From: Brian Atkins (brian@posthuman.com)
Date: Sat Feb 08 2003 - 11:15:49 MST
Alfio Puglisi wrote:> On Fri, 7 Feb 2003, Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
>
>
>>>>That is part of what I was getting at when I said that micro cars
>>>>lead to a different style of driving. 'Aggressive' drivers won't
>>>>last long in a micro.
>>
>>>I guess here in Italy we are all going to die :-))
>>
>>Alfio makes a good point: the traffic fatality rate in Italy is
>>about 12 per 100,000; in the US it's about 15. So "safety" can't
>>be the primary explanation for the absence of micros from the US
>>market. Perceived safety, perhaps.
>
>
> In a mixed environment of SUVs and micros, big cars have a safety
> advantage, since they'll receive a relatively smaller amount of energy in
> a car-car collision, while the small car will have a much more difficult
> job.
> When almost all cars are of the same size, there are no safety advandages:
> bigger cars will take a lot of energy before crushing their occupants, but
> every collision will involve a bigger amount of energy.
>
Lee you ought to Google for a video file I saw once where Mercedes did a
head on crash of their A class (tiny little Euro thing) into their S
class. The A literally bounced off the S and ended up on its side as I
recall... mass matters. I wonder if it would make more sense to spend
money on a quite old used (but very heavy) vehicle vs. buying a new more
advanced but lighter one; which is worth more safety-wise in a
collision: modern safety design and airbags or simple mass?
-- Brian Atkins Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence http://www.singinst.org/
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