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> Furthermore, as a consumer, would you rather buy a car that costs x dollars that protects you or costs x+y that protects other people? Reducing the chance of

> Furthermore, as a consumer, would you rather buy a car that costs x dollars that protects you or costs x+y that protects other people? Reducing the chance of having to live with the fact that I ran somebody over and seriously harmed or even killed them, that's indeed worth an extra y dollars to me. Furthermore, it is in the interest of my insurance company too, they might factor that into the premium.

lutorm 7y ago
I seem to remember somewhere that insurance companies have been reluctant to factor the risk of injury to others into the liability premiums for cars. This was in the context of a discussion of the externalities when SUVs and trucks became popular. It's hard to separate driver inattention from the effect of having vehicles that are much more deadly these days, too. If you get hit by a sedan, it'll take out your legs and you'll get flung up on the sloping hood/windshield. If you're hit by a truck/SUV, on the other hand, the majority of your body will take the direct hit.
- gridlockd 7y ago
  It is my understanding that driving an SUV pushes up liability premiums, but this is offset by them being generally safer for the driver.
megaremote 7y ago
> Reducing the chance of having to live with the fact that I ran somebody over and seriously harmed or even killed them, that's indeed worth an extra y dollars to me. If you actually cared, you wouldn't drive at all.
- gridlockd 7y ago
  This is useless black-and-white thinking. If you really cared about not getting food poisoning, you would only eat sterilized food instead of following basic food preparation guidelines. If you really cared about not getting an STD, you wouldn't have sex at all instead of using a condom. If you really cared about the environment, you would be living as a forager in the woods instead of reducing your garbage footprint. And so on and so forth...

lutorm 7y ago

I seem to remember somewhere that insurance companies have been reluctant to factor the risk of injury to others into the liability premiums for cars. This was in the context of a discussion of the externalities when SUVs and trucks became popular. It's hard to separate driver inattention from the effect of having vehicles that are much more deadly these days, too. If you get hit by a sedan, it'll take out your legs and you'll get flung up on the sloping hood/windshield. If you're hit by a truck/SUV, on the other hand, the majority of your body will take the direct hit.

gridlockd 7y ago
It is my understanding that driving an SUV pushes up liability premiums, but this is offset by them being generally safer for the driver.

megaremote 7y ago

> Reducing the chance of having to live with the fact that I ran somebody over and seriously harmed or even killed them, that's indeed worth an extra y dollars to me. If you actually cared, you wouldn't drive at all.

gridlockd 7y ago
This is useless black-and-white thinking. If you really cared about not getting food poisoning, you would only eat sterilized food instead of following basic food preparation guidelines. If you really cared about not getting an STD, you wouldn't have sex at all instead of using a condom. If you really cared about the environment, you would be living as a forager in the woods instead of reducing your garbage footprint. And so on and so forth...