dead man's switch

English

Noun

dead man's switch (plural dead man's switches)

1. A switch that automatically triggers an action (for instance, to stop a machine or vehicle) if a specified input from the operator is not made or is altered.

   This seat is equipped with a dead man's switch. As the theory goes, "if the driver stops sitting, the machine is quitting."

   • 2020 December 10, HarryBlank, “SCP-5751”, in SCP Foundation‎^[1], archived from the original on 24 September 2024:

     P.S. What about using a disc collection with a specific weight as a dead man's switch? Or making up a new format out of rare, esoteric, or even thaumaturgical materials, and using the anomaly to duplicate them? Or...

Synonyms

• Driver's Safety Device, DSD (official UK railway term)
• dead man's trigger
• dead man's pedal
• dead man's handle
• dead man's control
• dead man's brake
• kill switch
• vigilance control
• live-man switch

Translations

dead man's switch

• Basque: gizaki hilaren gailu
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 失能开关 (shīnéng kāiguān)

• Danish: dødemandsknap c
• Dutch: dodemansknop (nl) m
• Finnish: kuolleen miehen kytkin
• French: homme-mort (fr) m
• German: Totmannschalter (de) m, Totmanneinrichtung f
• Italian: uomo morto m
• Japanese: デッドマン装置 (deddoman sōchi)
• Korean: 데드맨 장치 (dedeumaen jangchi)
• Polish: czuwak (pl) m
• Portuguese: homem-morto
• Spanish: dispositivo de hombre muerto m, interruptor presencial m
• Swedish: dödmansgrepp n