5 ms·

It makes sense if you consider that EuroNCAP cares about safety for everyone, not just the people inside the car. I also drive a car lacking all the auto assist

It makes sense if you consider that EuroNCAP cares about safety for everyone, not just the people inside the car. I also drive a car lacking all the auto assists common in new cars, I'm confident in my own skills and I have a nice track record of no crashes ever, but at any time, I'm just one distraction away from an incident. Cars with crash prevention features are much safer on the road, for its occupants and for everyone around them.

jorvi 5y ago
I wish there was some mechanism the EuroNCAP together with the EU could use to make SUVs semi-banned. I’ve heard so many people who buy those kinds of cars say “well at least if I get into a crash I will be okay since I have the bigger car”, which is a disgusting attitude since it implies that they expect the other car to be smaller and are okay with hurting that other person as long as they have an X% more chance to get through it with minor injuries only.
- philjohn 5y ago
  Not only that, since they're heavier a crash into a person at the same speed will be more devastating even ignoring the higher impact position. They are also more prone to roll, which dispenses with the "well I'm safer!", and have been shown to cause far more fatalities and life-changing injuries when involved in multi-car pile ups. That's before we even get to the ecological cost (initial construction and then keeping it running), European infrastructure that wasn't designed for cars of that size etc. etc. etc.
  - bscphil 5y ago
    Is any car small enough that the ratio of car-weight to human-weight becomes low enough to protect a human in the event of a crash? By the time a human body has managed to significantly change the momentum of the car, I would expect the damage to be done. The real question, I would think, is whether a larger car takes longer to brake to a stop than a smaller car, or do the quality of the brakes go up linearly with the weight of the car.
    - vvillena 5y ago
      At standard speeds, braking is traction-limited: brakes have enough power to block the wheels. Usually, heavier cars also have wider tires and are still traction-limited when braking, and usually braking distances are about the same. SUVs make lots of tradeoffs, but stopping power isn't usually one of them.
      - bestouff 5y ago
        On slippery roads these bigger tires don't work at all.
        oaktrout 5y ago
        Do smaller tires work on slippery roads?
        bestouff 5y ago
        On snowy or wet roads, way better yea.
- vvillena 5y ago
  IIRC EuroNCAP already evaluates how a car behaves as a "crash partner", but I don't know how much (if any) this affects the final rating.
- perl4ever 5y ago
  I don't understand this common sentiment people express online. You (and others who echo you) are absolutely entitled to your opinion. The source of the emotion is mysterious to me though. Modern SUVs seem to be hatchbacks with very subtle styling differences and (checking the first example that comes to mind) something like 3.6 inches more ground clearance and 250 lbs additional weight. That is the difference between a Subaru CrossTrek and a Subaru Impreza. Of course there are much bigger SUVs, but I'd think they're substituting for minivans which also are massive. When I read something expressing visceral anger over huge SUVs, I imagine maybe they are a time traveler from decades ago, when an SUV was invariably a body-on-frame "light truck" that could be used for snowplowing. For many years, I would see people sneering at Americans for not buying hatchbacks. Then Americans switched to crossovers that are really hatchbacks that are styled slightly differently. And apparently Europeans have followed suit. It's uncharitable of me, but I wonder if the real source of bile for some people is an instinctive hatred for any trend that follows the US, rather than Europe leading the way. I have been hit by an SUV while driving a regular car, by the way, and indeed they sustained a lot less damage than I did. However, nobody was injured, so "being ok" is not necessarily about "hurting people".

jorvi 5y ago

I wish there was some mechanism the EuroNCAP together with the EU could use to make SUVs semi-banned. I’ve heard so many people who buy those kinds of cars say “well at least if I get into a crash I will be okay since I have the bigger car”, which is a disgusting attitude since it implies that they expect the other car to be smaller and are okay with hurting that other person as long as they have an X% more chance to get through it with minor injuries only.

philjohn 5y ago
Not only that, since they're heavier a crash into a person at the same speed will be more devastating even ignoring the higher impact position. They are also more prone to roll, which dispenses with the "well I'm safer!", and have been shown to cause far more fatalities and life-changing injuries when involved in multi-car pile ups. That's before we even get to the ecological cost (initial construction and then keeping it running), European infrastructure that wasn't designed for cars of that size etc. etc. etc.
- bscphil 5y ago
  Is any car small enough that the ratio of car-weight to human-weight becomes low enough to protect a human in the event of a crash? By the time a human body has managed to significantly change the momentum of the car, I would expect the damage to be done. The real question, I would think, is whether a larger car takes longer to brake to a stop than a smaller car, or do the quality of the brakes go up linearly with the weight of the car.
  - vvillena 5y ago
    At standard speeds, braking is traction-limited: brakes have enough power to block the wheels. Usually, heavier cars also have wider tires and are still traction-limited when braking, and usually braking distances are about the same. SUVs make lots of tradeoffs, but stopping power isn't usually one of them.
    - bestouff 5y ago
      On slippery roads these bigger tires don't work at all.
      - oaktrout 5y ago
        Do smaller tires work on slippery roads?
        bestouff 5y ago
        On snowy or wet roads, way better yea.
vvillena 5y ago
IIRC EuroNCAP already evaluates how a car behaves as a "crash partner", but I don't know how much (if any) this affects the final rating.
perl4ever 5y ago
I don't understand this common sentiment people express online. You (and others who echo you) are absolutely entitled to your opinion. The source of the emotion is mysterious to me though. Modern SUVs seem to be hatchbacks with very subtle styling differences and (checking the first example that comes to mind) something like 3.6 inches more ground clearance and 250 lbs additional weight. That is the difference between a Subaru CrossTrek and a Subaru Impreza. Of course there are much bigger SUVs, but I'd think they're substituting for minivans which also are massive. When I read something expressing visceral anger over huge SUVs, I imagine maybe they are a time traveler from decades ago, when an SUV was invariably a body-on-frame "light truck" that could be used for snowplowing. For many years, I would see people sneering at Americans for not buying hatchbacks. Then Americans switched to crossovers that are really hatchbacks that are styled slightly differently. And apparently Europeans have followed suit. It's uncharitable of me, but I wonder if the real source of bile for some people is an instinctive hatred for any trend that follows the US, rather than Europe leading the way. I have been hit by an SUV while driving a regular car, by the way, and indeed they sustained a lot less damage than I did. However, nobody was injured, so "being ok" is not necessarily about "hurting people".