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Comment by bitexploder | Hacker News Reader

Well, it is amazing to me, after watching the videos of what the Peloton was actually doing, how actually dangerous it looked. The deck is high and the rollers are much larger than normal giving it a lot of torque to suck kids underneath of it. It apparently has no sort of resistance sensors for when the motor is jammed, which kind of blew my mind. In the video where the kid wasn't seriously injured, the treadmill slowly ate the child until the treadmill wedged entirely on top of a large exercise ball, which was enough for the kid to get some space and escape. If that ball had not been there, the treadmill would have climbed on top of them and crushed them. It is ridiculous to me you can't build in a basic safety sensor or fusing mechanism that will blow when the motor hits a certain load at a certain speed or whatever.

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You would think for such an expensive device, but then again... Guess they spent all their money on software? Most of the best treadmills I've seen have a disappearing belt with a deck wrapped around the end. Having the belt wrap around the outside seems nuts. Anything could get in there! What's worse is I've seen some other companies trying to follow this example.

Maybe the designers decided all the safety junk was too ugly?

If you want to find out why something is being done in a certain way, try not doing it that way.

> Guess they spent all their money on software?

lol, no

https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/05/peloton-bug-account-data-l...

I really don't understand at all. A 1st year mechanical engineering student with a moderate understanding of 3d CAD could had designed a cover that would have completely eliminated thei possibility of this. I think someone at the company probably did and some executive poo-poo'd it. I only have 3d cad for basic modeling skill and an EE and I could have designed it

> the rollers are much larger than normal giving it a lot of torque

Excuse the pedantry, but I think this is the incorrect physical explanation. Larger rollers mean that the linear speed at the rim is larger, and the roller impart in fact less force (e.g. conservation of energy).

Does not mean it is less dangerous. It's just dangerous for different reasons than you state.

It’s ok, technically correct is good around here as long as we are using good HN etiquette:)

My thought is the larger roller surface area just made it better at grabbing stuff and sucking it under the unusually high deck height. Dunno if torque is the correct term.

And to be even more precise (pedantic?)-

A treadmill design using large rollers would have a chosen motor and gearing combination to accomodate the large rollers, likewise for one with small rollers. They would likely be able to impart the same force at the roller (or at least which one would be stronger is unknown and a function of other design variables).

I saw that video as well and what struck me was that the treadmill detected a jam, reversed direction briefly (almost completely freeing the kid) and then resumed normal running (sucking the kid back in). In what world is it reasonable to have that sequence happen on a treadmill a person is running on with no human input?

> In the video where the kid wasn't seriously injured, the treadmill slowly ate the child until the treadmill wedged entirely on top of a large exercise ball, which was enough for the kid to get some space and escape.

I just watched a video that matches this description, and holy shit. The thing that unsettled me the most was the first moment, before the treadmill reversed direction for a second only to suck the kid back in. In that initial capture, the treadmill wedged itself against that kid's throat. Hard to tell for sure from the video, but if not for that momentary spin reversal, the kid would likely suffocate.

As a father of a similarly-aged kid, I can't stop shaking after seeing this.

For reference the video is available on this article and makes for quite disturbing viewing: https://metro.co.uk/2021/04/18/child-filmed-being-dragged-un...

Fortunately the child was able to escape in this case, but it's pretty easy to see how people, and children in particular, could be injured or worse by these treadmills.

I never wanted to punch a product designer until I saw that video.

Violence isn't the answer

Violence isn't the answer, but fear is, and the tendency to want violence in this case is due to company leaders involved in malicious activities have nothing to fear.

No jail, no meaningful fines.

The rollers and torque aren't the issue here, dude. The lack of safe design is. An end cap on the design to eliminate the possibility of something getting sucked in is all it would have taken. I'm sure some "aesthetic minded" executive or product designed poo poo'd the idea to "maintain a certain Peloton look"

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