[HN Gopher] Regulators urge safety recall of Peloton treadmill a...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Regulators urge safety recall of Peloton treadmill after child dies
        
       Author : joering2
       Score  : 123 points
       Date   : 2021-04-17 19:09 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.washingtonpost.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.washingtonpost.com)
        
       | jdavis703 wrote:
       | What I'm not understanding, how is a Peloton more dangerous than
       | a regular treadmill?
        
         | gruez wrote:
         | from an earlier thread:
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26846861
        
         | dkdk8283 wrote:
         | Normal treadmills have a safety limit switch that disengages
         | the motor when it senses an obstruction.
         | 
         | Many years ago I was at the gym and a exercise ball got loose,
         | jammed it up, and the guy fell off. After removing the ball the
         | treadmill didn't resume operation.
         | 
         | You can see in the video the peloton jogs the motor in an
         | attempt to free the obstruction. I presume the initial feature
         | is to unjam a off track belt.
        
           | formerly_proven wrote:
           | > You can see in the video the peloton jogs the motor in an
           | attempt to free the obstruction. I presume the initial
           | feature is to unjam a off track belt.
           | 
           | Which seems like an incredible misfeature to me. You can see
           | how quickly it gets going from a standstill two or three
           | times in the video - even _if_ someone were on the treadmill
           | (and not under it), that's exactly not the behavior you want.
        
           | jimbob45 wrote:
           | Is that not required by law? Surely the engineers thought
           | about this scenario and advised management to include a
           | safety limit switch. Did management just ignore the
           | engineers?
           | 
           | This seems like another Ford Pinto where the company decided
           | it was cheaper to settle the lawsuits than fix the product.
        
             | bdibs wrote:
             | "Move fast and break things."
        
       | ohazi wrote:
       | > Asked for a response, a spokesperson for Peloton, Jessica
       | Kleiman, told Insider that the company was "disappointed that
       | CPSC is mischaracterizing the situation."
       | 
       | The hubris...
       | 
       | The only correct response would have been something along the
       | lines of "we have no comment at this time."
       | 
       | The job is to communicate that you are aware of an issue, that
       | you are investigating, and/or that you are cooperating. If you
       | want to lobby for favorable treatment from regulators, hire an
       | external lobbying firm to do it quietly, don't get into a public
       | flame war with the CPSC.
       | 
       | How are PR/spokespeople for high profile companies still making
       | these kind of amateur hour mistakes in 2021? Isn't the public
       | record absolutely _littered_ with comments like these that just
       | made the company look worse?
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | whatshisface wrote:
         | Most people aren't as Machiavellian as your typical armchair
         | industry analyst would suppose. If you accuse a board that
         | their product is killing children, would you expect them to
         | think "we better make sure our PR department covers this up as
         | effectively as possible," or would you expect indignation and
         | denial?
        
           | oivey wrote:
           | I would expect "we're investigating this issue and/or taking
           | corrective action" because that's the actually empathetic
           | thing to do when a child has died and others have been
           | injured. No PR department should be putting out knee jerk
           | reactions. It's their job not to. That their reaction is to
           | deflect blame doesn't bode well for them making an effort to
           | address the problem. Peloton is not even just deflecting
           | blame here. They are accusing the government of basically
           | lying.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | rriepe wrote:
         | You're off here by millions and millions of dollars. This case
         | is worth much, much more in the court of public opinion to
         | Peloton than in actual court. People generally agree with the
         | first version of the story they hear. In 2021, saying "no
         | comment" (instead of this equally say-nothing statement that at
         | least shapes the narrative) is just handing that opportunity
         | away.
         | 
         | Thirty years ago, "no comment" could buy you some time and you
         | could present your case later in primetime (or whatever you
         | could land) to lots of first-time impressions. In 2021, it's
         | almost always a stupid thing to say from a PR standpoint (I'm
         | sure some lawyers would still love it) because everything is
         | always-on and there's almost no element of timing aside from
         | burying stories on Friday.
        
         | eli wrote:
         | correct answer is to apologize, acknowledge the problem, and
         | outline a solution.
        
           | whimsicalism wrote:
           | Not in a world with lawyers it isn't
        
             | eli wrote:
             | Letting the lawyers make strategic decisions is a choice.
        
               | whimsicalism wrote:
               | Sure, it's also a choice for companies not to donate
               | millions of dollars to buy malaria nets in Africa.
               | 
               | Admitting responsibility in as litigatious an environment
               | as the US is essentially throwing away money, with less
               | public benefit than the malaria nets.
        
       | treeman79 wrote:
       | Was like 12. Speed was set via a dial.
       | 
       | One would think a treadmill needed ramp up time to get to 15mph.
       | 
       | Life lessons were learned after being tossed into a filing
       | cabinet.
        
       | roland35 wrote:
       | I have a hard time believing that there aren't very specific
       | regulations for threadmills that address hazards. When I worked
       | on a consumer robotics project we had to follow IEC standards
       | which defined exactly how far a hand could reach to moving parts,
       | how big a stop button must be, etc.
        
       | moneytide1 wrote:
       | It's more alarming that people are spending this amount of money
       | (aka deploying factory labor, conveyor belts, induction motors,
       | plastic molding, heart rate screens, grid electricity) for the
       | ability to run in place like a hamster.
        
         | Bancakes wrote:
         | You get to run in a clean, climate controlled environment with
         | near zero risk of body injury. Plus with all the covid
         | lockdowns, this is one of the best cardio you can get.
        
       | rgbrenner wrote:
       | Most treadmills have a guard or plastic covering on the bottom
       | that stops the tread from pulling something underneath it. From
       | pictures, the peloton treadmill doesnt have this... so I would
       | guess if anything gets between the back of the device and the
       | floor, it'll pull it under the machine.
       | 
       | Edit: confirmed (warning: video shows a child being injured):
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onXNnlCYJ4Y
        
         | ajb wrote:
         | Yikes. Sounds like they just didn't do a safety review. Given
         | that they are also apparently "opposing" the recall, I wouldn't
         | trust them with a 10 foot pole now. They've put themselves in
         | the same category as the Schlitterbahn, whose water slide
         | decapitated a 10-year-old.
        
           | loonster wrote:
           | The level of risk is magnitudes more with the waterslide.
           | 
           | Allowing children to use exercise equipment is a Darwin award
           | for the parents. It is just below allowing them to use power
           | tools unsupervised
        
             | scoopertrooper wrote:
             | Because children are famous for obeying rules.
             | 
             | You can lock power tools in a cupboard or toolbox. The same
             | cannot be said for a treadmill.
        
             | ihumanable wrote:
             | Go read the actual urgent warning from the CPSC
             | https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-Releases/2021/CPSC-
             | Warns-...
             | 
             | > It is believed that at least one incident occurred while
             | a parent was running on the treadmill, suggesting that the
             | hazard cannot be avoided simply by locking the device when
             | not in use.
             | 
             | This isn't a case of user-negligence, this is an inherently
             | unsafe design where Peloton decided not to put a guard on
             | the back of the machine.
        
               | loonster wrote:
               | In my mind, it is in the same category as a power tool. A
               | parent would be an idiot to use a circular saw near a
               | young child. Using a treadmill near children is stupid.
               | Bad things happen when people do stupid stuff.
        
               | happytoexplain wrote:
               | Others have pointed out the fundamental and pragmatic
               | differences between treadmills and power tools. E.g. it's
               | unrealistic (excluding the long term) to keep people from
               | putting a treadmill in their living space. Of course we
               | could debate each difference, but then we're just
               | discussing the differences between treadmills and power
               | tools. Analogies are usually a lazy tool in the field of
               | debate - you can state them easily, but they provide
               | nothing of substance to anybody who doesn't _already_
               | agree with you, unless you 're using them for a much more
               | specific point than "X is like Y, therefore they should
               | be treated the same".
               | 
               | Make your argument _about treadmills_ , not about power
               | tools. Also note that power tools are _highly regulated_
               | and have many safety features.
        
               | wpietri wrote:
               | Nah. The key difference is that power tools are supposed
               | to reshape matter. Like knives, circular saws are
               | inherently dangerous. This is more like a fan: some
               | designs are very dangerous, but it's possible to design
               | versions that are both effective and reasonably safe.
        
               | loonster wrote:
               | Its essentially a giant belt sander. Some belt Sanders
               | are more dangerous than others.
               | 
               | I have a toddler in my household. Even thinking of them
               | playing around any treadmill gives me an anxiety attack.
               | 
               | If you want a household item, it's like a stand mixer.
               | Something that could break bones if not worse.
        
               | michaelmrose wrote:
               | Blame is infinitely divisible the fact that parents share
               | some blame doesn't reduce the companies fault one iota.
               | 
               | Effectively both share the full sum of blame and we ought
               | to both educate parents and force companies to make safer
               | goods.
        
               | jacquesm wrote:
               | People will routinely set these up in their living rooms.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | rgbrenner wrote:
               | I think this is the incident that section refers to (at
               | 42 seconds): https://abcnews.go.com/WNN/video/child-dies-
               | peloton-treadmil...
               | 
               | It shows a yoga ball being pulled under the machine while
               | the woman is running on it.
        
               | jacquesm wrote:
               | That is one spectacularly bad design.
        
             | happytoexplain wrote:
             | When the obsession with personal responsibility results in
             | the suggestion that we, as a society with legal mechanisms,
             | should not avoid traumatically harming children in some
             | scenario where it can be practically and realistically
             | addressed if only there was will, it makes me sick. If a
             | product or service causes harm and it can be reasonably
             | mitigated, it must be mitigated, regardless of whether
             | those people were "stupid" or "deserved their
             | consequences", or some other psychopathic rationalization.
        
             | ajb wrote:
             | When my parents were children, everyone heated their houses
             | with an open fire, and if you did something wrong on any
             | day it would kill you. When I was a child, we had a boiler
             | which was perfectly safe so long as you paed someone to
             | service it once a year. Pretty much all the things my
             | parents grew up with had no safety features, pretty much
             | all the things I grew up with did.
             | 
             | We have moved to a society where things are expected to be
             | safe except for a number of well known exceptions, and this
             | is good:
             | 
             | "It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy-
             | books and by eminent people when they are making speeches,
             | that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we
             | are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization
             | advances by extending the number of important operations
             | which we can perform without thinking about them.
             | Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle
             | -- they are strictly limited in number, they require fresh
             | horses, and must only be made at decisive moments. " Alfred
             | North Whitehead
             | 
             | As technologists it is our business to know and understand
             | the consequences of the mechanisms we build. We value
             | greater understanding and perception. But it is a mistake
             | to project this value system onto society as a whole,
             | since, as the quote shows, the worth of what we build is
             | precisely to allow others to avoid this burden. That
             | applies in safety as much as anything else. As
             | technologists we can see that if a device has a 500W motor
             | in it , it bears thinking about whether there are any
             | safety issues. But consumers rightly expect any safety
             | issues to be pointed out to them.
             | 
             | What worries me is when companies are run by people who
             | don't understand that all our safety is the result of a lot
             | of work, and so don't realise the amount of diligence
             | required.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | Animats wrote:
         | That's what it looks like to me, too. That's a terrible design.
         | It's just the right height to suck a small pet under the
         | machine and crush the animal.[1] Or a foot. Looks like Pelotron
         | wanted a nice clean look, so they left the guards off. That
         | looked nice in the Jetsons series in 1962.[1] But not in real
         | life.
         | 
         | In industry, this is called an unguarded pinch point. Classic
         | cause of injuries and amputations. It's an OSHA violation in an
         | industrial operation.
         | 
         | Every other treadmill I've ever seen had substantial guarding
         | around the pinch points.
         | 
         | OSHA: "1910.211(d)(44): 'Pinch point' means any point other
         | than the point of operation at which it is possible for a part
         | of the body to be caught between the moving parts of a press or
         | auxiliary equipment, or between moving and stationary parts of
         | a press or auxiliary equipment or between the material and
         | moving part or parts of the press or auxiliary equipment."
         | 
         | [1] https://img-s-msn-
         | com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1e...
         | 
         | [2] https://youtu.be/0JQbeCAlF6s?t=82
        
           | narrator wrote:
           | I saw the video of this thing on the peloton website. IMHO,
           | it's so needlessly dangerous and stupid to design it like
           | that. It's the cult of Apple "rethink everything" design I
           | guess.
           | 
           | I hear Apple wants to get into the car business. I bet they
           | won't have seatbelts because, after all, it's just another
           | unnecessary button to confuse the user.
        
           | thedrbrian wrote:
           | Kinda surprised they didn't add a weight sensor on the legs
           | so that when something is pulled under and it lifts the base
           | it cuts the power.
        
             | jacquesm wrote:
             | Not enough. There is a ton of inertia in that system.
        
               | bmcahren wrote:
               | It wasn't that. It was the torque and incessant "gotta
               | go" programming in the motor. If the speed is stuck at
               | zero mph and the motor tried more than 5 seconds without
               | changing the belt speed CUTOFF immediately.
        
             | toomuchtodo wrote:
             | Photoelectric safety switch between the back legs would've
             | also worked (like a garage door beam), depending on how
             | sturdy those legs are mounted for alignment.
        
               | jturpin wrote:
               | I was thinking this as well. For how much tech this thing
               | seems to have, and for such a high price tag, they could
               | easily justify putting, I don't know, two or three IR
               | sensors down there.
        
               | dkdk8283 wrote:
               | This won't work if your tall. On fast runs my ankles
               | routinely left the back of the treadmill. Keeping your
               | torso tracked in the "middle" is harder the more fatigued
               | you get. A sudden e-stop will fuck you up if your running
               | at 8mph.
        
               | ryukafalz wrote:
               | The back legs are below the treadmill, not behind it, so
               | I don't think this would be an issue?
        
             | foolmeonce wrote:
             | It's not very clear, but from the last two descriptions it
             | sounds to me like it has a shutoff sensor that can engage
             | by accident or leave a child under the "off" machine.
        
           | stickfigure wrote:
           | For the record, I just looked at my (formerly commercial)
           | treadmill and it has no guard. Looking at a google image
           | search for "treadmill" shows maybe 1/3 do not have a guard.
           | 
           | Whether or not it is a terrible design, it's common.
        
             | stefan_ wrote:
             | I mean, there is no regulation for it, but it seems like an
             | incredibly risky design for the manufacturer. Quick release
             | forks famously have "lawyer lips" that make sure the wheel
             | doesn't fall out in case you are riding the bike without
             | actually closing the quick release.
        
             | dkdk8283 wrote:
             | My treadmill doesn't have a guard either. It does monitor
             | the motor and if it suddenly stops it shuts down. I have
             | observed an accident at a commercial gym where it also shut
             | down on jam.
             | 
             | It's poor software.
        
             | Larrikin wrote:
             | I checked my treadmill and it doesn't as well. I also
             | googled trying to see what they look like. They seem to be
             | used on treadmills that sit higher off the ground.
             | 
             | My guess is that the Peloton design is more dangerous due
             | to the treads, the thickness overall and how to high it
             | sits off the ground. Perfect design for sucking things
             | under.
        
               | rconti wrote:
               | Yeah, it's certainly not uncommon on either treadmills,
               | but I think the height of the Peloton unit perhaps makes
               | it more problematic than most.
        
           | tzs wrote:
           | > Looks like Pelotron wanted a nice clean look, so they left
           | the guards off.
           | 
           | But...the guards are usually on the bottom, maybe an inch or
           | two from the edge. For anyone standing or sitting near the
           | treadmill they either won't be visible or will only be a
           | little visible--and in the latter case you can still make
           | them hard to spot by making them the same color as the belt.
           | 
           | Only people who lying down on the floor or who are standing
           | or sitting far away in a big room should see them (and again,
           | coloring them the same as the belt can make them harder to
           | notice).
           | 
           | Unless I'm misunderstanding the geometry (I've never seen a
           | Peloton treadmill in person), I don't see how wanting a clean
           | look would lead them to leave off guards.
        
           | apple4ever wrote:
           | I don't understand how there is no sensor to shut off the
           | motor when it detects a jam. That's like basic safety
           | protocol there.
        
         | js2 wrote:
         | My True 500 had nothing to prevent something from being pulled
         | under it. Landice makes high end residential treadmills and
         | their models don't appear to either:
         | 
         | https://www.landice.com/sites/default/files/90%20SERIES_SERV...
         | 
         | However, compared to those treadmills, the Peloton Tread+ has
         | much larger diameter rollers and step-up height. It's also much
         | heavier (455 lbs vs 340 lbs). It looks uniquely dangerous to me
         | among residential treadmills.
         | 
         | Landice L7 and L8:
         | 
         | https://cdn.sweatband.com/Landice_L9_Club_Pro_Sports_Trainer...
         | 
         | Peloton Tread+:
         | 
         | https://g.foolcdn.com/image/?url=https:%2F%2Fg.foolcdn.com%2...
        
           | HenryBemis wrote:
           | Thank you for sharing these pictures. They clearly show the
           | difference in height.
           | 
           | The Landice can be a threat for a pet or can grab/scratch a
           | foot. The Peloton clearly/visible is higher and a small child
           | can sneak or can be pulled under it.
        
         | rconti wrote:
         | Yes, the video confirms what I expected from the description.
         | And yeah, the video is a bit gruesome but apparently he was
         | okay.
         | 
         | We have a Peloton Treadmill (now called the Tread+, but the
         | original one is the same as the Tread+), in fact my wife is
         | running on it right now.
         | 
         | If you do a Google Image Search for "treadmill", you will see
         | most treadmills are belt-style, and often have a metal bar
         | underneath the back, a few inches in. NOT a cover on the back
         | -- the plastic cover is typically on the FRONT of most
         | treadmills, which won't help with things getting sucked
         | underneath at the back, which is where this would happen.
         | 
         | The Tread+ is a "slat style" treadmill similar to something
         | really high end like a $10k+ Woodway, but other brands also
         | sell slatted style treadmills.
         | 
         | It's definitely obvious how something can get sucked under the
         | back of the tread, however I'm not sure how much better having
         | a protective bar is; I really wouldn't want an arm to get
         | sucked between the belt and a protective bar underneath, which
         | is usually at least a few inches from the underside of the
         | belt.
         | 
         | And of course the Tread+ is something like 450lbs; the heavier
         | the treadmill, the more problematic something like this is
         | likely to be.
         | 
         | Having it shut off when something goes under it does't really
         | help; I'm not sure I'd want my kid to get crushed by a
         | stationary treadmill either.
         | 
         | Like most treadmills, the Tread has a safety key which you're
         | supposed to wear (but not everyone does, and of course kids
         | playing on it are not going to). Actually, I just realized the
         | obvious answer is, if you have kids, take the safety key off
         | when you're not using it. But, mistakes happen, and of course
         | something can also get sucked under when a properly trained
         | adult is using the device as well. (One of our cats took a
         | serious blow to the head from the swinging arm of our
         | elliptical, but he was fine; cat.) I definitely wouldn't want
         | anything going under the pedals of our Peloton bike either;
         | metal pedal plus speed plus flywheel mass would be a REALLY bad
         | time.
         | 
         | Back to the Tread, the belt stops if there's no weight on it
         | for "a while" but I'm not sure how long; certainly it takes
         | more than 10 seconds. And, again, you'd be left with a kid
         | trapped under a STOPPED treadmill which is not much better.
         | 
         | There's no particular safety for turning it on. Typically I
         | select my profile on the touchscreen but the knobs on the side
         | to start the belt are active before starting a class. I think
         | they might even be active when the tablet is "on" (tap the
         | power button on the cross bar first) but before choosing a
         | profile.
         | 
         | I suppose a workaround would be to require a login before
         | turning it on, but of course this is a step most other
         | treadmills don't have either.
        
         | sgpl wrote:
         | Warning for others clicking on the link, it's pretty graphic
         | and appears to be a video of an actual incident with the
         | treadmill.
         | 
         | I was expecting it to be a product demo video or something.
        
           | TaylorAlexander wrote:
           | Yes thankfully I clicked away but that really needs a
           | warning.
        
             | smnrchrds wrote:
             | The video has a warning.
        
               | rgbrenner wrote:
               | I believe he posted this right before I updated the post
               | to add the warning. Thanks to everyone that pointed it
               | out.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | crooked-v wrote:
               | It has a warning now. It didn't at first.
        
               | robtaylor wrote:
               | the first five seconds of the video has warning text
        
           | dkdk8283 wrote:
           | Aren't we past the era of warnings? Everything is NSFW now.
        
           | smnrchrds wrote:
           | For the people who stopped watching halfway through:
           | thankfully the child survives at the end.
        
             | faeyanpiraat wrote:
             | The ball made all the difference.
             | 
             | He was lucky.
        
           | rgbrenner wrote:
           | Sorry. I added a warning.
           | 
           | This is a different incident than the one mentioned in the
           | article though. In that incident, the child was "discovered
           | trapped under the machine and not breathing" and was
           | hospitalized with a brain injury.. In this video, the child
           | does get out from under the machine and walks away. Although
           | the only difference between the two incidents is probably the
           | ending... this child could have also easily become trapped.
        
             | jurassic wrote:
             | Probably that ball is what saved the kid's life.
        
               | Hamuko wrote:
               | Yeah, looks like the ball was what kept the machine
               | propped up so that there was enough space for him to walk
               | away. So basically an amazing lucky coincidence for him.
        
         | baybal2 wrote:
         | Any treadmill I've seen had a sensor which shuts down the mill
         | if the tread gets jammed.
        
           | soneil wrote:
           | I think that's really the damning bit - in the video shown,
           | you can see ripples in the belt still moving towards the kid
           | just after the sister runs off. The belt's jammed, the user's
           | dismounted, and it's still trying to win.
        
             | Hamuko wrote:
             | At some point the treadmill actually spits the kid out. It
             | reverses the speed for like one, two seconds when the kid
             | was jammed and everything had stopped, but then it starts
             | going back in its original direction and the kid gets
             | sucked back in before he has time to get clear.
        
         | foepys wrote:
         | This looks like a typical startup disruption approach where
         | they wanted to build the hardware from the ground up and didn't
         | ask industry experts why something is done the way it is.
        
           | 1123581321 wrote:
           | Reviewing profiles of Peloton mechanical engineers suggests
           | they employ experts, including from heavily regulated
           | industries. It seems unlikely that this was built without
           | discussion or research. However, it's true that they
           | misjudged the risk here.
        
           | rconti wrote:
           | I'm not sure how this speculation adds to the conversation,
           | though.
        
         | WORMS_EAT_WORMS wrote:
         | My first instinct was to assume this to be parents doing a
         | blame-game at Peloton for their own negligence.
         | 
         | But this actually makes sense.
         | 
         | A child or pet gets in there it really is game over. I can
         | imagine even if an adult somehow slips up that it would be
         | insanely painful and difficult to free yourself -- especially
         | at a running pace.
        
           | richwater wrote:
           | Why are you letting your children operate a machine with
           | absolutely no supervision?
        
             | WORMS_EAT_WORMS wrote:
             | Huh? I'm not doing anything.
             | 
             | Ultimately -- yes -- those parents are responsible for
             | their kid's death here. I agree. Horrible accident.
             | 
             | But who cares? This isn't a political boxing match.
             | 
             | The machine should be safer. Both can be true. Go outside..
        
             | ironmagma wrote:
             | What is with this obsessive victim-blaming attitude? Safety
             | regulations are a technology, we invented them for a
             | reason.
        
             | trhway wrote:
             | you don't get it - this machine is inherently dangerous
             | even with full supervision. Check the Animats comment
             | above.
        
         | userbinator wrote:
         | Perhaps "most" is an exaggeration, since I have one which
         | doesn't and the comments here and images found online suggest
         | that many others don't.
         | 
         | IMHO that video shows negligence on the part of the parents.
         | There was a camera there but no physical presence. Exercise
         | equipment is dangerous if not used correctly, and although I'm
         | one who doesn't believe in "helicopter parenting", I certainly
         | wouldn't let my kid play with a treadmill with only a camera
         | watching.
        
       | benatkin wrote:
       | This messes up my view of the whole company, as well as my
       | afternoon. I was just starting to get interested in Peloton but
       | since I hadn't gotten into it, it's easy to drop the idea.
       | 
       | I hope their reasoning isn't that a child shouldn't have used it.
       | Kids love video games. They need to figure out how to minimize
       | the risk in addition to doing all they can to prevent kids from
       | using it.
        
         | yuliyp wrote:
         | Sadly that's exactly their reasoning: "The Peloton Tread+ is
         | safe for use at home when operated as directed and in
         | accordance with our warnings and safety instructions"
        
           | ohazi wrote:
           | One of the lessons you're eventually supposed to learn when
           | designing consumer products is that you don't get to decide
           | what "used correctly" means.
           | 
           | If, in _actual use_ , some people are leaving the key in the
           | treadmill, then just having the key and two sentences in the
           | manual isn't going to be considered an adequate substitute
           | for having a tread guard.
           | 
           | "But they didn't read the manual!" isn't going to absolve
           | them of liability either.
        
         | philjohn wrote:
         | Sued a competitor into submission, allegedly dropping Apple
         | Watch support because they're launching their own smartwatch
         | ... they don't seem like a great company all around tbf.
        
         | dom96 wrote:
         | My view of the company has been messed up since their silly
         | 2019 ad.
        
       | fmakunbound wrote:
       | I need a key to start my Sole, and you can attach the key to
       | yourself while operating it (in case you fall off). A child
       | getting mangled under the tread couldn't have happened with that
       | simple mechanism in place.
        
         | tigershark wrote:
         | In the video that another user posted the treadmill was already
         | running because the sister was using it and the little child
         | was sucked inside. How the key would have helped in this
         | situation?
        
           | phnofive wrote:
           | The children were playing with it unsupervised - presumably
           | this is why there was a camera trained on them, but no one
           | was actually watching.
        
             | slantyyz wrote:
             | Substitute the girl using the treadmill with one of the
             | parents. The kid with the ball still gets caught, although
             | the treadmill could get stopped sooner.
             | 
             | Unless supervision means the child never gets further away
             | from the supervising adult's arm's reach, I think the only
             | thing you can do is fence off the treadmill to keep free
             | range kids and pets away.
        
               | g00gler wrote:
               | > Substitute the girl using the treadmill with one of the
               | parents. The kid with the ball still gets caught,
               | although the treadmill could get stopped sooner.
               | 
               | Doesn't seem likely. His parent would either fall because
               | the treadmill slowed down, running into him and injuring
               | them both or they would have told them to stop it because
               | it's clearly dangerous
        
           | bdibs wrote:
           | As soon as the girl got off instead of continuing to drag the
           | child under it, it would have stopped. It probably wouldn't
           | have completely stopped it from happening but it certainly
           | would have improved the outcome.
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Url changed from https://www.businessinsider.com/regulators-urge-
       | safety-recal..., which points to this.
        
       | varispeed wrote:
       | If this was a small company, wouldn't regulator simply shut it
       | down?
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-04-17 23:00 UTC)