Remember when Toshiba recalled a ton of their laptops for problems with the lithium batteries? They had tens if not hundreds of thousands of those batteries deployed before the problem became evident.
The Boeing batteries are significantly more expensive and higher capacity than laptop batteries which results in longer and more complicated testing procedures. Not to mention needing to test the many various load conditions on the battery. At the end of the day, there is only so much you can do to test a technology before deploying it. There is a chance that Boeing, it's contractors, or manufacturers were negligent in their testing especially after the initial delays of a $32 BILLION program. However, I'm guessing the battery problem is the result of standards not fully prepared to test the battery technology.
The Boeing batteries are significantly more expensive and higher capacity than laptop batteries which results in longer and more complicated testing procedures. Not to mention needing to test the many various load conditions on the battery. At the end of the day, there is only so much you can do to test a technology before deploying it. There is a chance that Boeing, it's contractors, or manufacturers were negligent in their testing especially after the initial delays of a $32 BILLION program. However, I'm guessing the battery problem is the result of standards not fully prepared to test the battery technology.