Who said ONE aspect? Keep up. I said there are THOUSANDS of pieces of data insurance companies use. Literally THOUSANDS. For past accidents - they know who survived and who died. That’s simple. They then use that data put it in the Computer Model. The Model uses past data to data of current accident. This is NOT new concept.
Most of the links below are beyond me. But I have and built Network Modeling software to predict network traffic flows. That’s one of our chief products our company designs and builds. It’s all based on data gathered in the past to predict future events. We know our accurate it is by our models making future predictions…and then then the future becomes now - compare the NOW data to what we predicted. We’ve developed extremely accurate models after years of research and adjusting the model. Yes car accidents aren’t network systems, but they still have known variables that can be used to create a model and make predictions.
Go back and read what started this above. It states AIRBAGS saved X lives. That’s the one aspect. You’re the one that needs to keep up. This is a common theme in these discussions. It drifts off topic and it’s hard to bring it back to the issue that was being argued in the first place.
At any rate, it does not appear to be worth the effort anymore…
At any rate I don’t know what difference it makes if the number is 20,000 or 50,000. I’m sure the answer is some, balanced of course by the injuries that have actually been caused by air bags. Outside of the expense to equip and replace them at maybe $500 per car manufactured, my only issue was that they were too violent when they first came out. They were designed to protect an unbelted person instead of being a supplement. I believe this has changed now and provided for the child somewhat. I’ve never had one go off, and never minded driving a car without them, but still it is not a pleasant or cheap thing to have happen and should be a last resort to prevent death or critical injuries.
About 10 years ago, I was a passenger in my friend’s Accord sedan when it was broadsided on the driver’s side-- WHILEIN A GAS STATION – by a crazy woman who drove off the road and careened onto the gas station’s property. The side-impact airbag on the driver’s side worked exactly as designed, and protected my friend from any real injuries.
In addition to damage to the left side of the car and the rear axle, the roof was slightly buckled and–of course–the car was totaled by his insurance company. That was my only experience with air bags firing, but I have to say that I was impressed by the fact that my friend emerged with only a few aches and pains, despite being T-boned by a Lexus SUV that the cops estimated was going ~35 mph at the point of impact.
