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Articles like this make me love my 2000 Subaru even more. I'm gonna hate getting a newer car one day, but maybe by then manufacturers will better secure their

Articles like this make me love my 2000 Subaru even more. I'm gonna hate getting a newer car one day, but maybe by then manufacturers will better secure their cars.

Nadya 11y ago
You should look at crash tests results of your 2000 Subaru and a car more modern than 2013 and decide which you'd rather be in in the result of a crash. I'm less scared of a potential hacker cutting power to my car than I am of the millions of poor drivers cutting lanes and changing lanes without signals (or even looking) resulting in an auto accident. Things started improving in the 90's (falling from 143m to 115m). In 2000 it was at 112m. 2008 saw the sharpest decline - down to 78m. In 2012 it was 65m. The difference between 112m and 65m is staggering - and is largely due to newer, safer cars being on the road. All figures above are driver deaths per million for registered vehicles taken from: http://www.iihs.org/iihs/sr/statusreport/article/50/1/1 http://www.iihs.org/iihs/sr/statusreport/article/50/1/1 E: Although Subaru has a good track record of safety. I just think the fear is misplaced. For most people driving older cars, I'd be far more scared about my safety during a crash than my safety from a potential hacker. Both are of concern, of course.
- commandar 11y ago
  Newer safety regulations definitely help, but at the same time, I almost feel like we're reaching a point where we're at pendulum overswing to some degree. That biggest change since 2012 has been increased roof strength requirements. This was driven at least in part due to the popularity of top-heavy, rollover prone vehicles. Meeting these requirements have required cars to get heavier and incorporate massive roof pillars. This negatively impacts gas mileage (relatively minor concern), but, far more importantly IMO, means that nearly every new car out there has awful rear visibility. So we've bandaided that by requiring backup cameras, but those don't help when you're moving in traffic. We've created a situation where most new cars on the road have huge, terrible blindspots by trying to make the cars safer. Again, better safety is a good thing, i just think that we just need to do a better job of balancing it with the usability of the vehicles.
  - superuser2 11y ago
    Perhaps - but the numbers don't indicate the pendulum swinging back. It looks to be a net gain, even despite that. Interesting, though. I had noticed this trend - coming from a 2002 Outback, most of the ZipCars I drove seemed to have terrible rear visibility. Now I know why.

Articles like this make me love my 2000 Subaru even more. I'm gonna hate getting a newer car one day, but maybe by then manufacturers will better secure their cars.

Nadya 11y ago

You should look at crash tests results of your 2000 Subaru and a car more modern than 2013 and decide which you'd rather be in in the result of a crash. I'm less scared of a potential hacker cutting power to my car than I am of the millions of poor drivers cutting lanes and changing lanes without signals (or even looking) resulting in an auto accident. Things started improving in the 90's (falling from 143m to 115m). In 2000 it was at 112m. 2008 saw the sharpest decline - down to 78m. In 2012 it was 65m. The difference between 112m and 65m is staggering - and is largely due to newer, safer cars being on the road. All figures above are driver deaths per million for registered vehicles taken from: http://www.iihs.org/iihs/sr/statusreport/article/50/1/1 http://www.iihs.org/iihs/sr/statusreport/article/50/1/1 E: Although Subaru has a good track record of safety. I just think the fear is misplaced. For most people driving older cars, I'd be far more scared about my safety during a crash than my safety from a potential hacker. Both are of concern, of course.

commandar 11y ago
Newer safety regulations definitely help, but at the same time, I almost feel like we're reaching a point where we're at pendulum overswing to some degree. That biggest change since 2012 has been increased roof strength requirements. This was driven at least in part due to the popularity of top-heavy, rollover prone vehicles. Meeting these requirements have required cars to get heavier and incorporate massive roof pillars. This negatively impacts gas mileage (relatively minor concern), but, far more importantly IMO, means that nearly every new car out there has awful rear visibility. So we've bandaided that by requiring backup cameras, but those don't help when you're moving in traffic. We've created a situation where most new cars on the road have huge, terrible blindspots by trying to make the cars safer. Again, better safety is a good thing, i just think that we just need to do a better job of balancing it with the usability of the vehicles.
- superuser2 11y ago
  Perhaps - but the numbers don't indicate the pendulum swinging back. It looks to be a net gain, even despite that. Interesting, though. I had noticed this trend - coming from a 2002 Outback, most of the ZipCars I drove seemed to have terrible rear visibility. Now I know why.