Very, very interesting idea since this is probably easy to retrofit to houses that don't have room for elevators.
But I think the video does a poor job of marketing the product. Too much "storytelling", they spend too much time "laying pipe" and the payoff is marred by "artistic" shots where clarity would serve better.
And you can kind of understand how poorly the video is edited when the top comment is about the video not being scrub'able in that web page.
Also I wonder what happens when a moving part fails and they get stuck with nobody at home ... seems like all it would take is a rat to chew on that cord for a catastrophic failure.
I think that people who would need something like this would also be at risk of falling when just walking around. There are no shortages of devices that allow someone to call for help if they've fallen. And as for a rat chewing through a cord, the cords could be made from a material that rats don't find tasty, or the device could be made with cables rather than cords.
With the cost of assisted-living being high and getting higher all the time, anything that helps people live in their own homes longer would be a big help.
Society is so risk adverse today that they do not want to allow anything that is not perfectly safe for 1000% of all situations that anyone can ever think of.
This device that would make people lives better will likely be bogged down in 1000's of "safety" regulations around 1:1,000,000 chance events of "what if a rat chews on the cord , while at the same time a bird lands on the power cable that kills the power, while at the same time someone hits a utility pole taking out the phones.... Clearly this product is unsafe"....
On the contrary, I'd argue most people who would need this are just far better off moving to a single story residence.
I live with an 87 year old, and every dang thing except clear open floor is a big risk. We don't need contraptions, we just needed a first floor accessible bathroom.
When you are early 50's and you have MS, I don't think the same scenario applies. This isn't a solution for people who can't do most things, it's a solution for people who can almost do everything but have been disabled in some way.
It used to be that the only solution would be a powered elevator system, but that was only because we had no alternative.
This is the second HN thread I'm reading today where somebody's response to an article is "this is not a solution for me personally, so therefore it's not a good idea." Seems like a strange way to interpret information.
It is an anecdote, but it's also arguably a relevant point of: The cost of having someone able to live on one floor even with renovations is likely cheaper and safer than installing a novel transportation system.
I think elderly folks or disabled would very strongly prefer to stay where they are in the home they know and love rather than move. If that means adding contraptions, most of them will do so if they have the means
If they're competing against a stairlift, there's a lot more that can go wrong with a stairlift than this. A power outage is much more likely than a rat chewing through a cord.
But I think the video does a poor job of marketing the product. Too much "storytelling", they spend too much time "laying pipe" and the payoff is marred by "artistic" shots where clarity would serve better.
And you can kind of understand how poorly the video is edited when the top comment is about the video not being scrub'able in that web page.