I hope self driving cars aren’t designed by the people who designed elevators.
Death traps. No fail safe provisions. No redundancy. Difficult rescue.
I don’t even want to think about self-driving cars. I don’t trust them.
I’ve been on those elevators at the Hancock building all the way to the 95th floor. It was such a smooth ride.
actually there are fly brakes specifically required in case the cables break, which is why it only dropped a foot.
The prior six foot drop was likely due to the speed the elevator was moving and required longer to stop. Note the one in the article was only on the 2nd floor, while the other was much higher.
Early brakes were not as reliable as now since they relied more on mechanical acceleration changes. Now they are electromagnetic and only open with power. If power is lost then the magnet releases and the brake will naturally close. Also multiple brakes in place so plenty of redundancy.
Rescue can indeed be difficult.