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This raises a point that has confused me for a long time. Aerospace engineering is known for its track record of safety (not to say incidents don't happen, but

by CWood1 11y ago

This raises a point that has confused me for a long time. Aerospace engineering is known for its track record of safety (not to say incidents don't happen, but they're rare, and usually self-contained). Why, then, is the same level of rigor not applied to the automotive industry, by government (or even international) mandate? Just as much damange can just as easily be done, and if it was possible to seize control of a Boeing 747 from your living room, you can bet there would be people fired within the hour, and arrested within the day. That said, something tells me that, in light of recent events, there will be a push for the automotive industry to start using things like DO-178, and its companions for mechanical and electronic engineering (whose numbers I don't recall).

raisedbyninjas 11y ago
Air travel is inherently more dangerous than automobile travel. This is intuitively and actually true. People learn from a very young age that falling hurts and falling even 10 meters can be fatal. Falling, flying, great heights tickle the fear centers in your lizard brain. Vehicles are more like incremental improvements to things that are safe like running or riding a horse. Additionally auto accidents are mostly isolated to 2 parties on the roadway they're travelling. So we don't exercise the same caution with cars. Practically, air travel is safer because they are built, maintained, piloted, and continuously monitored by professionals. Conversely a 15 year old can build a kit car and drive it on the highway legally. If they break a dozen traffic laws they may or may not get caught and penalized. If we could get people to assess and respond to risk rationally, we could make a lot of things safer.
ScottBurson 11y ago
The psychology of it is interesting, isn't it? Flying in a plane seems so intuitively unsafe that we go to great efforts to make it safe, while traveling on the ground seems so intuitively safe that we don't worry about it as much. (Remember how hard it was to get most people to wear seat belts?) And yet, far more people die in car crashes than plane crashes.

by CWood1 11y ago

raisedbyninjas 11y ago

Air travel is inherently more dangerous than automobile travel. This is intuitively and actually true. People learn from a very young age that falling hurts and falling even 10 meters can be fatal. Falling, flying, great heights tickle the fear centers in your lizard brain. Vehicles are more like incremental improvements to things that are safe like running or riding a horse. Additionally auto accidents are mostly isolated to 2 parties on the roadway they're travelling. So we don't exercise the same caution with cars. Practically, air travel is safer because they are built, maintained, piloted, and continuously monitored by professionals. Conversely a 15 year old can build a kit car and drive it on the highway legally. If they break a dozen traffic laws they may or may not get caught and penalized. If we could get people to assess and respond to risk rationally, we could make a lot of things safer.

ScottBurson 11y ago

The psychology of it is interesting, isn't it? Flying in a plane seems so intuitively unsafe that we go to great efforts to make it safe, while traveling on the ground seems so intuitively safe that we don't worry about it as much. (Remember how hard it was to get most people to wear seat belts?) And yet, far more people die in car crashes than plane crashes.