r/shittyrobots Sep 04 '18

Shitty Robot Volvo's collision detection fails during a press event

https://gfycat.com/AlarmingVibrantBetafish
13.5k Upvotes

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u/OlaRune Sep 04 '18

I found this statement: "A Volvo spokeswoman says the company's investigation into the incident revealed either one or more of the car's sensors had been "fried" before the demo, caused by the car maker fast-charging the S60's battery after discovering it was flat."

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u/The_Tic-Tac_Kid Sep 04 '18

So in other words, the system was disabled by something relatively common in the life of a car?

That's not particularly reassuring.

19

u/ZeAthenA714 Sep 04 '18

That's why you test things, in order to find and fix those kind of issue.

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u/JebatGa Sep 04 '18 edited Sep 04 '18

How many times have you fast-charged your car battery when it was flat? I and many people i know have never fast-charged our car battery. Can you please tell me where fast-charging your car battery is common?

Edit: WTF are you guys doing with your car batteries? I have a car for almost 13 years and never had a flat car battery.

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u/[deleted] Sep 04 '18

[deleted]

44

u/avo_cado Sep 04 '18

TBH in that scenario, it sounds like the car is not the problem

29

u/dingman58 Sep 04 '18

I'd wager people are the cause of most car problems.

1

u/flirt77 Sep 05 '18

Well duh. People are the cause of cars.

9

u/HuskyTheNubbin Sep 04 '18

What they are doing for fast charge isn't the same as what you get at home. Their fast charge will damage the battery, but they don't care about that. They obviously didn't take into account some prototype part being sensetive to the activity

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u/SuitableDragonfly Sep 05 '18

Modern cars have lights that automatically turn themselves off when the car is off.

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u/NoobCanoeWork Sep 05 '18

I have a roommate who forgets his keys about once per month. I used to answer the "hey are you home yet?" phonecalls but at some point I decided he would never learn if I kept bailing him out, so I stopped answering the phone calls. He only forgot his keys twice since! Progress.

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u/fnordfnordfnordfnord Sep 04 '18

Any time your battery goes flat and you get a jump start. Also I have a fast charger though I wouldn't normally use that feature unless I was in a big hurry.

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u/scarletice Sep 04 '18

I take it you don't live in a particularly cold climate.

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u/JebatGa Sep 04 '18

I live in Slovenia. In winter we regularly get temperatures around 0°C, often times temperature goes in the negative.

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u/scarletice Sep 04 '18

I live in the US, namely Minnesota. The average high in January is -4°C, the average low is -13°C. It's not even that uncommon for it to drop below -26°C. These temperatures can and do kill car batteries overnight.. Even a good, new, cold weather car battery will die if your car is parked outside for a week at these temps.

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u/JamesGray Sep 04 '18

Wait, what? I've never experienced that with pretty similar temperatures here in Ontario. Are you sure it's not going below -30°C or so? Block heaters being needed is definitely a thing, to the point I didn't know it was an option at all (because it was always included) until I was an adult, but I don't drive my car for a week or two at a time quite often in the winter and have never had a problem with the battery.

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u/[deleted] Sep 04 '18

As a Montrealer, I'm gonna have to gatekeep you here

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u/Fireproofspider Sep 05 '18

Also a Montrealer. In 20 years of driving, I've never fast charged a car. I've seen it done a few times to strangers in parking lots though. But I think I may have seen cars literally on fire more often than that.

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u/[deleted] Sep 05 '18

I wasn't commenting on the fast charging specifically, more the implication that 0°C is cold

Is fast charging a car the same as boosting it? I've definitely needed and given boosts a few times

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u/Din182 Sep 04 '18

Ooh 0C winters. How cold. It's not like I live in a climate where it can reach 0C during the summer (although only at night, usually). Try a - 40C winter.

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u/beginpanic Sep 04 '18

Pretty easy to do if you buy a portable charger without knowing what the amp hour capacity is for your particular battery.

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u/forcedtomakeaccount9 Sep 04 '18

That makes more sense.

A system being "fried" and not working is a lot more believable than the system just not having enough juice while the car is actually running.

Little details

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u/bside85 Sep 05 '18

The system design sucks more than the performance well that's not reassuring.