Limp Modes or Selective Disabling

[bsddrake]

I didn’t see this when I was searching, but here goes…

I’d really like to see options for “limp modes” or selective disabling of systems. Here are a few examples:

In the event of a motor or cabling failure, it would be nice to be able to disable the front or rear motors.

In the event of a harvester failure (or even a “making a funny sound”/puddle of oil situation), it would be nice to disable it so the truck can still be used as an EV until the issue is resolved.

In the event of *some* battery failures it would be nice to run off the power envelope of the harvester.

In the event of the screens going blank, or certain controllers failing, it would be nice to still be able to get the vehicle moving without all those screens.



Obviously the vehicle would have diminished capabilities, or be electronically limited for safety/sanity reasons, but being able to limp home, or move under it’s own power while compromised is not only useful, but also very on-brand for Scout.

 

[J Alynn]

I suspect with some battery failure the harvester would not function because it is charging the battery and now you are powering a failed system which raises risk or fire or catastrophic battery pack failure unless it can lock down the individual pack and bypass it ?

 

[bsddrake]

I suspect with some battery failure the harvester would not function because it is charging the battery and now you are powering a failed system which raises risk or fire or catastrophic battery pack failure unless it can lock down the individual pack and bypass it ?

Oh yeah. I hoped that highlighting the word *some* would make that clear. That specific bullet point would require some engineering. Depending on the type of failure of the battery pack, it is sometimes safe to keep it trickle charged to 50% and only use the power to start the harvester (assuming it uses the high voltage system to start like a lot of hybrids, with a low voltage starter it's way easier). An obvious example of this kind of situation might be losing coolant for the battery itself. as long as you aren't pulling much power from it, or charging it quickly, you can still limp along using the harvester and limited battery usage without damaging anything. There are other examples, but there isn't much reason to enumerate them here. A lot of EV's and hybrids will disable the the entire vehicle if anything goes wrong. My general statement could be summarized with, "Just let me turn anything broken off and still get home... eventually." Obviously the vehicle should protect itself from damage as much as possible, but defaulting to failing closed when any issue comes up is an anti-pattern to what scout is known for.

 

[oldgeeksguide]

Oh yeah. I hoped that highlighting the word *some* would make that clear. That specific bullet point would require some engineering. Depending on the type of failure of the battery pack, it is sometimes safe to keep it trickle charged to 50% and only use the power to start the harvester (assuming it uses the high voltage system to start like a lot of hybrids, with a low voltage starter it's way easier). An obvious example of this kind of situation might be losing coolant for the battery itself. as long as you aren't pulling much power from it, or charging it quickly, you can still limp along using the harvester and limited battery usage without damaging anything. There are other examples, but there isn't much reason to enumerate them here. A lot of EV's and hybrids will disable the the entire vehicle if anything goes wrong. My general statement could be summarized with, "Just let me turn anything broken off and still get home... eventually." Obviously the vehicle should protect itself from damage as much as possible, but defaulting to failing closed when any issue comes up is an anti-pattern to what scout is known for.

“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward” - MLK jr

I don’t mean to sound flippant, no disrespect intended, but this quote was too good to pass up in this context.

 

[J Alynn]

Oh yeah. I hoped that highlighting the word *some* would make that clear. That specific bullet point would require some engineering. Depending on the type of failure of the battery pack, it is sometimes safe to keep it trickle charged to 50% and only use the power to start the harvester (assuming it uses the high voltage system to start like a lot of hybrids, with a low voltage starter it's way easier). An obvious example of this kind of situation might be losing coolant for the battery itself. as long as you aren't pulling much power from it, or charging it quickly, you can still limp along using the harvester and limited battery usage without damaging anything. There are other examples, but there isn't much reason to enumerate them here. A lot of EV's and hybrids will disable the the entire vehicle if anything goes wrong. My general statement could be summarized with, "Just let me turn anything broken off and still get home... eventually." Obviously the vehicle should protect itself from damage as much as possible, but defaulting to failing closed when any issue comes up is an anti-pattern to what scout is known for.

Wasn’t sure on your wording but thought that was your thinking. Just added a bit as it did make me question how good the control system is. We aren’t Star Trek futuristic but maybe the interface can detect and bypass with “limp” mode of some kind

 

[bsddrake]

Wasn’t sure on your wording but thought that was your thinking. Just added a bit as it did make me question how good the control system is. We aren’t Star Trek futuristic but maybe the interface can detect and bypass with “limp” mode of some kind

I'm not a wordsmith, so I'm not surprised whatever I said was unclear. I do however work on/with military vehicles that can't be non-operational just because of a few big problems. I would imagine that something that automatically disables systems would be much more difficult to engineer and get right, than just having a "limp" menu that lets you turn things off that you generally would leave in an automated state. If you can't tell, on top of not being a wordsmith, I'm also not a bean-counter, lawyer, marketing expert, or a safety compliancy person. I understand that these are wildly complex vehicles with lots of stringent standards. I can't wait to see what makes it to production.