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The proper answer, if you want more fuel efficient vehicles, is to simply raise the gas tax and allow every company's engineering teams decide what to build, an
by simonsarris 4y ago
The proper answer, if you want more fuel efficient vehicles, is to simply raise the gas tax and allow every company's engineering teams decide what to build, and every consumer to decide what they want. This keeps domain expertise where it belongs while achieving the stated goals, and does not strictly reduce choice. If engineers could not figure out more efficient designs, and customers wanted more efficient vehicles, they could simply make smaller trucks to sell.
Instead they demanded companies engineer vehicles to conform to weird mpg/area curves that accidently skew towards "huge." It was in effect backseat engineering.
- tablespoon 4y ago> The proper answer, if you want more fuel efficient vehicles, is to simply raise the gas tax and allow every company's engineering teams decide what to build, and every consumer to decide what they want. But that's bad politics. Voters don't like paying more for gas, and if you make it expensive enough to drive engineering changes, you make yourself open to attack on that issue. Also, making gas more expensive would have a lot of perhaps bad follow-on effects (e.g. getting people laid off/lowering growth because you made many industrial/commercial activities more expensive). > Instead they demanded companies engineer vehicles to conform to weird mpg/area curves that accidently skew towards "huge." It was in effect backseat engineering. But that's good politics. You're saying "make things better."
- wiseleo 4y agoThat would have a devastating impact on existing vehicles, which just happen to be owned by voters. Consumers already decide what they want, if they can afford to. Many are locked into financing agreements for vehicles they can't afford.