https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/robots/a25602346/delivery-robot-spontaneously-bursts-into-flames/ Delivery Robot Spontaneously Bursts Into Flames Dec 17, 2018 Eric Limer
[image https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/flaming-robot2-1545055395.gif YouTube Talia Desch video https://youtu.be/kUbskFr2yp4 Berkeley CA KiwiBot caught on fire ] Maybe it's a metaphor. Last Friday afternoon, on campus at the University of California, Berkeley, a Kiwibot delivery robot self-immolated. Eventually, according to The Daily Californian, it was put out by a bystander who had the presence of mind to grab a fire extinguisher. Kiwi, a startup born out of UC Berkeley's "Skydeck" [ https://skydeck.berkeley.edu/ ] startup accelerator, relies on a variety of different robots to offer its food-delivery services, and the four-wheeled bots, like the one that caught on fire, take care of the last 200 meters or so. The bots have delivered more than 10,000 meals over the past year, mostly without incident until now. According to The Daily Californian, university police are coordinating with Kiwi to uncover the cause of the fire, which is currently unclear. While the specific cause may be unknown, the broader one is clear: Any electric vehicle with a sizable battery is a giant firebomb ready to go off under the right conditions. Fortunately, in this case, it wasn't near anything else it could light ablaze. And, of less but still notable importance, no one's food was inside. [© popularmechanics.com] http://www.dailycal.org/2018/12/14/kiwibot-catches-fire-outside-mlk-student-union/ KiwiBot catches fire outside Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union December 14, 2018 Sophia Brown-Heidenreich [image http://i0.wp.com/www.dailycal.org/assets/uploads/2018/12/kiwi_Alexandra-Stassinopoulos_staff.jpg?w=900 ] Describing the robot as a “hero” and a “legend,” UC Berkeley students expressed their grief on Facebook as news of a fallen KiwiBot reached the campus community. About 2 p.m. Friday, a KiwiBot — one of the more than 100 robots that deliver food throughout the campus and city — caught fire outside the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union. According to Sasha Iatsenia, head of product at Kiwi, the company is still working with UCPD to investigate the cause of the fire. Nothing like this has ever happened before, Iatsenia said. UCPD could not be reached for comment as of press time. Footage from the scene shows one person putting out the flames with a fire extinguisher. The fire drew a small crowd of curious onlookers, and videos of a slowly blackening KiwiBot were soon thereafter uploaded to Facebook’s Overheard at UC Berkeley page. Garnering more than 300 reactions and more than 90 comments within an hour of uploading, the video of the robot in flames made waves on the page. Students have called for a moment of silence, suggesting finals week may have finally gotten to the robot as well. While the KiwiBot may have been scorched, Iatsenia assured The Daily Californian that it was not delivering a meal when it caught fire — no one saw their order lost. [© dailycal.org] ... [share https://twitter.com/ratherbright/status/1073845768530714624 James Wenzel ?? @ratherbright https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DucQtonVYAA4Qx2.jpg so a delivery robot caught fire on berkeley's campus and students set up a candlelight vigil for it 1:42 AM - Dec 15, 2018 ] https://medium.com/kiwicampus/an-update-for-our-community-879c2665c809 An Update For Our Community Dec 15 Kiwi Campus [image https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*aHi6-_TyNSlVELRlICb0sw.jpeg Image by: @ucb_notanartist on Instagram ] In less than 2 years, Kiwibots have empowered thousands of people around California and helped to fundamentally transform the urban logistics landscape. These successes, however, have come with challenges, opportunities to improve and, above all, the obligation to remain transparent with our community. We’re writing today to share with you the challenges we have experienced with our robots and how we are addressing them. They have impacted less than 0.6% of our robot fleet, but we wanted to share what we’re doing to fix it. Kiwi uses many different processes in our delivery operations. One of those processes is relating to replacing the batteries on the robot in case the battery gets low. To help our operations team identify the health of our robots, we use a color visualization method to indicate their battery level: red for robots that need to get the battery replaced asap, yellow for robots that will need to be replaced within an hour, and green for robots that are fine. On the 14th of December this year, one of the batteries for our robot that was idling started smouldering, eventually leading to some smoke and minor flames. A member of the community acted swiftly to extinguish the flames using a nearby fire extinguisher. Within moments of the incident occurring, it had already been contained. The Berkeley Fire Department arrived shortly thereafter to secure the scene, and doused the robot with foam ensuring there was no risk of re-ignition. We took this issue very seriously. Immediately upon learning of the incident, our operations team was dispatched to attend to the robot. We promptly pulled all of our robots from operations, suspending our service until we were able to investigate the root cause. Customers that had orders in progress had their food delivered by hand, minimizing the impact on the service. At no time were customers or members of the public at risk. Kiwi recently unveiled a new battery management process that will ensure that such issues would not be reproduced. Here are some facts: We learned that the root cause was human error when replacing the batteries, where a defective battery was put in place of a functioning one. This caused an exceedingly rare occurrence of the battery experiencing thermal runaway. To ensure this will not happen again, Kiwi has put in custom software that will rigorously monitor the state of each battery. Kiwi takes full responsibility for our Kiwibots. The safety of our customers, our communities and the wider public is our highest priority, and we will continue to hold ourselves to the highest possible standard. In the coming weeks, Kiwi will be announcing industry-first initiatives designed to help us fulfill the promise of being the global leader in safe, smart last mile logistics. If you have questions or concerns about safety at Kiwi, please do not hesitate to contact us by clicking here [ help @kiwicampus.com ] and writing “safety” in the subject line. [© medium.com] ... https://kiwicampus.com/ doordash kiwi https://s3.amazonaws.com/pide-kiwi/kiwibotdemo.mp4 For EVLN EV-newswire posts use: http://evdl.org/archive/ {brucedp.neocities.org} -- Sent from: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/ _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
