The following month, a drone’s motor shut off as it switched from an upward flight path to flying straight ahead. Two safety features — one that’s supposed to land the drone in this type of situation and another that stabilizes the drone — both failed. As a result, the drone flipped upside down and dropped from 160 feet in the air, leading to a brush fire that stretched across 25 acres. It was later put out by the local fire department.

  • InternetLefty [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Like most burn up tech work it is missing relevant safety standards for software design and verification so, yeah, it's going to crash and burn a lot. There's no reason why a company like Amazon would do anything other than the bare minimum in terms of device safety and testing unless they are compelled to by some state agency. Faster development = shiny new demos for shareholders = more investment capital = middle and high level managers get big bonuses.