Its not unreasonable to expect that the switch works regardless of the weight of the keyring. Clearly they need to perform some real life beta testing of these systems, preferably using real life people and real life keyrings.
Its not unreasonable to expect that the switch works regardless of the weight of the keyring. Clearly they need to perform some real life beta testing of these systems, preferably using real life people and real life keyrings.
I just saw Gravity. One of the interesting things in the movie is the way push button controls were on some vehicles. There was a wire screen around the buttons to ensure that you could not press two buttons at a time. The likelyhood of doing it is low, but the results of hitting the wrong button could be very bad.
It’s a risk assessment issue, and why bolts and nuts on airplanes are wired in position but are not handled that way on automobiles. Does this mean that nobody is EVER killed in an auto accident cause by a bolt that comes loose? Nope. But the cost of doing it relative to the lives saved makes it impractical.
Risk assessment includes three facets:
1. The likelyhood of a thing happening.
2. The impact of a thing happening.
3. The cost of mitigating the risk.
It’s why people don’t harden their homes against a meteor strike. Money is limited and must be diverted from other activities to mitigate the risk. Meanwhile, the cost of mitigating would be absurdly high while the risk is absurdly low, though the results of a strike would be devastating.
Same with this switch. The centered “hole” seemed like a low cost solution to a very low risk (as stats prove) “problem”.
The simple numbers and stats show that this is not a problem, though, of course, anyone directly impacted by it would disagree.
That's exactly right. If you're going to make a product, it had better be safe under expected conditions. A keyring with many keys might not be common, but it is not wildly abnormal.
Sort of like designing a set of stairs. It's not likely that three 400 lb people will be climbing those stairs at the same time. But you had better design for that possibility.
Just out curiosity, must a product prevent every form of misuse & abuse before it is considered alright to market? The prudent man theory seems to have been replaced by the perfect man theory, induced by blood sucking attorneys.