Comment on Kawasaki is developing a robot to be ridden like a horse - Asia Times
j4k3@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I see right to repair nightmare. It’s basically disposable.
- Ask your shade tree mechanic about fixing this one.
- I have one that has been sitting in my garage for three years untouched and won’t start - best offer
- it rides fine there is just a small screeching sound in reverse
- sometimes it powers off suddenly and collapses at 30 MPH
- previous owner used it on the snow/beach
- it fell in the pool once
- it doesn’t have a charger
- it gets really hot while charging
If every instance above is not a giant red flag you’d walk away from, I have a great deal on a bridge to sell you. It is a novelty at best and worthless on any second hand market other than the dealer itself which is basically slavery for the average person. There is not a single standardized part that can be second sourced on such a toy. When the manufacturer no longer supports it, the thing will be disposable. So from a dystopian burn down the world perspective this is a great leap forward. Super cool concept, but unless there is real universal parts standardisation and the thing is fully open sourced, this is like everything that is wrong with the world right now; neo feudalism.
Cypher@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Kawasaki has a well established dealer network, I don’t see support from them as being the primary issue.
If Kawasaki motorcycles are anything to go by working on their products yourself isn’t an issue. You can get the full workshop manual and do everything yourself.
And fell in a pool? You might drive your car into the ocean. Better give up on cars.
Microwave your phone? Useless!
Shoot your dog? Planned obsolescence!
j4k3@lemmy.world 1 week ago
This isn’t internal combustion. Every motor drive will be unique. Robotics are nothing like cars or motorcycles. I’m excellent at working on cars. I’m pretty good with electronics. I mean my bedroom is a Maker lab set up for design and etching my own circuit boards and I have messed around with robotics a bit. I have also ported heads for nostalgia drag, pit for unlimited class sprint, and owned an auto body shop building my hotrod stuff on the side and owned a couple bikes.
I’m saying, in the real world, shit happens and that adds intelligent perspective on how you’d look at a thing like this when real world stuff has happened. It is hyperbolic for illustrative purpose.
Such a complex system will inevitable be connected to the internet. Anything that needs dealer support as a crutch is not owned by the end user. If this is not fully transparent and open from the start, it is means of exploitation. Only fools trust others to do the right thing or care about track records so far. That is feudalism and will result in the dark ages exactly like it did in the past. There is no reason for any consumer to trust if an honest product is sold. Honest products are completely open source and parts can be second sourced from an independent vendor unrelated to the manufacturer and anyone can potentially replicate the parts and sell them. There cannot be any single choke point where if some asshat quits supporting or goes out of business the hardware that people paid for fails. Trust inevitable leads to this stupidity and to exploitation of the built in leverage. It is corporate piracy in the end and that has to stop.
Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 1 week ago
All of this faff, expense, and heartache and you’d still have something less effective, less green, less yours, and more expensive than an actual horse.
jordanlund@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Yeah, but you don’t have to feed it and dispose of poop. :)
jordanlund@lemmy.world 1 week ago
They state that each leg has it’s own motor so there would have to be some kind of standardization there.
I can’t imagine electric motors being THAT hard to swap out, I mean, my wheelchair has two of them and they’re user replacable. (Right hand motor and Left hand motor being separate units).
I’m not sure about user REPAIRABLE, that’s a different deal, but at a minimum user replacable.
electricwheelchairsusa.com/…/iq-7000-replacement-…
j4k3@lemmy.world 1 week ago
It is quite a bit different in robotics like this. Check out James Bruton on YT for a practical example of open source larger robotics. www.youtube.com/channel/UCUbDcUPed50Y_7KmfCXKohA
The motors used are almost always brushes because of the speeds accuracy and torque required. That means everything has software and electronics. This stuff gets very complicated fast. Most traditional auto makers are also outsourcing most of their software development and certainly not full stack or ground up oriented. This kind of thing needs to be designed from the start with every potential feature and future thing as part if the initial project. These types of things cannot be expanded easily. Like this is why China is actually good at EVs because they invested in building the whole thing from the bottom up the eight way, instead of hack patching garbage and outsourcing.