Lime Recalls 2,000 Scooters After Reports of Some Catching Fire (businessinsider.com) 49
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."
Catch Fire (Score:2)
Would be great if they all caught fire.....
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Indeed - exactly what I was thinking.
Re:Catch Fire - obligatory pic (Score:2)
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lp0 on fire?
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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.
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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.
Re: Catch Fire (Score:2)
Re:Catch Fire (Score:4, 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.
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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.
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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 dumps
Catching? (Score:4, 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.
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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.
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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".
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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.
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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 b
Yes, They're Dangerous (Score:3)
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It's also illegal to ride them on sidewalks in virtually every city in the country.
[citation needed]
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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.
now watch this sic tailwhip! (Score:2)
It's either.. (Score:2)
That's a feature (Score:2)
It's a feature, not a bug.
Next up, a fiery twist of lime.
Known problem. Keep it dry. (Score:2)
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/... [wikipedia.org]