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There is a tension limit of 28 newtons on any single line. Beyond that, the motors release with a damped motion. This can be lowered, at the expense of payload capacity.
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How far will they release? Is that physical or software? If the line is wrapped around my neck and anchored to the wall how does the motor releasing help me? I can see industrial applications but it seems like a dangerous thing to have in a home.
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FYI they said the tension limit is 28 newtons.

It takes about 38 newtons to lift a 4 litre bottle of milk.

It'll be okay.

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So it probably can't kill you with blunt force trauma but it could drop something toxic into your drink while you're in the other room. Which, you know, assumes some sort of hostile intent that a robot can't have on its own lol. So it can kill you but probably not accidentally.
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If your adversary wants to murder you that badly, I doubt they're going to give up when they find out you don't have a Stringman wired up in your kitchen.
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"Any machine can be a blender if operated wrongly enough"
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I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you should just have better survival instincts than a toddler and not let the line wrap around your neck. And if you do have toddlers, maybe keep them away from the hanging machine.
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If that's the official stance, then this robot will kill people. You can't expect people to never leave a toddler in the same room with the robot, unless they fully realize the implications of having a killer robot at home. Otherwise the consumers are being deceived

Products in the real world need to be better than that

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the discourse in hacker news is turning into a neurodivergent, overdramatized concern trolling competition.
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"Just let people be responsible for themselves" would work if we hadn't built a society that neutered everyone's ability to take care of themselves by gutting education systems and disconnecting people from political participation and social responsibility.

Tldr have you met people? There's a reason seat belt laws exist. If we're going to let companies sell things to this population we've fostered and not take our own responsibility, we have to put it on the companies.

A quick browse through any of the shock content subreddits will reveal a lot in terms of average people's understanding of risk.

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No one is selling this, or am I mistaken?

As far as dyi projects go... This is harmless

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