Originally Posted by TimPotter
The safety issue is directly related to the AMA. From the information I was given, the AMA had 2000 insurance claims last year related to Lipo's. Just becuase there are instructions on the products, does not take the liability away. We have to be prudent on this kind of issue.
Then we still have the other 3 issues to work on. I fully believe that by the time we resolve the other 3 issues, that the saftey issue will be moot.
BTW, I am not critic of Lipo's, I cannot wait until we have a good framework to use them in competetion.
No, I wasn't saying you were a critic. You don't have to search far on this thread to find them. They drop in and throw comments like "these things are gonna blow up and kill everyone" then disappear. Thats the type of person I'm talking about.
And I'm aware that the instructions don't remove liability. But again, thats what the lawyers are for. But there are 2 things you have to remember:
1. whether the issue of safty is brought by the company or a sanctioning body, you still can't
MAKE people follow the rules. I mean how long have we had NiMH, and look at AdrianM's post, you still have people that make mistakes charging them and put others at risk. It can't be helped and no 'rule' or 'warning' is going to stop it. And as Frank Furter noted in his post, people will always try to do stupid stuff to get an advantage, like charging Lipo with motor functions...YIKES!
2. people sue....thats it. Whether what happened was their fault or not, accident or not. People sue. I mean hell, Tamiya's car manuals still have warnings for kids not to chase their cars into the street...but if one did, you can be sure that some sleezy lawyer would convince the parents that they could sue Tamiya. So sueing is going to happen, insurance claims will happen...no matter what.
So whether LiPo's are legal today...tomorrow...or 3 years from now,
if something goes wrong(and what product doesn't have something go wrong at some point) the insurance claims and lawsuits will still be there.
I just think that, like I said before, if Kokam and Orion are standing by their claim that these are a different breed of Lipo than the ones that have had so much problems in the past, then until proven wrong, they shouldn't have to bear the burden of other companies past bad products.