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> elk I'm pretty sure that hitting a full-grown elk is a poor choice, and often a fatal one. A large, full-grown elk can weigh 600 pounds and stand 5 feet tal

by ekidd 10y ago

> elk I'm pretty sure that hitting a full-grown elk is a poor choice, and often a fatal one. A large, full-grown elk can weigh 600 pounds and stand 5 feet tall at the shoulder, which means it will probably go over the crumple zone and directly strike the windshield. This happens commonly with moose in New England, which run up to 800 pounds and 6.5 feet tall at the shoulder. A car will knock their legs out from under them but the body mass strikes much higher and does an alarming amount of damage to the passenger compartment. You can Google "moose car accident" and find some rather bloody photos. The standard local advice is to try really hard to avoid hitting moose, even at the cost of swerving. I would prefer that an autopilot apply a similar rule to large elk. Even if you wind up striking another obstacle, you at least have a better chance of being able to use your crumple zone to reduce the impact.

dsfyu404ed 10y ago
The cost of swerving is very, very minimal (especially in a modern car that won't go sideways no matter what you do). Imagine a two lane road with a car traveling toward an obstruction in its lane. The distance required to get the car out of the obstructed lane via the steering wheel is much less than stopping it via the brakes. There's a reason performance driving has the concept of brakes being an aid to your steering wheel as opposed to being operated as a standalone system.
jessaustin 10y ago
In this situation, small-to-normal passenger cars are actually much safer than typical American trucks and SUVs. When the legs are taken, the mass of the body strikes the roof of the lower vehicle and bounces over the top. The larger vehicles direct the body through the windshield into the passenger compartment. I'm not sure about moose, but with more nimble animals, swerving is no guarantee of avoiding collision. A deer can change direction quicker than an automobile, and if it had any sense, it wouldn't be running across the road in the first place. It's definitely safer to slow down and honk your horn than it is to try to guess which direction the damn thing will jump. [EDIT:] When I was learning to drive, my father often recounted the story of a hapless acquaintance who, in swerving to avoid a snake, had precipitated a loss of control that killed her infant child. He's not a big fan of swerving for animals.
- Spooky23 10y ago
  There is lots of ambiguity here. Depends on how you hit it, etc. Roof landings don't always end well -- my Civic was trashed when a deer basically bounced up and collapsed my roof on the passenger side. My head would have been trashed as well had I been a passenger! In general, if you cannot stop, hitting something head on is the best bet. Modern cars are designed handle that sort of collision with maximum passenger safety.
- mononcqc 10y ago
  Moose or Elks don't 'bounce over the top' on a small vehicle. They crush it, rip the roof off, or go through it. It may depend on antlers, angles, speed, and so on. I've tried to pick the least graphic images possible: http://img.radio-canada.ca/2015/08/09/635x357/150809_kr04b_voiture-accident-orignal_sn635.jpg http://img.radio-canada.ca/2015/08/09/635x357/150809_kr04b_v... from http://ici.radio-canada.ca/regions/saguenay-lac/2015/08/09/001-collision-orignal-2-morts-route-175-reserve-faunique-laurentides.shtml http://ici.radio-canada.ca/regions/saguenay-lac/2015/08/09/0... -- which ended up killing the two occupants of the car. This one is interesting because you may very well hit the moose facing forwards: http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/moose.asp http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/moose.asp I don't think there is much to be gained in terms of safety. Let's not forget that while you may have large moose, there's a range where they can still be much smaller while growing and still damage smaller cars fairly easily.
wyldfire 10y ago
Yes, I included it precisely because there's no reason to ever hit an elk. "some of these obstacles ..." -- it's one of the extrema that you might imagine as test cases for this kind of a feature.

by ekidd 10y ago

dsfyu404ed 10y ago

The cost of swerving is very, very minimal (especially in a modern car that won't go sideways no matter what you do). Imagine a two lane road with a car traveling toward an obstruction in its lane. The distance required to get the car out of the obstructed lane via the steering wheel is much less than stopping it via the brakes. There's a reason performance driving has the concept of brakes being an aid to your steering wheel as opposed to being operated as a standalone system.

jessaustin 10y ago

In this situation, small-to-normal passenger cars are actually much safer than typical American trucks and SUVs. When the legs are taken, the mass of the body strikes the roof of the lower vehicle and bounces over the top. The larger vehicles direct the body through the windshield into the passenger compartment. I'm not sure about moose, but with more nimble animals, swerving is no guarantee of avoiding collision. A deer can change direction quicker than an automobile, and if it had any sense, it wouldn't be running across the road in the first place. It's definitely safer to slow down and honk your horn than it is to try to guess which direction the damn thing will jump. [EDIT:] When I was learning to drive, my father often recounted the story of a hapless acquaintance who, in swerving to avoid a snake, had precipitated a loss of control that killed her infant child. He's not a big fan of swerving for animals.

Spooky23 10y ago
There is lots of ambiguity here. Depends on how you hit it, etc. Roof landings don't always end well -- my Civic was trashed when a deer basically bounced up and collapsed my roof on the passenger side. My head would have been trashed as well had I been a passenger! In general, if you cannot stop, hitting something head on is the best bet. Modern cars are designed handle that sort of collision with maximum passenger safety.
mononcqc 10y ago
Moose or Elks don't 'bounce over the top' on a small vehicle. They crush it, rip the roof off, or go through it. It may depend on antlers, angles, speed, and so on. I've tried to pick the least graphic images possible: http://img.radio-canada.ca/2015/08/09/635x357/150809_kr04b_voiture-accident-orignal_sn635.jpg http://img.radio-canada.ca/2015/08/09/635x357/150809_kr04b_v... from http://ici.radio-canada.ca/regions/saguenay-lac/2015/08/09/001-collision-orignal-2-morts-route-175-reserve-faunique-laurentides.shtml http://ici.radio-canada.ca/regions/saguenay-lac/2015/08/09/0... -- which ended up killing the two occupants of the car. This one is interesting because you may very well hit the moose facing forwards: http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/moose.asp http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/moose.asp I don't think there is much to be gained in terms of safety. Let's not forget that while you may have large moose, there's a range where they can still be much smaller while growing and still damage smaller cars fairly easily.

wyldfire 10y ago

Yes, I included it precisely because there's no reason to ever hit an elk. "some of these obstacles ..." -- it's one of the extrema that you might imagine as test cases for this kind of a feature.