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A comment on George Hotz cancels his Tesla Autopilot-like ‘comma one’. Parent comment

Re:George Hotz cancels his Tesla Autopilot-like ‘comma one’ by david-given on Friday October 28, 2016 @04:32PM (#12820372)
Not to dispute your point, which I agree with, but --- argon metering? How can that be a safety or environmental hazard? You don't want to lose it overboard because it's expensive, but it's a noble gas, so it should be inert, right? What am I missing?
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Re:George Hotz cancels his Tesla Autopilot-like ‘comma one’ by DanBC on Friday October 28, 2016 @04:35PM (#12820391)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation

It can displace air, causing death.

Here's one example of a death, although here they deliberately put the argon in there: http://maritimeaccident.org/2014/08/safespace-argoninert-gas...

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Re:George Hotz cancels his Tesla Autopilot-like ‘comma one’ by david-given on Friday October 28, 2016 @05:15PM (#12820788)
True, but so can nitrogen, propane, neon, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and flourine (although you'd need to be pretty unlucky to survive long enough breathing flourine to asphyxiate).

I know argon is denser than air at STP, and so tends to accumulate in enclosed spaces --- but propane is even denser. (Leading cause of catastrophic accident in yachts: gas explosion. It's not like you can have a hole in the bottom to let the gas out in the event of a leak.) And any plant which deals with liquid gasses is going to prioritise ventilation anyway, which should easily deal with any gas buildup.

The parent sounded like there was something specific to do with argon which made the regulators tetchy, and I wouldn't have thought that asphyxiation risk would be enough. Am I wrong?

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Re:George Hotz cancels his Tesla Autopilot-like ‘comma one’ by eridius on Friday October 28, 2016 @05:26PM (#12820880)
Propane has a very strong odor added to it (by the propane manufacturers), which means it'll be pretty damn obvious the moment you enter a propane-rich environment.
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