If you want to sell electronics in Europe, you need to pass a set of product standards to make sure they are safe, and will work with the rest of the grid when you plug them in.
https://www.iec.ch/perspectives/general_public/product.htm
The IEC not only defines safety parameters for these products but also those of efficiency, interconnectivity (how products work with each other), quality and performance, how a device interferes with others (EMC), how environmentally-friendly it has been produced and how it should be recycled. It also prepares symbols, such as the “on/off” sign and + /– on batteries, and it helps engineers to speak the same language (electrotechnical vocabulary).
If you want to sell them in North America, you need to pass the FCC standards.
6 Steps to Successful FCC Testing & Certification of Electrical Products…
6 Steps to Successful FCC Testing & Certification of Electrical Products Electrical/electronic equipment manufacturers planning to sell their products in the United States must ensure that their equipment won’t electromagnetically interfere with…
Electrical/electronic equipment manufacturers planning to sell their products in the United States must ensure that their equipment won’t electromagnetically interfere with other products or cause harm to the public. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) oversees and enforces this requirement, per Title 47 of CFR.
Regulation is required to ensure public safety. It’s just a balancing act between over-regulation, where innovators have their ideas stifled, or under-regulation, when bad actors can sell ideas that may not work as advertised, or even cause harm.
Because the thing about electricity is, it’s only when you find out the hard way that you realize things are wrong. Unless it’s engineered to function properly.
Another aspect of life that is highly standardized? Automotives. Why? Primarily, Safety but also utility. When a product standard is set for a country, it allows the experts and government to create informed, and most importantly effective regulation, that actually produces the desired effect of stopping hazards at the source: manufacture.
This extends far beyond the regulation of utilities. In order for economies of the world to effectively trade with each other, as well as domestically, it helps a great deal to have an “industry established” set of standards – roads across the planet can carry the same vehicles. They might be smaller in some places, but it still works, doesn’t it? The standardization of the economy is what allows for such rampant economic growth – because in order for products to actually be sold abroad, they need to be standardized to actually work together properly. There are thousands of regulations that govern all of the products you use every day. This is Socialism in Action.
ISO 17757:2019
Earth-moving machinery and mining — Autonomous and semi-autonomous machine system safety
It is applicable to autonomous and semi-autonomous versions of the earth-moving machinery (EMM) defined in ISO 6165 and of mobile mining machines used in either surface or underground applications. Its principles and many of its provisions can be applied to other types of ASAM used on the worksites.
Safety requirements for general mobile EMM and mining machines, as well as operators, trainers or passengers on the machine, are given by other International Standards (e.g. ISO 20474, ISO 19296). This document addresses additional hazards specific and relevant to ASAMS when used as intended.
The industry develops these standards for very good reasons. They are there to protect consumers. The problem with the government is that it is very easy for officials to abuse their power. This is why political engagement is so important, and in a technological world of ever-increasing complexity, an educated populace is the only kind that can effectively navigate the struggles of the post-industrial world.
Thoughts? Does it work? Or do we all exist on separate internets, exclusive to each of our respective internet providers?
If trains and motor vehicles brought travel to the masses and democratized freedom of movement for individuals, then computers and the internet have accomplished a similar outcome: they have democratized speech and the accumulated knowledge of all of humanity.
Box of Soap 