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Now we have dozens of car seats designed by engineers and thoroughly crash-tested to create car seats that get thrown away (or are supposed to be) after any imp

Now we have dozens of car seats designed by engineers and thoroughly crash-tested to create car seats that get thrown away (or are supposed to be) after any impact event. Makes me feel like we are much richer than we used to be.

isk517 3y ago
It's definitely a rip off. I'm working on a new type of child car seat that I believe will take the market by storm. Guaranteed to be reusable after every crash. My plan to achieve this is by design the seat so that the force of the impact is funneled directly into the child, protecting the car seat from any damage.
syntaxing 3y ago
Same for helmets. It less so it’s purposely designed so people will keep buying them but more so that something has to absorb the impact so the kid doesn’t. Mechanical deformation turns out to be the most effective and safest but deformation is also a one way street hence why you need to change it after an impact. That being said, how often are you getting into accidents?!
blincoln 3y ago
Imagine how much more expensive a car seat designed to be fully reusable after a collision would be, then consider how often most people are involved in serious collisions. I'm in my 40s, and I've been a passenger in one collision that required a tow truck, something like 20 years ago. Most people I've talked to have similar experiences in terms of frequency of serious collisions. It's less expensive overall to do it this way.
ajford 3y ago
Yeah, that's because they're designed to absorb the damage into internal stress and deformation to dissipate the force of the crash. That force and momentum has to go somewhere and it's better to absorb it into the car seat and consider it a consumable than to transmit that force into the child it's meant to protect. The same thing applies for helmets. A motorcycle helmet is a consumable item and should be discarded after a crash as the internal foam structure will be deformed and could fail to properly absorb the impact forces in a subsequent crash.
midasuni 3y ago
Given how rare an impact event is that’s quite reasonable - I’ve had car seats for 11 years now, from rear facing carrier to just a small booster (Italy requires a child to be 150cm to travel without a car seat) I’ve disposed of them as the youngest child outgrows them, but they’ve never been in an impact.

isk517 3y ago

It's definitely a rip off. I'm working on a new type of child car seat that I believe will take the market by storm. Guaranteed to be reusable after every crash. My plan to achieve this is by design the seat so that the force of the impact is funneled directly into the child, protecting the car seat from any damage.

syntaxing 3y ago

Same for helmets. It less so it’s purposely designed so people will keep buying them but more so that something has to absorb the impact so the kid doesn’t. Mechanical deformation turns out to be the most effective and safest but deformation is also a one way street hence why you need to change it after an impact. That being said, how often are you getting into accidents?!

blincoln 3y ago

Imagine how much more expensive a car seat designed to be fully reusable after a collision would be, then consider how often most people are involved in serious collisions. I'm in my 40s, and I've been a passenger in one collision that required a tow truck, something like 20 years ago. Most people I've talked to have similar experiences in terms of frequency of serious collisions. It's less expensive overall to do it this way.

ajford 3y ago

Yeah, that's because they're designed to absorb the damage into internal stress and deformation to dissipate the force of the crash. That force and momentum has to go somewhere and it's better to absorb it into the car seat and consider it a consumable than to transmit that force into the child it's meant to protect. The same thing applies for helmets. A motorcycle helmet is a consumable item and should be discarded after a crash as the internal foam structure will be deformed and could fail to properly absorb the impact forces in a subsequent crash.

midasuni 3y ago

Given how rare an impact event is that’s quite reasonable - I’ve had car seats for 11 years now, from rear facing carrier to just a small booster (Italy requires a child to be 150cm to travel without a car seat) I’ve disposed of them as the youngest child outgrows them, but they’ve never been in an impact.