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JayMoots t1_j5zlvne wrote

Reply to comment by King-of-New-York in 18 Kids Hurt, 1 Critically, After Fire at Queens Day Care Held in Home Basement: FDNY by King-of-New-York

The Brian Lehrer Show just did an episode about this last week (should still be available on their podcast feed) and this is basically correct. There's an existing certification process that makes the batteries almost fail-proof, but the low-end manufacturers are skipping that process to save money.

A reporter on the episode had an interesting argument that the delivery app companies should be the ones who maintain and charge the bikes, rather than putting the responsibility on the deliveristas.

They'd be able to have better quality batteries, and centralized charging stations that were safely away from residential buildings.

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King-of-New-York OP t1_j5zxgl3 wrote

Are they skipping the process illegally?

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JayMoots t1_j5zzq4i wrote

No, compliance to these standards is currently voluntary. But if this continues to be a problem, I wouldn't be surprised to see either the city or the Feds step in and make it mandatory.

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King-of-New-York OP t1_j604isk wrote

Should have happened yesterday.

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JayMoots t1_j60dazq wrote

The podcast made the point that we actually saw something similar with the "hoverboards" in 2015/2016. In that case, the Consumer Product Safety Commission stepped in and said "All of these products have to meet this 'voluntary' certification or we're going to ban them from being imported." That seems likely to happen with e-bikes pretty soon.

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