216
submitted 11 months ago by tardigrada@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

Tens of thousands of Tesla owners have had the suspension or steering of their vehicles — even in practically brand new ones — fail in recent years. Newly obtained documents show how Tesla engineers internally called these incidents "flaws" and "failures."

Nonetheless, some of the documents suggest technicians were told to tell consumers that these failures weren't due to faulty parts, but the result of drivers "abusing" their vehicles, which highlights the EV maker and its CEO Elon Musk's infamous way of handling customer complaints.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] chahk@beehaw.org 3 points 11 months ago

detonate

The term is "R.U.D." - Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly.

[-] vexikron@lemmy.zip 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Detonate is actually more precise, implying an explosion that accelerates at or faster than the speed of sound, often causing a visible blast wave in air that is humid and dense enough as the pressure wave compresses the air and squeezes it into visible semi cloud like formations momentarily.

RUD is a general term that can cover any number of events which cause a craft to generally lose structural integrity in a small amount of time.

For example, a craft could hit max q either at a non optimal angle, or due to structural integrity flaws, more or less violently tear itself apart.

Or, a craft could enter the atmosphere at a non optimal angle, or at too extreme a velocity, and be ripped apart, again, violently and quickly. This is generally referred to as 'Burning Up'.

Or a craft could have a parachute or landing system related problem and impact the ground at such speeds it disassembles itself. Jokingly referred to as 'lithobraking'.

Or, a craft could have an accidental triggering of some kind of abort system that results in the craft tearing itself apart.

Or, at any point while airborne, a problem with either the integrity of a fuel tank or the fuel pumps and plumbing could cause a rupture, which could then cause the craft to crumple, deform, and then rip itself apart /without/ the loose fuel igniting, or perhaps /with/ the loose fuel igniting, which may merely conflagrate or detonate depending on other factors.

While many of these more specific chains of events have more specific terms to describe them... they are /all/ Rapid Unplanned Disassemblies.

All that that term means is for some reason your craft went from being more or less one piece to more or less a large number of pieces very quickly.

For example the Challenger disaster was a RUD. But not a detonation. Detonation is more specific and I used the term for a reason.

[-] hai@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago

Do they really call a spacecraft airborne?

this post was submitted on 01 Jan 2024
216 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

37750 readers
240 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS