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Offtop: Cars are pretty sad topic It is sad how many good safety and driving easiness features modern cars have, yet majority of people do not have access to

Offtop: Cars are pretty sad topic It is sad how many good safety and driving easiness features modern cars have, yet majority of people do not have access to them due to price It is also crazy how unreliable cars actually are. 20 years old car means some surprise every 3rd or 4th drive

sfpotter 3y ago
Much sadder: the car is the only the transportation option many people have in the majority of places in the US. The best way to reduce the number of car accidents is to reduce the number of cars by providing other options.
pantulis 3y ago
> It is also crazy how unreliable cars actually are. 20 years old car means some surprise every 3rd or 4th drive Not so sure about that, petrol engines and cars matured a lot in the last decades. I'm driving a 2004 Ford Focus and it is still going strong, with no "surprises", which, granted, I remember having every drive in 1996 with a 1981 Renault 14. I would considering changing this old car for environmental impact, in-car entertainment or driving safety measures, but not for the reliability of it.
- bryanlarsen 3y ago
  Yes, I think hardware2win has it backwards. Old vehicles are very reliable, so there are lots of them on the road that are missing safety features like automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection.
  - hardware2win 3y ago
    Hmm I wasnt referring to e.g just engine Ive been talking about electronics too. It feels like there is constant need to fix something. This shit is so annoying. >Old vehicles are very reliable Ive never witnessed a technology as unreliable as cars are. Especially that is relatively expensive piece of tech.
    - bryanlarsen 3y ago
      This is an example of "normalization of excellence". A modern car has several thousand moving parts, high temperatures, high pressures, an oxidizing environment, and is subjected to potholes and wide temperature swings. That it is expected to survive 200K miles is a miracle. Before the model T, a car that would last 20K miles was a considered a reliable car. The model T pushed those expectations up to 50K. Post-war expectations increased to 100K and the Japanese pushed expectations this millenia to 200K. At the same time that lifetimes went up, maintenance went down. You used to have to regularly inspect tune and replace stuff like timing chains, spark plugs and seals. A couple of comparisons: a computer fan has an expected lifetime of 10 years, and it's way simpler than a car. A fighter jet needs 16 hours of maintenance for every 1 in the sky.
dghughes 3y ago
Cars from the 2000s are like spaceships they are so much more advanced in all areas compared to what I had to drive in the 1980s or even 1990s. At least cars from the USA were foreign cars; Toyota, Honda, Volvo, BMW tended to be better in quality and safety.

sfpotter 3y ago

Much sadder: the car is the only the transportation option many people have in the majority of places in the US. The best way to reduce the number of car accidents is to reduce the number of cars by providing other options.

pantulis 3y ago

> It is also crazy how unreliable cars actually are. 20 years old car means some surprise every 3rd or 4th drive Not so sure about that, petrol engines and cars matured a lot in the last decades. I'm driving a 2004 Ford Focus and it is still going strong, with no "surprises", which, granted, I remember having every drive in 1996 with a 1981 Renault 14. I would considering changing this old car for environmental impact, in-car entertainment or driving safety measures, but not for the reliability of it.

bryanlarsen 3y ago
Yes, I think hardware2win has it backwards. Old vehicles are very reliable, so there are lots of them on the road that are missing safety features like automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection.
- hardware2win 3y ago
  Hmm I wasnt referring to e.g just engine Ive been talking about electronics too. It feels like there is constant need to fix something. This shit is so annoying. >Old vehicles are very reliable Ive never witnessed a technology as unreliable as cars are. Especially that is relatively expensive piece of tech.
  - bryanlarsen 3y ago
    This is an example of "normalization of excellence". A modern car has several thousand moving parts, high temperatures, high pressures, an oxidizing environment, and is subjected to potholes and wide temperature swings. That it is expected to survive 200K miles is a miracle. Before the model T, a car that would last 20K miles was a considered a reliable car. The model T pushed those expectations up to 50K. Post-war expectations increased to 100K and the Japanese pushed expectations this millenia to 200K. At the same time that lifetimes went up, maintenance went down. You used to have to regularly inspect tune and replace stuff like timing chains, spark plugs and seals. A couple of comparisons: a computer fan has an expected lifetime of 10 years, and it's way simpler than a car. A fighter jet needs 16 hours of maintenance for every 1 in the sky.

dghughes 3y ago

Cars from the 2000s are like spaceships they are so much more advanced in all areas compared to what I had to drive in the 1980s or even 1990s. At least cars from the USA were foreign cars; Toyota, Honda, Volvo, BMW tended to be better in quality and safety.