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Is It Safe to Ship Thousands of Electric Cars on Big Ships?

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Re: Is It Safe to Ship Thousands of Electric Cars on Big Ships?

#11

Post by jhugo »

HWR_14 wrote: post #6
tlb wrote: post #2

Can ships not afford a satellite uplink for continuous telemetry? Compared to the $1000s/hr of diesel they burn, the data can't cost much.

The question isn't "can the ship support continuous telemetry" but "does it generate more value than it costs". And I'm not sure it does. Also, since the crew survived, why are they so concerned to get the voice recorder? Is it just because of the recorded alarm information, and if so why keep referring to it as a voice recorder and not a black box.

The recorder contains alarms and other data as well as the conversations on the bridge. As I understand it, they're like an aviation CVR and FDR but combined.

Just like with aircraft accidents, the conversations can provide as much (or sometimes more) value as the data. It gives you insight into decision making, details that may not be recorded in the data ("I was just in area XYZ and I saw sparks coming out of one of the vehicles"), etc.

Re: Is It Safe to Ship Thousands of Electric Cars on Big Ships?

#12

Post by jhugo »

montanalow wrote: post #4
tlb wrote: post #2

Can ships not afford a satellite uplink for continuous telemetry? Compared to the $1000s/hr of diesel they burn, the data can't cost much.

The entire crew was rescued. The article is nonsense.

What's your point? Of course the avoidance of a human tragedy is great but the cost of this incident (to the shipping company, automotive manufacturers, insurers, environment) was enormous. It makes perfect sense to try to understand it better.

Re: Is It Safe to Ship Thousands of Electric Cars on Big Ships?

#15

Post by throwaway290 »

Tangentially, I wonder about the environmental impacts of a container full of large Li-ion batteries, such as those found in electric cars, lost in the sea. Cargo ships are known to dump containers* (and oil**, incidentally) into oceans.

* https://therevelator.org/container-ship-accidents/

** https://www.dw.com/en/exclusive-cargo-ships-dumping-oil-into...

Re: Is It Safe to Ship Thousands of Electric Cars on Big Ships?

#16

Post by denni9th »

montanalow wrote: post #4
tlb wrote: post #2

Can ships not afford a satellite uplink for continuous telemetry? Compared to the $1000s/hr of diesel they burn, the data can't cost much.

The entire crew was rescued. The article is nonsense.

This time. A fire on board a vessel is highly dangerous and should always be avoided if possible. If a car was the cause of the fire, additional safety measures should be implemented on these types of vessel to potentially save the lives of the crew.

Re: Is It Safe to Ship Thousands of Electric Cars on Big Ships?

#18

Post by rocqua »

mirekrusin wrote: post #10

Can they ship them without batteries?

I think that to do the actual 'ro-ro' (roll on roll off) they are shipping the cars with a decent bit of charge in the battery for the roll-off stage.

It would probably help a lot to ship them with less charge.

Re: Is It Safe to Ship Thousands of Electric Cars on Big Ships?

#20

Post by csunbird »

amaajemyfren wrote: post #19

Fuel literally burns and it is carried by ship - I believe there is a way to safely ferry them in ships.

Fuel is also carried by special ships with extra precautions, but electric cars are carried just like normal cars without any extra safety.
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