charliejane,
@charliejane@wandering.shop avatar

"The story of car bloat—the continually expanding size of the typical American automobile—is one of carmaker profit, shifting consumer preferences, and loophole-riddled auto regulations. It is also a story of hidden costs: to the planet, to taxpayers, and to the American families whose lives have been shattered by a crash that could have been avoided, or at least mitigated, with a smaller vehicle."

https://slate.com/business/2023/12/cars-trucks-suv-sales-electric-safety-risk.html

kkarhan,
@kkarhan@mstdn.social avatar

@charliejane all the "" exemptions the allows should be scrapped - period.

Also the fact that the doesn't do testing unlike is becond me!

Cuz a lot of the shite done in the is literally banned in the for being dangerous to other traffic participants like pedestrians, cyclists, bikers and smaller/lighter vehicles...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN7mSXMruEo

katrinakatrinka,

@charliejane
"Because the full societal costs of crashes, pollution, and road repairs are not borne by owners of SUVs and trucks, every American is effectively subsidizing car bloat. Even if they drive a sedan. Even if they don’t own a car at all."

A lot of good arguments in this. We really need to shift away from cars to so many trains and busses that we can make them frequent, cheap, and convenient.

jeffc,
@jeffc@mastodon.online avatar

@charliejane
Maybe the advertised sales price of every new car needs to include the first 10K miles of fuel and liability insurance. At least that way people would price them in.

pyperkub,
@pyperkub@mastodon.social avatar

@charliejane this article is being extremely disingenuous. The top reason for the increases in curb weight is Safety features, which is not mentored at all in this piece. The rest does apply, but leaving that out days something about the author... https://www.jdpower.com/cars/shopping-guides/why-are-modern-cars-so-heavy

eyrea,
@eyrea@mstdn.ca avatar

@pyperkub @charliejane Except those safety features don't make the things that safe: https://www.autoweek.com/news/technology/a43299041/2023-passenger-suv-safety-ratings-from-iihs/

That's for passengers. As the Slate article states, people outside the vehicle are much less safe as well.

The reason why SUVs need all those weighty safety features is because they're a terrible design in the first place.

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