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The little Google cars (not the Lexus SUVs) were specifically designed for pedestrian safety in case of a collision, which can hardly be said about any other ca

The little Google cars (not the Lexus SUVs) were specifically designed for pedestrian safety in case of a collision, which can hardly be said about any other car, aside from Volvos.

grillvogel 11y ago
pretty much every modern car is designed with pedestrian safety taken into account, that's why they all look so goofy now
- alanh 11y ago
  Understanding is that cars are designed for passenger safety, not so much pedestrian safety. What are you saying?
  - to3m 11y ago
    That cars are designed with pedestrian safety taken into account? :) I don't know if you've noticed but cars tend not to have noticeable front bumpers these days. Some cars also now have deformable bonnets, or bonnets that pop up if they detect somebody rolling on to them. (If you want to know how this works, you'll have to ask somebody else. I have no idea.) This is all to limit the damage cars cause to people when they hit them. Euro NCAP has a section in its current ratings where they assess how good the car is at hitting people without injuring them too much, giving manufacturers of vehicles in many sectors an incentive to design with this in mind. See http://www.euroncap.com/en/vehicle-safety/the-ratings-explained/pedestrian-protection/ http://www.euroncap.com/en/vehicle-safety/the-ratings-explai.... Supposedly the Dacia Duster's rather poor Euro NCAP rating was predominantly due to its ropey score on the car-hitting-person section: http://www.euroncap.com/en/results/dacia/duster/10968 http://www.euroncap.com/en/results/dacia/duster/10968
huangc10 11y ago
Interesting, safety is usually not mentioned from the articles I've ready about the driverless car design. The two articles below kind of skimp about safety. Well, hopefully you're right and safety within the design was (and in my opinion should) be the first goal in mind. http://www.fastcodesign.com/3031342/top-car-designers-critique-googles-cute-self-driving-car http://www.fastcodesign.com/3031342/top-car-designers-critiq... http://www.wired.com/2014/05/the-major-design-flaws-in-googles-new-self-driving-car/ http://www.wired.com/2014/05/the-major-design-flaws-in-googl...
- thrownaway2424 11y ago
  The little cars have soft foam front-ends and the windshields are made of flexible plastic instead of glass.

The little Google cars (not the Lexus SUVs) were specifically designed for pedestrian safety in case of a collision, which can hardly be said about any other car, aside from Volvos.

grillvogel 11y ago

pretty much every modern car is designed with pedestrian safety taken into account, that's why they all look so goofy now

alanh 11y ago
Understanding is that cars are designed for passenger safety, not so much pedestrian safety. What are you saying?
- to3m 11y ago
  That cars are designed with pedestrian safety taken into account? :) I don't know if you've noticed but cars tend not to have noticeable front bumpers these days. Some cars also now have deformable bonnets, or bonnets that pop up if they detect somebody rolling on to them. (If you want to know how this works, you'll have to ask somebody else. I have no idea.) This is all to limit the damage cars cause to people when they hit them. Euro NCAP has a section in its current ratings where they assess how good the car is at hitting people without injuring them too much, giving manufacturers of vehicles in many sectors an incentive to design with this in mind. See http://www.euroncap.com/en/vehicle-safety/the-ratings-explained/pedestrian-protection/ http://www.euroncap.com/en/vehicle-safety/the-ratings-explai.... Supposedly the Dacia Duster's rather poor Euro NCAP rating was predominantly due to its ropey score on the car-hitting-person section: http://www.euroncap.com/en/results/dacia/duster/10968 http://www.euroncap.com/en/results/dacia/duster/10968

huangc10 11y ago

Interesting, safety is usually not mentioned from the articles I've ready about the driverless car design. The two articles below kind of skimp about safety. Well, hopefully you're right and safety within the design was (and in my opinion should) be the first goal in mind. http://www.fastcodesign.com/3031342/top-car-designers-critique-googles-cute-self-driving-car http://www.fastcodesign.com/3031342/top-car-designers-critiq... http://www.wired.com/2014/05/the-major-design-flaws-in-googles-new-self-driving-car/ http://www.wired.com/2014/05/the-major-design-flaws-in-googl...

thrownaway2424 11y ago
The little cars have soft foam front-ends and the windshields are made of flexible plastic instead of glass.