Is the feeling of cars being too safe influenced by if or how many loved ones a person has lost to car accidents?
“cars are way too safe” Arguing for taking safety features out of cars so we can kill more people on the highway is like arguing for un protected foods so we can kill more people…just to, keep the population under control ? Regardless, people survive accidents in safer cars and people get into fewer of them. There were just as many idiots driving old clunkers as there are newer safer cars. Speeding at 70 mph in an old car years ago is much worse then going 70 mph today. Maybe the philosophy should just be to put the worse drivers in the most unsafe cars hoping they will lesson the population of bad drivers…while hopefully not hitting safe drivers.
No, the biggest problem with cars today is not the cars and their real safety devices, it’s the lack of infrastructure improvement with today’s over crowded highways and the imbecilic idea that we should concurrently do away with speed limits while at the same time allowing people the free choice to text and create other diversions from actual driving. Safer cars should have safety divides that also include minimal distractions. U fortunately, we confuse safety devices with setting up entertainment centers in the car. Reevaluating unsafe drivers and removing their ability to drive would be a bigger step too. To me, that’s like taking the gun out of the hands of a criminal. There are too many dip "poops " on the road. It’s not safer cars we should remove; it’s safer drivers and conditions we should add.
@meanjoe75fan
As far as cost of safety devices driving up costs of cars; that’s a red herring and out of context in the respect you are also getting a much faster, more comfortable, more efficient and more reliable car. it’s just one factor that has increased the cost of cars relative to median incomes. If the average driver accepted the same performance in a much lower than average price car of $30000, he could easily buy a small compact to serve his needs. No, we need Ford Expeditions and the fastest cars we can buy that do 0 to 60 on average, faster than nearly all of the cars on the road 30 years ago and fancy entertainment systems with power seats to move around our fatter asteroids.
What we fail to see is that operating yesterday’s car with today’s demands and energy prices would easily reveal how much better today’s cars are in many ways other then safety devices. The average driver would never drive and could afford to own and trade and loose value of older cars. Ask antique car owners ? The increase in car prices is the requirement of giving up crappy cars like we gave up the horse and buggy. It’s not just a new washing machine. It’s a new, more expensive mode of transportaion where safety device costs are just one part and not the whole story. Maybe we just miss those yearly visits to Midas for new mufflers and 5k tune ups, 1000 mile oil changes and bias ply tires that least 10k miles !
I note that some new commercials on TV touting Harley’s new Rushmore edition shows an interactive screen on the handlebars. A rider is shown smiling after a message on the screen gives an option to accept or decline an incoming call although the rider is never actually shown doing either one.
My understanding is that this new edition has 2 joysticks; one on each side of the handlebars. Engine functions, navigation aids, social media, etc are selected with the joysticks.
Cars have enough distractions but doesn’t dinking around with joysticks and a video screen while on 2 wheels fall into the stark, raving insane category?
Yeah, that is insane. This is one reason I’ve never wanted an expensive motorcycle with a digital display or a GPS mounted on the handlebar of a motorcycle. I’m happy with just a basic display with an oil light and a neutral light. I can live with no tachometer, and no fuel gauge, and no check engine light.
I don’t even like the idea of head phones while riding a motorcycle.
As much as I think car safety has improved by orders of magnitude over the last 60 years, we may be getting to a ‘tipping point’. I just read a review of the latest Inifiniti where the writer described the operation of the lane monitoring system: it uses cameras to keep the car in it lane (not just warn the driver). Another test of the latest Mercedes S class said it had a similar system, which the writer referred to as the ‘read and respond to text’ system, where he could TAKE HIS HANDS OFF THE WHEEL FOR 10 SECONDS or so. YIKES!