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I am glad the article mentions CAFE standards. Government CAFE regulations are the primary reason vehicles like Trucks and SUVs have gotten so much larger in re
by vlucas 3y ago
I am glad the article mentions CAFE standards. Government CAFE regulations are the primary reason vehicles like Trucks and SUVs have gotten so much larger in recent years, and almost no one talks about it when these conversations come up.
Simply put, CAFE standards were modified to include a vehicle "footprint" measured in square feet in addition to vehicle weight. The larger the footprint, the lower the fuel efficiency standards for the vehicle. The intent was to give a break to heavy work trucks that needed more powerful engines, while still forcing passenger cars to be more efficient. The unintended consequence was that automakers now had a loophole to sidestep stricter emissions standards: just make the vehicle larger and heavier.
This is a good article on the subject, with graphs on the CAFE fuel efficiency target curves in it (scroll down a bit to see them):
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1111946_for-pickup-trucks-more-than-half-all-fuel-savings-come-in-2022-2025-cafe-rules https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1111946_for-pickup-truc...
- jamestimmins 3y agoIt seems like regulations are constantly shifting incentives in both obvious and non-obvious ways that create unintended consequences, and I wonder if this is a promising area for AI/LLM research. Take a few AI agents, let them each be an archetypical player impacted by regulations (automakers, car buyers, etc), and then have them simulate a market and interactions to see what behaviors arise over time.
- branperr 3y agoI believe this is related https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_problem?wprov=sfti1# https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_proble...
- jamestimmins 3y agoDoes it though? It seems like the Principal Agent problem arises when they're theoretically supposed to act on behalf of each other, but in reality they have their own incentives that undermine that effort. With legislation, the two parties are inherently in opposition, almost by design.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Justsignedup 3y agoI think they did the right thing with CAFE but they forgot one critical aspect. Licenses. In order to qualify for the lower emission standards, your car must have commercial plates with appropriate commercial license requirements. This will solve all problems immediately. Work trucks can effectively be affected independently from residential trucks. (I also think the 0-60 of a car should require specialized licenses. Like anything under 8 seconds should require a license that a rich 16yo can't just get just because) In any case, thats my thoughts.