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Re:China’s Giant Market for Really Tiny Cars by csours on Tuesday September 25, 2018 @01:23PM (#18068379)
1. Oh my god those are so cute! It's like a kid's car, but for adults. I can only imagine trying to fit in one, my head would probably have to be stuck out the window.

2. “It’s safe,” said Ms. Li: “It doesn’t go fast enough to be dangerous.” - Oh no, not good at all! It doesn't matter how fast you are going, it matters how fast the other guy is going! The crash safety of modern cars is not an accident. It takes a lot of money to do the engineering, buy the proper materials, and put it together correctly.

Re:China’s Giant Market for Really Tiny Cars by dsfyu404ed on Tuesday September 25, 2018 @01:28PM (#18068436)
>It doesn't matter how fast you are going, it matters how fast the other guy is going! The crash safety of modern cars is not an accident. It takes a lot of money to do the engineering, buy the proper materials, and put it together correctly.

I think the safety complaint is irrelevant when the alternative is a bike or moped.

It does also very much matter how fast you're going because a huge fraction of crashes only involve one vehicle.

Re:China’s Giant Market for Really Tiny Cars by syntaxing on Tuesday September 25, 2018 @02:04PM (#18068855)
I think it concerning because people probably think its more safe than it actually is. This is definitely no safer than a bike or moped but the outer car housing gives a much stronger false sense of safety for the user.
Re:China’s Giant Market for Really Tiny Cars by romwell on Tuesday September 25, 2018 @09:42PM (#18072022)
>This is definitely no safer than a bike or moped

Any tri- or quadricycle is most definitely safer than a bike or a moped. You can't fall off it when it's not moving, for starters.

Re:China’s Giant Market for Really Tiny Cars by Doxin on Thursday September 27, 2018 @09:19AM (#18084133)
On the other hand you can, for example, get trapped inside it while it is on fire.

There's tradeoffs here and it's not at all obvious which of the two options is safer.

Re:China’s Giant Market for Really Tiny Cars by wang0109 on Tuesday September 25, 2018 @02:50PM (#18069271)
I'd say it's good enough. The average speed on a town road is like 30 to 35kph (or 18mph), much "safer" than an ebike/bike which is the primary peer traffic in these kind of places. On faster roads, these guys drive "on the shoulder" so to speak, due to their speed they cannot stay in the main road.
Re:China’s Giant Market for Really Tiny Cars by duxup on Tuesday September 25, 2018 @01:46PM (#18068645)
Maybe they're using lap belts but the little kids certainly weren't buckled in :(