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A comment on Driverless cars are stuck in a jam. Parent comment

Re:Driverless cars are stuck in a jam by TheSpiceIsLife on Tuesday October 29, 2019 @02:11AM (#21384605)
> slightly more comfortable transport.

Slightly more comfortable than what? Horses? Bicycles? Walking?

There were 158,493 registered deaths in Australia in 2018, [1] of which 1137 were due to motor vehicle accidents [1].

Motor vehicle related deaths don't even rate in the top 20 causes of death. [also 1]

The rate of motor vehicle related deaths in Australia peaked in 1970 at 30.4 per 100,000 population per year, and has been on a steady decline since and now sits at 4.6 per 100,000 per year.[2]

This seems reasonable to me.

1. https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/0/47E19CA15036B04BC...

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_i...

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Re:Driverless cars are stuck in a jam by michaelt on Tuesday October 29, 2019 @06:16AM (#21385552)
> Motor vehicle related deaths don't even rate in the top 20 causes of death.

According to [1] in the US road traffic accidents are the 17th-most-common cause of death across all age ranges.

But among 15-24 year olds? Number 1 cause of death. In fact you have to reach age 45 before road traffic accidents are even outside the top five.

If you really want to ramp up the rhetoric, compare road deaths to mass shootings and September 11th. Where's the trillion-dollar invasion of Detroit to overthrow the Drivetrain Of Evil?

[1] https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/usa-cause-of-death-by-ag...

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Re:Driverless cars are stuck in a jam by rootusrootus on Tuesday October 29, 2019 @01:02PM (#21389421)
> compare road deaths to mass shootings

Well, if we are going to do that, we need to compare the utility of those mass shootings compared to the utility of a car.

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Re:Driverless cars are stuck in a jam by francisofascii on Tuesday October 29, 2019 @09:37AM (#21386961)
Right. And you are just looking at deaths. The injury rates are much higher. And crash injuries can be debilitating. Certainly the #1 threat to health in the U.S.
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Re:Driverless cars are stuck in a jam by Steltek on Tuesday October 29, 2019 @10:32AM (#21387567)
And about the other causes of death, I want to see how driving correlates with obesity and heart disease. Then throw in depression and mental anguish that's endemic in the rush hour commute. Sitting for 3 hours in a car versus walking a little more and taking the bus sounds like a really bad trade for your health.
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Re:Driverless cars are stuck in a jam by varjag on Tuesday October 29, 2019 @04:23AM (#21385083)
How about the deaths not related to biology/age of your body?

It should really be compared with other accidents. Cyclist deaths, bathtub drownings, slipping on banana peels. Choking on food perhaps. Have the feeling it would rank pretty high in its cohort.

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Re:Driverless cars are stuck in a jam by megablast on Tuesday October 29, 2019 @06:37AM (#21385641)
Ok, lets not forget the 40,000 seriously injured or disabled every year in Australia.

> Slightly more comfortable than what? Horses? Bicycles? Walking?

Buses, trains, trams, scooters, many other ways.

71% of Aussies live in major cities, and most have no need for a car. Yet we are one of the most car addicted people in the world. Billions wasted every year on this. Ridiculous.

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Re:Driverless cars are stuck in a jam by glangdale on Tuesday October 29, 2019 @07:14AM (#21385839)
It is a shame that while the the first link has a table of Years of Potential Life Lost, it only counts things that made it into the Top 20 (so it just rearranges things - obviously suicide shoots to the #1 and dementia falls from #2 to way down the list). Road deaths kill on average younger people than most of the items on that Top 20 list.
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