/nods.But it was never really consumers who incentivized safety R&D, it was the government. (ETA: As knb pointed out, the previous sentence is obviously completely false.) If there is a relatively easy and beneficially-propagandistic engineering hack that saves many teenage lives per year, why wouldn’t governments simply grab it? It seems to me that engineering difficulties are a more parsimonious explanation for the mirage of low-hanging fruit.
ETA: Whoever downvoted this, you’re abusing the karma system. Meta: ISTM that karma voting patterns are getting increasingly more ridiculous over time. We might want to think about how to objectively measure this. We might want to think about what it signifies. We might also want to start thinking about how to counteract it if need be.
But it was never really consumers who incentivized safety R&D
This is just wrong. Pretty much every new safety feature which required R&D was introduced on luxury/high end cars on a voluntary basis, as a selling point for the business. Examples off the top of my head, are driver’s side airbags, passenger side airbags, airbags that protect the knees, anti-lock brakes, and laminated glass. Usually the governments eventually mandate inclusion on cheap cars, too.
You’re right, I used the wrong sentence entirely, I’m not really sure where it came from, though I remember I was thinking about seatbelt laws when I was writing it, and I was thinking about that ’cuz Zed brought up risk homeostasis… that’s weird, that’s the second time my brain has automatically generated a completely false rationalization out of nowhere in the past month when I was extremely tired. That is effing annoying.
Actually seat belts do qualify. Ford offered seat belts as options in 1955 and they became standard on new Saabs 3 years later. Seatbelts did not become mandatory anywhere in the world until the 1970s.
I would conclude instead that the seemingly low-hanging fruit is not low-hanging.
Every time you make something that is perceived as a wild innovation you’re betting the entire brand of your company on that innovation. The public is completely unforgiving when car manufacturers mess up and the industry compensates accordingly.
Government could enforce it, but which elected official is going to put his weight behind it? There’s nothing to be gained and everything to be lost.
/nods.But it was never really consumers who incentivized safety R&D, it was the government. (ETA: As knb pointed out, the previous sentence is obviously completely false.) If there is a relatively easy and beneficially-propagandistic engineering hack that saves many teenage lives per year, why wouldn’t governments simply grab it? It seems to me that engineering difficulties are a more parsimonious explanation for the mirage of low-hanging fruit.
ETA: Whoever downvoted this, you’re abusing the karma system. Meta: ISTM that karma voting patterns are getting increasingly more ridiculous over time. We might want to think about how to objectively measure this. We might want to think about what it signifies. We might also want to start thinking about how to counteract it if need be.
This is just wrong. Pretty much every new safety feature which required R&D was introduced on luxury/high end cars on a voluntary basis, as a selling point for the business. Examples off the top of my head, are driver’s side airbags, passenger side airbags, airbags that protect the knees, anti-lock brakes, and laminated glass. Usually the governments eventually mandate inclusion on cheap cars, too.
You’re right, I used the wrong sentence entirely, I’m not really sure where it came from, though I remember I was thinking about seatbelt laws when I was writing it, and I was thinking about that ’cuz Zed brought up risk homeostasis… that’s weird, that’s the second time my brain has automatically generated a completely false rationalization out of nowhere in the past month when I was extremely tired. That is effing annoying.
Not seat belts, though.
Actually seat belts do qualify. Ford offered seat belts as options in 1955 and they became standard on new Saabs 3 years later. Seatbelts did not become mandatory anywhere in the world until the 1970s.
On luxury cars first?
I would conclude instead that the seemingly low-hanging fruit is not low-hanging.
Every time you make something that is perceived as a wild innovation you’re betting the entire brand of your company on that innovation. The public is completely unforgiving when car manufacturers mess up and the industry compensates accordingly.
Government could enforce it, but which elected official is going to put his weight behind it? There’s nothing to be gained and everything to be lost.