every time the "low gas" indicator went on.
The bold print giveth, and the fine print taketh away
I don't find it interesting that a software upgrade fixes the problem.
Software upgrades are the cheapest fix for any system problem. This is why they are almost always required by devices. We (companies, not specifically Segway) can ship products early with solid hardware and must less solid software because the cost of fixing problems in software are so minimal.
This software fix probably just shuts down the scooter earlier before the battery runs all the way out. A few cars do the same with gas so that people are driving at 70mph don't loose power breaks and stearing when the engine starts studdering.
Hardware fixes can often cost more then direct replacement of the product. A simple printer circuit board rework could cost $50 each to just disassemble a product, cut a trace and reassemble it. That doesn't include the cost to ship the product back to the manufacture or to a rework house somewhere in the US.
Flash is cheap and almost all companies use it to fix sw problems in the field and work around hardware problems.
Funny what happens when your amazing balancing anti-walking machine runs out of juice. And once you've picked yourself up off your ass/face, you get to lug your 90lb, $5000 machine someplace safe.
The humble bicycle, as if there was any doubt, clearly reigns supreme in this class of transportation. For getting around town comfortably, get a comfortable bike. For working around the warehouse, get a work bike or trike. And if you would like the electric assistance without your vehicle becoming useless when the battery runs out, get an electric bike. It's just that easy people.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
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.