I live in China and walked by one of those e-bike food delivery guys the other day. He was casually sitting on the sidewalk with his gear halfway taken off (I guess on break). Most of the skin on the front of his knee was completely, all the way down to the muscle and kneecap, gone. Looked like it was a few days old.

If you look at the road mortality statistics for those countries you'll see that safety equipment and regulations are absolutely necessary if you want to avoid lots of pain and suffering, and externalities. It's just those places simply can't afford them and deal with it in ways more advanced economies aren't prepared to accept.

>> Well, that's their problem.

I don;t live in Cambodia. When people here get hurt in my neighborhood they block traffic, are taken to hospital and are treated by teams of government-paid professionals. Then if they have severe head injuries that medical treatment may continue for many decades. We insist on helmets, as we insist on things like brakes and seatbelts, because we know that individual injuries quickly become everyone's problem.

Take a look at the chaos in their streets and the associated fatalities.

Riding a motorbike in Vietnam is a completely different experience to riding a motorbike in a western country.

People are actually aware of motorbikes, since it's the primary method of transport. Also, traffic moves a lot slower, you're usually riding at only 20-30 km/h in town in Vietnam. I felt much safer riding a motorbike in Vietnam than in New Zealand.

Upon saying that, the road injury and fatality statistics for the countries you mentioned are shocking. Vietnam is 2.5x higher than the USA for road fatalities per 100,000 per year, and the USA itself is shockingly high for a developed country, they're double Australia's rate.

>Upon saying that, the road injury and fatality statistics for the countries you mentioned are shocking. Vietnam is 2.5x higher than the USA for road fatalities per 100,000 per year

Just 2.5x doesn't sound shocking to me -- and probably the most of the difference is not even caused by driving patterns.

E.g. the road conditions in Vietnam vs the US, and the vehicle conditions there (breaks, mechanical faults, age, etc.) compared to the US...

I wonder if the AI gang will set up labs in Asian countries. It seems to be the forefront of massive multi-agent free floating shared space mobility.. So much ML training.

I wonder if per-capita is a misleading measure here. Clearly density (i.e. people or vehicles per sq. mi ) is more predictive of your accident rates.

The standard measure is per million miles or kilometers driven.

>Well, that's their problem.

You could say the same of seatbelts, yet their use is enforced by law because automobile fatalaties were a major public health problem. Society has an interest in protecting those who don't protect themselves.

>You could say the same of seatbelts, yet their use is enforced by law because automobile fatalaties were a major public health problem.

Was it because of that, or merely because the government just likes to overreach and regulate?

It was because of that, I promise.