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Oh, you know, drivers kill over a million people are year. But you are right, why is that a problem? Driving is the single most dangerous thing most people wil

Oh, you know, drivers kill over a million people are year. But you are right, why is that a problem? Driving is the single most dangerous thing most people will do at any time. It is a ridiculous, barbaric thing to do.

valuearb 9y ago
730,000 people die in the US every year. Only 35,000 are killed in car accidents. Individually it wouldn't rank in the top ten causes of death. Auto fatalities per million miles driven have dropped by 95% since the 1920s, 86% since 1950, and over 50% since the 1980s. If people don't drive, all those million miles of transport will be taken up by Buses, Trains, Bikes, Walking, etc, all of which have their own death rates per million miles. It's unlikely the death rate will decline in any noticeable way even if we banned cars. And we are on the verge of eliminating the vast majority of accidents, not just self driving cars, but even simpler existing mechanisms such as automatic brakes and lane change monitors will make massive reductions in accident rates as they continue to become more common.
- maaaats 9y ago
  If people walked or biked, one would however save hundreds of thousands of lives because of lifestyle issues.
  - valuearb 9y ago
    If people stopped eating red meat... You can always find ways to save lives by making living suck more.
- Thrymr 9y ago
  Depending on how you bin it, motor vehicle accidents are one of the largest causes of death, particularly of younger adults [0]. > we are on the verge of eliminating the vast majority of accidents That is purely speculative; in fact motor vehicle accident deaths are going up, not down, in the past couple years [1]. [0] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/accidental-injury.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/accidental-injury.htm [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/business/highway-traffic-safety.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/business/highway-traffic-...
  - valuearb 9y ago
    Less than 1 out of every 20 deaths are from traffic accidents. It's higher for young adults mainly because young adults have a near zero death rate. We had a spike in 2015 & 2016, and one in 2012, and every other year over the last decade the death rate has declined. The article you linked to emphasized the increase in deaths, and downplayed the increased number of miles driven, which is misleading. Deaths per mile only increased 3%. And we've seen these spikes before, about one or two per decade and they don't change long term trends. In 1961-63 they spiked 6% per mile driven and 4% in 1965-66, since then death rates have declined 80%. 2015 was the 5th safest year ever for US auto travel. It's death per million miles was 1.12, in the 2000-2009 the death rate averaged 1.41 per million miles, meaning they've still declined 20% over the last decade, even with the recent spike. Self driving cars aren't very speculative any more, it's not a question of if, just when. But automatic braking systems and lane safety systems exist today. Honda offers "Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS™)" as an option on most of it's cars already. https://techinfo.honda.com/rjanisis/pubs/om/JA0606/JA0606O00325A.pdf https://techinfo.honda.com/rjanisis/pubs/om/JA0606/JA0606O00... Honda also offers a collision warning feature, lane keeping assist system, road departure mitigation, lane departure warning, and adaptive cruise control with low speed follow. All of these systems exist today, and are offered by most manufacturers as options. They haven't had a big impact yet because they are options, and haven't been offered for very long so they are on a minuscule portion of the cars on the road. But as their costs drop, just like ABS and other safety features, they will become standard equipment and after another decade or so it will be difficult to find a car that doesn't have them.

valuearb 9y ago

730,000 people die in the US every year. Only 35,000 are killed in car accidents. Individually it wouldn't rank in the top ten causes of death. Auto fatalities per million miles driven have dropped by 95% since the 1920s, 86% since 1950, and over 50% since the 1980s. If people don't drive, all those million miles of transport will be taken up by Buses, Trains, Bikes, Walking, etc, all of which have their own death rates per million miles. It's unlikely the death rate will decline in any noticeable way even if we banned cars. And we are on the verge of eliminating the vast majority of accidents, not just self driving cars, but even simpler existing mechanisms such as automatic brakes and lane change monitors will make massive reductions in accident rates as they continue to become more common.

maaaats 9y ago
If people walked or biked, one would however save hundreds of thousands of lives because of lifestyle issues.
- valuearb 9y ago
  If people stopped eating red meat... You can always find ways to save lives by making living suck more.
Thrymr 9y ago
Depending on how you bin it, motor vehicle accidents are one of the largest causes of death, particularly of younger adults [0]. > we are on the verge of eliminating the vast majority of accidents That is purely speculative; in fact motor vehicle accident deaths are going up, not down, in the past couple years [1]. [0] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/accidental-injury.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/accidental-injury.htm [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/business/highway-traffic-safety.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/business/highway-traffic-...
- valuearb 9y ago
  Less than 1 out of every 20 deaths are from traffic accidents. It's higher for young adults mainly because young adults have a near zero death rate. We had a spike in 2015 & 2016, and one in 2012, and every other year over the last decade the death rate has declined. The article you linked to emphasized the increase in deaths, and downplayed the increased number of miles driven, which is misleading. Deaths per mile only increased 3%. And we've seen these spikes before, about one or two per decade and they don't change long term trends. In 1961-63 they spiked 6% per mile driven and 4% in 1965-66, since then death rates have declined 80%. 2015 was the 5th safest year ever for US auto travel. It's death per million miles was 1.12, in the 2000-2009 the death rate averaged 1.41 per million miles, meaning they've still declined 20% over the last decade, even with the recent spike. Self driving cars aren't very speculative any more, it's not a question of if, just when. But automatic braking systems and lane safety systems exist today. Honda offers "Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS™)" as an option on most of it's cars already. https://techinfo.honda.com/rjanisis/pubs/om/JA0606/JA0606O00325A.pdf https://techinfo.honda.com/rjanisis/pubs/om/JA0606/JA0606O00... Honda also offers a collision warning feature, lane keeping assist system, road departure mitigation, lane departure warning, and adaptive cruise control with low speed follow. All of these systems exist today, and are offered by most manufacturers as options. They haven't had a big impact yet because they are options, and haven't been offered for very long so they are on a minuscule portion of the cars on the road. But as their costs drop, just like ABS and other safety features, they will become standard equipment and after another decade or so it will be difficult to find a car that doesn't have them.