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Comment by dforrestwilson1 | Hacker News Reader

What about the likelihood of electrocution? A friend who is an auto mechanic told me previously that hybrid cars are by nature, more dangerous to work on.

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Next we'll allow people to access the high voltage wires inside their houses... where does it end?

In some countries (Australia for one) it is illegal to do electrical work on your house if you're not a licenced electrician. I don't agree with that, but it is a position some people take clearly.

I imagine that even in Australia high voltage lines are exposed to laypeople via electrical sockets, with naught to protect the novice but being inset in some plastic.

In any case the idea of finding (or even sympathizing with) reasons to prevent owners from accessing their cars' inner functionality rubs me exactly the wrong way.

That's interesting. The viral Australian "Dumb Ways to Die" video [1] from a couple of years back by Metro Trains Melbourne included a snippet about "doing your own electrical work" which seemed rather incongruous to me as a fairly typical American with a house who doesn't think twice about swapping light switches and such. (Especially given the popular image of self-reliant Australians and all that--however atypical sheep and cattle stations may be of the average resident.) I guess that's the reason.

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2012/nov/28/dumb-ways...

The counterpoint to the "self-reliant Australian" image is the fact that historically the Australian government has been very protectionist about local markets and trades. There are strong trade unions that have lobbied to keep non-trade-qualified people from doing basic maintenance - hell, it's technically illegal to do your own plumbing: http://www.licensedtrades.com.au/licensed/plumbers

(Edit: As in, it's not just illegal to plumb your entire house. It's illegal to replace a tap.)

It's also illegal to wire in your own ethernet jacks. Crazy.

That is not for safety, that is for making money. Think about. Make an activity illegal and now only your "certified" and lobbied for employees can do that (now expensive) work.

Canada does this too. I've had an 'inspector' tell me that I could not ground my windmill tower, had to bring the ground in through a wire into the house and tie it to the ground in the electrical panel because I was allowed only on ground point in my installation.

Totally nuts. I get why they want only one ground from a safety perspective but to bring a potential source of a lightning strike into your electrical panel when it can be safely deflected outside the house is insanity to a degree that I'm not convinced it shouldn't be criminal.

Anyway, I refused, they kept on harassing me and eventually (after a year or so) left me alone. I told the guy I'd do it if he would inform my insurance company of the change he requested in black and white, but that of course he would not do. I suspect he became an electrical inspector by following some course, not because he actually understood the first thing about physics.

Highly annoying.

That's very strange. Could you not just sink a copper pole into the ground the requisite distance? Do inspectors not have a method for inspecting the actual "ground" that grounds are connected to? Many questions...

If you can self service the battery, then you can obviously remove it, and with no source of power there should be no real risk of electrocution

Can you self-service the battery on an electric or hybrid car? I'd be mildly surprised if you could. (Of course, I never actually thought about the question before...)

It's not supported but is possible. Someone on here replaced a single damaged cell on a Prius, whereas the dealer would only offer to replace the whole bank (which costs $5000).

for scoping purposes, I own a volt

There are two batteries: 1) normal 12V battery (in the trunk under the floor I believe) 2) the large 'main' battery which

The 12V is absolutely user replaceable. Wonderfully, they even provide jump lugs under the hood in normal locations. The main battery is under the rear seat and the center console between the passenger and drive sides seats. I haven't messed with that one...not going to bother until the warranty is gone.

A few months ago, my father and I replaced the fans inside the battery on my '05 Ford Escape hybrid. Ended up saving me about $1k in labor costs.

Wouldn't really even need to "service" the battery. It would be pretty easy to add a "master disconnect switch" or some other type of service switch, close to the battery, that cuts off power to the rest of the car.

I would be surprised if the manufacturers don't build something like that in already, just because it makes the car safer to assemble. (Wiring up a high-current battery pack to a bunch of electronics can be... fun... if there's not a cutoff close to the battery. You end up with a pretty good-sized arc in some cases even with the other electronics 'off'.)

The Prius has an emergency disconnect under the hood that can be accessed by emergency personnel / firefighters, although I believe it's destructive to operate. (It's a "cut here in emergency" sort of thing, at least on the older ones.)

I could see having a standardized service disconnect switch, or at least standardized signage or switch appearance, on electric/hybrid cars as a safety thing, not just for roadside emergencies but also for maintenance.

The main battery in most hybrids is on the order of 400VDC which isn't nearly enough to electrocute you in anything but ideal conditions. The real risk is accidentally shorting the battery which would cause it to explode.

400V DC is pretty dangerous. I wouldn't mess with it without taking serious precautions. (But I would mess with it...)

400VDC is absolutely plenty to kill someone very quickly indeed.

Its not the volts that will kill you, its the amps

What about capacitors?

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