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Anecdotally, I'd say that something like 50% of the cars I see on the road are at least 10 years old. Probably 15% are 20 years old or more. I live in one of t
by abruzzi 11y ago
Anecdotally, I'd say that something like 50% of the cars I see on the road are at least 10 years old. Probably 15% are 20 years old or more. I live in one of the poorer states in the US, so my experience may be somewhat skewed.
This also brings up one of my concerns with self driving cars. A vehicles (or and mechanical device) age, they become less reliable. The brake booster on my truck went out today (20 years old). I could still brake, but it took significant effort. I wonder what the failure modes look like on the self driving apparatus, and wether they fail gracefully and safely. I think it will be important that when we have 10 or 15 year old self driving vehicles on the road that they have engineered in safe failure processes.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoI'm in Iowa. Growing up (in the 70's) cars were largely rusted-out hulks. Then new cars started appearing, so that almost every car on the road was shiny and new-looking by the 90's. Now the rust is showing up again, and I don't think its the weather. Its the economy, and the general slide of the middle class. Maybe we need a 'rust index' to measure mean spending/affluence?
- wiredfool 11y agoThe median car age in the US is just around 10 years.