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As a Western European, it's crazy to me that the public transportation and road systems are so fucked up in the US that 1) Kids need a car to go college 2) Wh

by shafyy 3y ago

As a Western European, it's crazy to me that the public transportation and road systems are so fucked up in the US that 1) Kids need a car to go college 2) When buying a car, an important criteria is how heavy it is so that if it's in crash, hopefully the other person dies and not you. Of course, no matter what will happen to cyclists or pedestrian when hit by your fuck ton killing machine

pclmulqdq 3y ago
Weight of the car is not as big of a factor as people think. Per the IIHS, the size of crumple zones actually may have more impact than the weight: https://www.iihs.org/topics/vehicle-size-and-weight https://www.iihs.org/topics/vehicle-size-and-weight That might suggest that a car like a Tesla which is very heavy but can't crush very much thanks to the battery has an unclear safety benefit, but a truck does. Realistically, practically nobody is going to get into a fatal crash anyway, though, so if you honestly attempt to price the difference in safety, you may come out to a few dollars. Certainly not enough to justify buying an SUV over a civic.
- nytesky 3y ago
  Literally the first line: A bigger, heavier vehicle provides better crash protection than a smaller, lighter one, assuming no other differences between them Sure we want a car with crumble zones and airbags, but physics really comes into play: when a car weighs 3x as much as yours, in a collision you will be suddenly accelerating backwards. Brain injury at the very least is highly possible. A Tesla X weighs as much as a Chevy Tahoe - and while large SUVs are fairly common they usually smaller like highlanders and the like. It’s fine to price the probability low, but when you are dealing with extremely high consequences to your children, it’s hard to have a dispassionate view of the probabilities.
- shafyy 3y ago
  Be that as it may, looking at the comments here, this is clearly not how people make purchasing decisions.
tzs 3y ago
A Honda Civic is 2900-3100 lbs. A Honda CR-V is 3500-3600 lbs. That weight difference will not make much difference in a collision with a cyclist or pedestrian. Even if they went with something heavier like a Tesla Model 3 (3900-4000 lbs) or a Tesla Model Y (4200-4400 lbs) or a Ford F-150 (4700 lbs) it would still not make much difference. Yes, at a given speed a heavier vehicle will have more momentum and more kinetic energy than a lighter vehicle of the same shape, but momentum and kinetic energy aren't as directly correlated with how much a collision hurts a pedestrian as many here seem to think they are. Once the vehicle is sufficiently more massive than the pedestrian that the collision causes very little change in the vehicle velocity a heavier vehicle at the same velocity is not really going to hurt the pedestrian more in the collision itself. E.g., a large freight train hitting you at a slow walking pace is not going to be worse than a small car hitting you at the same speed, even though the train has way more momentum and kinetic energy. Speed that car up to highway speed and then it will greatly injure you even though it still will have much less momentum and kinetic energy than the slow train. Much more important is the shape of the vehicle. Besides affecting what injuries are incurred from the collision itself it can affect what happens after. A shape that knocks the pedestrian away is probably safer than one that tends to draw the pedestrian to under the car where they get run over.

by shafyy 3y ago

pclmulqdq 3y ago

Weight of the car is not as big of a factor as people think. Per the IIHS, the size of crumple zones actually may have more impact than the weight: https://www.iihs.org/topics/vehicle-size-and-weight https://www.iihs.org/topics/vehicle-size-and-weight That might suggest that a car like a Tesla which is very heavy but can't crush very much thanks to the battery has an unclear safety benefit, but a truck does. Realistically, practically nobody is going to get into a fatal crash anyway, though, so if you honestly attempt to price the difference in safety, you may come out to a few dollars. Certainly not enough to justify buying an SUV over a civic.

nytesky 3y ago
Literally the first line: A bigger, heavier vehicle provides better crash protection than a smaller, lighter one, assuming no other differences between them Sure we want a car with crumble zones and airbags, but physics really comes into play: when a car weighs 3x as much as yours, in a collision you will be suddenly accelerating backwards. Brain injury at the very least is highly possible. A Tesla X weighs as much as a Chevy Tahoe - and while large SUVs are fairly common they usually smaller like highlanders and the like. It’s fine to price the probability low, but when you are dealing with extremely high consequences to your children, it’s hard to have a dispassionate view of the probabilities.
shafyy 3y ago
Be that as it may, looking at the comments here, this is clearly not how people make purchasing decisions.

tzs 3y ago

A Honda Civic is 2900-3100 lbs. A Honda CR-V is 3500-3600 lbs. That weight difference will not make much difference in a collision with a cyclist or pedestrian. Even if they went with something heavier like a Tesla Model 3 (3900-4000 lbs) or a Tesla Model Y (4200-4400 lbs) or a Ford F-150 (4700 lbs) it would still not make much difference. Yes, at a given speed a heavier vehicle will have more momentum and more kinetic energy than a lighter vehicle of the same shape, but momentum and kinetic energy aren't as directly correlated with how much a collision hurts a pedestrian as many here seem to think they are. Once the vehicle is sufficiently more massive than the pedestrian that the collision causes very little change in the vehicle velocity a heavier vehicle at the same velocity is not really going to hurt the pedestrian more in the collision itself. E.g., a large freight train hitting you at a slow walking pace is not going to be worse than a small car hitting you at the same speed, even though the train has way more momentum and kinetic energy. Speed that car up to highway speed and then it will greatly injure you even though it still will have much less momentum and kinetic energy than the slow train. Much more important is the shape of the vehicle. Besides affecting what injuries are incurred from the collision itself it can affect what happens after. A shape that knocks the pedestrian away is probably safer than one that tends to draw the pedestrian to under the car where they get run over.