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Lime Recalls 2,000 Scooters After Reports of Some Catching Fire (businessinsider.com)

Posted by msmash on from the lithium-batteries-doing-things dept.

Lime has recalled 2,000 of its electric scooters from the streets of Los Angeles, San Diego, and Lake Tahoe, the company said Wednesday, after the Washington Post contacted it about some catching on fire. From a report: In a statement, Lime said it was investigating the "unconfirmed" reported and had pulled the vulnerable models, manufactured by the Chinese company Segway Ninebot, from circulation. "At no time were riders or members of the public put at risk," Lime said. "Unfortunately, despite our efforts, we've recently received an unconfirmed report that another Segway Ninebot scooter model may also be vulnerable to battery failure, which we are currently investigating." Until the problem is solved, scooters will only be charged in Lime facilities and not available to "juicers," people who are paid by the company charge scooters after-hours. These facilities will be monitored 24/7, the company said, and all scooters in Lime's fleet, regardless of manufacturer, will undergo a "new daily diagnostic training program."

25 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. Catch Fire by ArgonautThief · · Score: 1

    Would be great if they all caught fire.....

    --
    The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. - Albert Einstein
    1. Re:Catch Fire by jfdavis668 · · Score: 2

      Halt and catch fire?

    2. Re:Catch Fire by ArgonautThief · · Score: 1

      Indeed - exactly what I was thinking.

      --
      The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. - Albert Einstein
    3. Re:Catch Fire by jellomizer · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Why?
      Do you just like seeing people seriously hurt in general? Or do you just don't like the idea of motorized transportation that isn't a full sized car or motorcycle. Because there was someone who slightly inconvenienced you with some unsafe driving.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    4. Re:Catch Fire by Sir+Holo · · Score: 2, Informative

      Why?
      Do you just like seeing people seriously hurt in general? Or do you just don't like the idea of motorized transportation that isn't a full sized car or motorcycle. Because there was someone who slightly inconvenienced you with some unsafe driving.

      Because most people riding these are under-aged, and blast down the sidewalk at top speed. Broken wrists and legs result.

    5. Re:Catch Fire by ArgonautThief · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Because they are motorised vehicles that interact in public spaces with other vehicles and pedestrians but there is no requirement to have a licence to operate them, any test that proves aptitude, responsibility, any form of consideration for other members of the public or decency on the part of the user in any way whatsoever.

      Slight inconvenience, no problem, that's ok, who cares?

      Reckless foolishness that forces drivers / pedestrians to take evasive manoeuvres? That's an issue. People with drivers' licences already do foolish, dangerous things. No need to add even more potential for accidents to the mix.

      I obviously wouldn't want them to catch fire and injure the rider and / or bystanders. Maybe just all quietly burn to ashes in a warehouse somewhere.

      --
      The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. - Albert Einstein
    6. Re:Catch Fire by rockmuelle · · Score: 2, Informative

      Because they are not safe and the companies are exploiting gaps in laws and enforcement to profit at their customer's expense.

      I've been a bike commuter for 20+ years and am well aware of the hazards of the roads and how to bike in a city safely and lawfully. The vast majority of scooter riders are not being safe and are breaking laws on a regular basis.

      Some examples (Austin as my reference point):

      - Scooter users regularly dart through intersections when lights are red, often executing dangerous left turns. Proper action: act like you're a car and obey the stop lights or get off the scooter and use the cross walk.
      - Scooter users try to pass cars on the right when cars are making right turns. Proper action: act like a car and line up behind the car and wait your turn.
      - Scooter users weaving in and out of pedestrians on side walks. Proper action: don't do this. All it takes is a pedestrian waving their arm or shifting their path and both the scooter user and pedestrian are injured.
      - Lack of helmets. Proper action: Wear a helmet. Sure, they don't stop concussions (common argument used against helmets that's generally true), but they do stop your skull from getting cracked in low speed collusions (much worse than a concussion).

      I can go on, but you get the point. Riding these scooters is not like walking or using a push scooter. They operate at speeds most users are not familiar with on infrastructure not designed for their use. There's also an entire population of other infrastructure users that are not conditioned to be aware of them.

      Look, I love the idea of these scooters. I love that there's potential to help us all adapt to make it safer for all lower speed methods of transportation (bikes, skateboards, push scooters, running ;) ). But, putting everyone at risk and pretending you're not is an incredibly irresponsible way to go about it.

    7. Re:Catch Fire by AndrewFlagg · · Score: 1

      as a kid, we had barbaric skateboards with real steel wheels and ball bearings, wood plank.. played in the streets all the time... got out of the way of cars, trucks, tractors and cows... if a kid did not yield, they got honked at or worse... run over by a cow.... let the kids play in the streets.. i dare them..

    8. Re: Catch Fire by negRo_slim · · Score: 1

      Yo Reddit is that way sis ---->

      --
      On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
    9. Re:Catch Fire by fafalone · · Score: 1

      Just how fast do these things go? Google says 15mph top possible speed. You can pedal a bike more than 15mph without a motor (and much quicker down an incline), so unless you think bikes ought to have similar requirements, it seems kinda ridiculous to regulate these like actual motorcycles and cars. You know what bicyclists can also do? Get tickets for biking in a reckless manner. Unless there's some odd legal loophole where they can't ticket these scooter users in a similar manner, enforcement is what's needed, not stomping out an innovative new transportation service. And if there is such a loophole, that can be fixed as well.
      Some people ride their bikes like assholes and cause injuries too; it hurts to get slammed into by a biker being reckless, just happened to me a few months ago. Do you want to ban those as well? Have to get a bike license after passing a bike road test? If a motor isn't faster than foot power, it shouldn't be regulated like traditional motorcycles.

    10. Re:Catch Fire by Miser · · Score: 1

      lp0 on fire?

  2. Catching? by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wonder if they are catching on fire, or some are being set on fire...

    I know some people dislike Lime scooters quite a lot, I've heard of some found with wires cut or otherwise mangled.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Catching? by hey! · · Score: 1

      That shouldn't be hard to figure out by an examination of the remains.

      It should be extremely difficult to get one of these things to burn, and the effort required will leave traces. If it's easy to set one on fire, that'd be a design flaw in itself.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    2. Re:Catching? by sexconker · · Score: 2

      Are you stupid? The vertical portion is a column filled with Lithium-based batteries. It would be trivial to cause them to explode. Oh, sorry, I mean "experience thermal runaway, with ejecta and flaming report".

    3. Re:Catching? by hey! · · Score: 1

      Are you stupid? The vertical portion is a column filled with Lithium-based batteries. It would be trivial to cause them to explode. Oh, sorry, I mean "experience thermal runaway, with ejecta and flaming report".

      So you don't carry a mobile phone because of the danger of thermal runaway, right?

      I may be stupid, but I do know enough about battery technology to know that even though the underlying lithion chemistry is unstable, it's not trivial to get an assembled li-battery to explode by thermal runaway. In fact it's hard to get them to explode by an external heat source, unless it's something like a gas torch, in which case you'll get a localized explosion of a single cell.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    4. Re:Catching? by hey! · · Score: 1

      You are making my point: if the scooter is catching fire because of use, it's an engineering design fault. That said, if the cells are catching fire due to load-intitiated thermal runaway, it's not just a system design fault, it's likely that substandard cells were used -- possibly gray market counterfeits. Individual cells are supposed to have thermal runaway protection, usually in the form of a pressure/temperature/current switch built into the anode end of the battery and a current interrupt device built into the cathode end. These should convert a cell under load stress into an open circuit.

      So for load-initiated thermal runaway to be a problem in your EV fleet, you have to do two things: (1) use defective (possibly gray market counterfeit) cells AND (2) not build proper load or charging protections into your system.

      My original point was that the methods used by a vandal would likely leave some kind of forensic evidence behind, and that the fires are likely a design or construction fault. For that point to be wrong (stupidly wrong, in your words), we'd have to expect well-designed and correctly constructed EVs to catch fire.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  3. Yes, They're Dangerous by cunina · · Score: 2

    And not just due to fire hazards. I've actually owned one for a couple of years, and I've had a number of close calls. They are absolutely a hazard to ride on the sidewalks, and American-style bike-unfriendly roads are no place for them either.

    1. Re:Yes, They're Dangerous by silverkniveshotmail. · · Score: 1

      It's also illegal to ride them on sidewalks in virtually every city in the country.

      [citation needed]

    2. Re:Yes, They're Dangerous by sexconker · · Score: 1

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Beyond that, they're motorized and not a medical device such as a wheel chair, Rascal, etc. You can't use motorized shit on the sidewalks.

  4. now watch this sic tailwhip! by Thud457 · · Score: 1

    man, this new Ghostrider reboot is LAME

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  5. It's either.. by bev_tech_rob · · Score: 1

    Crappy Lipo batteries or crappy chargers puffing up the crappy lipo batteries. Run into that all the time with radio control models using lipo batteries.

    --
    You're messin' with my Zen Thing, man.....
  6. Re:wheelchair by sexconker · · Score: 2

    You're a moron. I see it every day here now that some asshat as decided that placing and recharging BIRD scooters in my area was going to be his "side hustle".

    The scooters are lined up in the sidewalk in the morning, 3-5 wide, blocking the ramp a person in a wheelchair would need to use to cross the street. in many cases, they outright block the entirety of the narrow sidewalk. I've said it before and I'll said it again: If I see one of these in my way when I'm walking, it's going into the nearest dumpster.

  7. Re:Catch Fire - obligatory pic by mnemotronic · · Score: 1

    Hot-ass scooter .

    --
    The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
  8. That's a feature by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    It's a feature, not a bug.

    Next up, a fiery twist of lime.

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    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  9. Known problem. Keep it dry. by blindseer · · Score: 1

    Was it raining? Lime can real hot when wet, hot enough to start a fire.

    Although quicklime is not considered a fire hazard, its reaction with water can release enough heat to ignite combustible materials.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.