Early adopters of hoverboard technology take note
UMass Amherst, that bastion of higher education, has banned the use of hoverboards on campus effective today -- thus proving the nanny state is alive and well.
When I Tweeted about a box alarm AFD responded to this morning at the Integrated Science Center for a "smoking refrigerator" one of my twitter followers reminded me UMass is a "smoke free campus."
Fair enough. But smoking kills over 400,000 Americans per year and to date I'm guessing hoverboards have killed one or two less than shark attacks.
But hey, you can never be too safe. Anything that can knock out Mike Tyson ...
27 comments:
First they came for the hoverboards and I didn't care because I was too old to use them anyway.
Then they came for the drones, and I started to care because they are wicked functional.
But when they came for my internet connection, well, then I cried like a fuckin baby.
Larry,
You pro-fire? It’s that the hoverboards are a fire hazard. Their lithium batteries are spontaneously combusting, even when the boards are turned off. That's why the airlines have banned them. No one wants a dorm fire in the middle of the night because it ignites under a bed.
Laptop batteries have been known to do that, and they are not banned.
Yes, but there's clearly a manufacturing defect with this particular product. Laptops aren't banned from planes.
Fire risk prompts campuses to ban hoverboards
BOSTON — One of the holiday's hottest presents is now considered contraband at many U.S. colleges.
More than 30 universities have banned or restricted hoverboards on their campuses in recent weeks, saying the two-wheeled, motorized scooters are unsafe. Beyond the risk of falls and collisions, colleges are citing warnings from federal authorities that some of the self-balancing gadgets have caught on fire.
“It's clear that these things are potentially dangerous,” said Len Dolan, managing director of fire safety at Kean University in Union, N.J. The public school of 14,000 students issued a campus-wide ban effective Monday, telling students in an email that any hoverboards found on campus would be confiscated.
“These things are just catching fire without warning, and we don't want that in any of our dorms,” Dolan said.
Read more: http://triblive.com/business/headlines/9759836-74/university-students-fire#ixzz3wgRy4PZK
Actually, spare lithium ion batteries ARE banned from checked luggage, as airlines don't want them catching fire unattended.
FAA: "Spare (uninstalled) lithium ion and lithium metal batteries must be carried in carry-on baggage only. When a carry-on bag is checked at the gate or at planeside, all spare lithium batteries must be removed from the bag and kept with the passenger in the aircraft cabin. The battery terminals must be protected from short circuit."
I'm surprise you are not on the other side of this, seeing that you spend so much time supporting the prevention work of the fire department. These are already being recalled around the world.
Hoverboard recall in effect now
7th Jan 2016 10:00 AM
CONSUMERS have been warned a number of hoverboards, also known as self-balancing scooters, gliders or motorboards, are being recalled due to serious safety concerns and incidents.
Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation Victor Dominello said the public needed to check the national recalls website at www.recalls.gov.au and stop using any recalled hoverboards, unplug charging units and follow the recall advice for returning the product.
"People need to remember that although these products may be sold as toys, they are an electrical device," he said.
It's the Nanny State until your kid dies in a fire.
Yeah, let them bring fireworks too.
You should take a Mulligan on this one, Larry.
Eh, it's a Friday.
And as I keep saying: sarcasm requires its own special font.
On the positive side, your other posts today were great.
Always hated that quad-copters took on the name drone, but even sadder that they call these electric skateboards “hoverboards” as they actually don’t hover. But that’s not the strangest thing about them - that would be the fact that they keep catching on fire. Not something you'd want in a dorm and good for the school to ban them.
The problem with these things is China - famous for making stuff that is cheap. It's not so much the lithium batteries as much as it's the quality of the batteries - in this case, they are crap. The small batteries in phones, computers, etc. meet quality standards but these scooters have no quality control in manufacturing nor standards for safety in battery manufacturing and hence why they are burning down house and exploding. Airlines ban shipment of lithium batts because when the batts go bad and might short they leak hydrogen an other chemicals which can make for a nice bomb. Unattended in the belly of a plane and the fear is a lithium fire will be greater than the fire suppression system can handle. These electric skate boards have excessively large lithium batts and they are often poorly manufactured so the potential for fire is great at 35,000 feet.
Any lithium can be dangerous when damaged but the large manufacturers like Samsung and LG have high quality standards so the batt cells are much less susceptible to problems. Take a cheap Lithium and put it in a skate board that gets bumped and thrown around ad that battery has a greater chance at damage, and hence the high incidence of fires.
Here's what happens to any lithium when its is compromised https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f30fBFitkSM
Should they eliminate smoke detectors too? I mean, you should be able to smell a fire on your own.
Good one, Larry. A swing and a miss on this one.
You should be congratulating them for being proactive rather than waiting for a tragic fire.
I just bristle when I hear the word "ban".
And I think my friends in the bricks and mortar media sometimes get all excited about relatively minor things. Drones bringing down large commercial airliners for instance.
A Tesla car battery catches fire and it's a viral story. Why didn't UMass ban Tesla cars? In fact I've heard AFD respond to a half-dozen "car fires" over the past year for traditional gas vehicles and nobody bans cars.
First of all, UMass is one of 30 schools that banned an item that is a toy that would be stored in a dorm room. So, they didn't exactly act all alone. Second, you store a Tesla in a dorm room?
Actually the way I read the UMass press release, penned by a highly paid flack, is that they have been from the entire campus, which would mean roads and sidewalks.
Banned.
Yes, because they would need to be stored somewhere. They don't stay outdoors. Where is a student going to keep it?
In an asbestos box. Oh wait ...
Careful Larry your argument is starting to sound like one of Ed's.
Ease off, people. Let Larry's inner curmudgeon come out a little on this post. That way his imortant reporting on TM and SC stay reasonable and balanced. Man's gotta have an outlet... let railing at hoverboards be his.
Worried they are going to ban your drone? Guilt conscience?
Only after they pry it out of my dead fingers.
Well maybe not the drone, but the transmitter anyway.
I remember when the Ericcson cell phones were exploding...
I remember when graduates left town and we never heard from them again...
Awwwwwwwww, those were the days!!!
Yeah, and they got jobs too.
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