Re:Cars will need fewer screens and more buttons to earn 5-s...
by ryandrake on Tuesday March 05, 2024 @12:25PM
(#39606514)
It's too bad that (in the US) NHTSA and IIHS only focus on "crashworthiness" for their ratings, rather than the vehicle's overall safety profile. Safety is more than what happens right after metal hits metal. For a more complete safety picture, these institutions should also analyze and report on attributes of the car that can contribute to crashing.
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Re:Cars will need fewer screens and more buttons to earn 5-s...
by crote on Tuesday March 05, 2024 @01:16PM
(#39607196)
It would already make a huge difference if safety ratings took into account people outside the vehicle. If a car is essentially guaranteed to kill the occupants of the other vehicle, the cyclist or the pedestrian, it shouldn't get a high safety rating just because its occupants are unharmed - it's still a dangerous murder machine after all.
Right now the US seems to be stuck in a spiral of ever-increasing vehicle size. People look at the larger vehicles around them and they feel unsafe so they buy a larger vehicle - which makes everyone else buy even larger vehicles. The irony is that everyone would be far safer if we all stuck to properly-sized vehicles, because those huge vehicles result in way higher energy collisions.
Re:Cars will need fewer screens and more buttons to earn 5-s...
by 7952 on Friday March 08, 2024 @04:00AM
(#39639268)
The spiral of badness seems to be present in so many design decisions. Chunky front ends so you can't see the road in front. Worse aerodynamics and fuel economy. Small cars that are difficult with babies. Massive vehicles that need more road and parking space. Relying on expensive fossil fuels. And touch screens of course.