Filming in portrait mode? Don’t they teach those Berkeley students anything?
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I, for one, sympathize for those who flame out during finals at least one semester in their university trajectory.
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Unless you have a class D extinguisher to hand; or the fire is in a location where hosing down the surroundings to keep them from joining in, just standing back and observing is a pretty solid strategy for small metal fires.
I’m not sure that this, rather than a paralyzing enthusiasm for photography, is the reason for the bystander reactions; but it does make them actually reasonably sensible.
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If “what the fuck??? shit. get out of the way!” – which seems to be the most frequently heard remark as these things sneak up behind people with their high-pitched gear noise – can be regarded as an expression of popularity, then yes, as the headline claims, this is a “popular” robot.
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Holden: You’re on a university campus, walking along, when all of a sudden you hear a high-pitchrd gear noise behind you. You look around…
Leon: What one?
Holden: What?
Leon: What campus?
Holden: It doesn’t make any difference what campus, it’s completely hypothetical.
Leon: But, how come I’d be there?
Holden: Maybe you work there. Maybe you want to visit someone. Who knows? You look around and see a Kiwibot, Leon. It’s driving toward you…
Leon: Kiwibot? What’s that?
Holden: [irritated by Leon’s interruptions] A popular lillte delivery robot on wheels. You know what a that is?
Leon: Of course!
Holden: Same thing.
Leon: I’ve never seen a “Kiwibot” … But I understand what you mean.
Holden: You reach down and you flip the Kiwibot over on its back, Leon.
Leon: Do you make up these questions, Mr. Holden? Or do they write 'em down for you?
Holden: The Kiwibot lays on its back, its underside baking in the hot sun, spinning its wheels trying to turn itself over, but it can’t. Not without your help. But you’re not helping.
Leon: [angry at the suggestion] What do you mean, I’m not helping?
Holden: I mean: you’re not helping! Why is that, Leon?
[Leon has become visibly shaken]
Holden: They’re just questions, Leon. In answer to your query, they’re written down for me. It’s a test, designed to provoke an emotional response… Shall we continue?
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A Martyr to the Third Law.
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True story: I once won a safety award for preventing a lab mate from using a non-Class D extinguisher on a metal fire. And I was the one who started the fire (accidentally).
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I have seen those robots on the Berkeley campus many times but what scares me are the security bots like this one in China Basin in San Francisco…
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Whats needed here is a fire fighting bot linked to a reddit bot which scrapes geographical coordinates out of photos of delivery bots on fire, and dispatchers an appropriate fire fighter.
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Interesting how there was an emotional response from students, and how it involved setting a candle on fire…
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Lithium ion battery fire is actually very different from lithium fire, and sometimes can be controlled by pouring water over it (altough sand is way better, some commercial products for extinguishing LiPo battery fires are based on glass foam beads). The main risk with water is that in such situation it can produce hydrogen and cause explosion.
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When you need an extinguisher, you take one, no need to ask.
I’m not even sure what kind of fire extinguisher is likely to put out what I assume is a lithium based fire… Maybe bucket of sand? In this case, really big bucket?
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Yes, but does this mean they failed the test or passed the test?
A 6 kg extinguisher is also an excellent makeshift battering ram to, say get past a locked door.
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Faith in humanity restored.
“A member of the community acted swiftly to extinguish the flames using a nearby fire extinguisher.”
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At UC Berkeley?
Was it delivering an Ann Coulter book?
Non-organic, GMO veal-and-foie gras sandwich?/s
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