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A Delivery Robot Spontaneously Burst Into Flames (theverge.com)
Long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares this article from the Verge:
An autonomous food delivery robot burst into flames on a Berkeley, California walkway, as first reported by The Daily Californian. Kiwi, the startup that makes and manages the one hundred-strong fleet of robots, issued a statement to say that the fire was quickly extinguished by a passerby before the city's fire department arrived and doused the machine in foam.... It said that it believed the fire was caused by human error, when a faulty battery was manually inserted into the robot, eventually causing thermal runaway -- the same issue that resulted in the recall of Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 phones. Kiwi says that a new piece of software will "rigorously monitor the state of each battery" to prevent anything like this from happening again.
Kiwi said the incident resulted in "some smoke and minor flames." But video captured of the event shows the robot engulfed in the kind of fiercely burning fireball typically associated with battery fires.
Though no one was hurt, Kiwi's fleet of 100 delivery robots was still deactivated while the company investigated the fiery wreck.
Kiwi said the incident resulted in "some smoke and minor flames." But video captured of the event shows the robot engulfed in the kind of fiercely burning fireball typically associated with battery fires.
Though no one was hurt, Kiwi's fleet of 100 delivery robots was still deactivated while the company investigated the fiery wreck.
Was it oil?
Is he throwing water on a lithium fire?
Software controls their battery safety? Good thing software is so reliable and unhackable.
Table-ized A.I.
So... they knew it was faulty, making it human error and not a spontaneous battery failure?
Am I the only one who saw Jason Statham putting on sunglasses as he walked away from it?
Well I did say I wanted my steak well done.
But 1 star review, it had a kinda foamy taste to it.
Customers complained that the pizzas were cold, so the AI compensated for the next delivery.
Wow. The lady who's recording the event from across the street, curses at a guy who stops near the robot for a moment to watch because he's blocking her view. What a self-absorbed asshole.
"Abdul...this is a wonderful advance on SCUD missile technology. Now we can target individual houses rather than just random neighbourhoods."
"God is great."
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
In the state of flaming homosexuals.
I guess the restaurant wasn't exaggerating when they called their offering flaming hot.
Its an uncontrolled discharge (no pun intended). That is the pain with battery fires, nothing is really burning so its hard to put them out, and since the short is usually in the battery its not possible to break the circuit and make it stop. That's why fire fighters hate batteries.
Maybe a startup that limits "fires" to just one cell would be in order?
That robot probably has a second job as a drummer for the Spinal Tap.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
AmiMoJo is SO TRIGGERED right now...
I can confirm for all the permanently triggered Berkeley haters commenting on the video that Berkeley residents and students do indeed think that they are better than you.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
Was it delivering butter at the time?
In other news, a utility transformer near me blew up a while back showering sparks that started a small brush fire.
There have also been sporadic reports of delivery personnel near me stealing over the years. But, they were just human so all is well.
That is so December 18th.. REAL people make their package carrying robot blow the fsck up and burn the thief to a cinder!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
I never considered robots can also suffer from a brun-out Probably his colleagues did not spot the early signs, like constant whining and picking up smoking
a CPU executing a HCF instruction!
jeezus, millenials.
Someone ordered five star Thai food.
Have gnu, will travel.
The robot lit the bag full of poo too soon.
He's not using the extinguisher correctly. (although, admittedly a snapshot doesn't give an adequate "picture"). Note to clueless: shoot at BASE of flame. Solid state reactions are rare. Most (not all) fires happen as solids and liquids are heated & turn to gas, the gas mixes with O2 and reaction occurs (also known as a "flame"). In order to stop the fire, you must remove the fuel source, remove the heat, or remove the air, preferably all three. Water is effective on many "normal" fires because it covers the fuel, absorbs lots of heat (per gram or ml), and prevents O2 inflow (steam pushes air away, water coats surfaces). Almost all flame inhibitors work best when aimed at where the fuel is being vaporized - at the solid (or liquid) / air interface. The base of the flame.
As an interesting digression, when I worked in a chemical plant, we were required to take bi-annual fire safety course which included actual use of a fire extinguisher. The "fire" was in a metal coffee can and consisted of a cloth soaked in some fairly non-volatile hydrocarbon (maybe diesel fuel, IDK). I was amazed at the number of people (truthfully, mostly secretaries from the front offfice) who even after being told AND shown how to put the fire out, still persisted in shooting at the flame rather than the base of the flame. (Which didn't work). It took the 'guys' between 0.5 seconds and 2 seconds to put the fire out, and same with most of the secretaries, but a couple (two or 3 out of our group of a dozen) took 30 seconds to a minute to finally "compute" that they were doing it wrong and to correct their stupidity. This was as the rest of us "coached" them about what they needed to do and what they were doing wrong. You should not assume that people will react intelligently, rationally, or even sanely in an emergency. You should not assume that people will not behave like terror-stricken panicked self-destructive sociopaths. It was really a lesson for me.
...is that students on the campus where this occurred later held a candlelight vigil for the thing - this should pique the interest of psychologists studying human-robot interaction.
I am not a number - I am a free man!
I love how most people are just standing around, recording the thing on fire instead of doing something about it. What a time to be alive when social media likes are more important than real life events.