It doesn't matter how safe you make a car if you don't wear your seatbelt. I personally know several people who have been killed over the last 3 years in low speed crashes because they weren't wearing their seatbelts. Almost every single day locally someone is killed in a completely survivable crash because they weren't wearing a seatbelt.


There are many situations one has to consider. If I drive off in my car and the fob battery dies or the fob malfunctions, when does the car turn off? Does it wait until I'm stopped. Does it wait until I turn off the car? Does it wait until the car in in park? What if I drive a manual transmission? How would it know when to turn off? It's different between all manufactures now.


My 6 speed manual Challenger will let me drive it without the fob. The display will say fob not detected and chime but it's still drivable. If I turn it off or it stalls, I'm stuck until I have the fob in the car again. The auto trans won't let you take it out of park without the fob.


I love the keyless enter 'n go in my Challenger. I've never once forgotten to turn it off. I have, however, left my vehicles that require a key in the ignition running and walked off a few times. Once, I even locked the doors and didn't realize until I felt my pocket for my keys and they weren't there. Another, I had jump started my lawn mower and left my car running for a couple hours while I mowed a couple acres.


A quick search shows that 150 people dies each year from accidental CO poisoning from leaving their car running in their garage and this is almost all cars with keyed ignitions. I found several from the late 90s and 2000 where people died specifically because they parked their keyed ignition vehicles in their garage and forgot to turn off the car. This lawsuit should be dismissed immediately.

 

No, it's not just about profit. It's about asking the question, "How far do regulations have to go to anticipate the stupidity of the lowest common denominator?" As Jesse Ventura said, "You can't legislate against stupidity."

Do we really need warning labels on coffee cups that say, "Caution: Hot"?

Case in point: The Audi sudden acceleration BS of the 80s resulted in a mandate of having a shift/brake interlock in all vehicles. Never mind that it was likely caused by Audi's slightly-skewed pedal placement. The government comes along and implements a mandate. End of discussion.

Well, my mother had my '06 300C two weeks ago when the brake interlock piece decided to break. The car was immobilized. Cost of a tow and the repair, and we're out $300 because of some stupid little plastic piece mandated by some bureaucrat.

Oh, and BTW, airbags have KILLED people in otherwise non-serious crashes. HUNDREDS of people have been killed by airbags, including children and babies. What is the cost of those lives? Ever seen a picture of a baby hit by an airbag? I've been in two crashes where the airbags deployed. It's not fun. If I had my way, I'd disable them in every vehicle I own.

According to THIS, the count is 284 through 2007. Great track record for an alleged safety device, eh? All because some idiot bureaucrats implemented a mandate for higher-force airbags than the original M-B design. And my wife is in the demographic (short people - 5' 2" and under) who are likely to be killed by airbags. That's why every car we own has adjustable pedals, to keep her as far away from the steering column as possible.

 

And now to make matters worse, one of the supplier's bags throw shrapnel at you.

 

Interesting. What's the % of lives lost vs. lives saved with airbags?

What if all cars had autopilot? If computers drove them, and (let's go hypothetical here) they never crashed again...

What's that worth?


The problem is proving it's safer. Even one 'computer car driven' death means people will hate them, even if, they are 90% safer than humans driving... so if only 1,000 people a year die with self driving cars vs. 5,000 of human driven cars... is that going to happen?

As for my fob, it's only required to turn the car 'on'. (which it does by your butt in the seat, there is no 'on' button). You can then toss the fob out the window, but if you ever put it in park, you'd be stuck. (until you open the app on your phone and hit 'drive').

When leaving my car, I don't have to 'lock' it (or unlock it), so I'm now constantly walking away from other cars I drive... and not locking the doors! EEEPP!

 

We have the technology, right now, to eliminate most or all of the 35,000 deaths annually in car crashes. Only problem is money. So once again, it's lives vs money.

Every time someone says, "If we save just one life, it's worth it", I have to fight off the urge to disembowel them and throttle them with their own intestines.

 

The new mantra is to promote and protect the minority or weakest link even at everyone else's expense...

And as soon as everyone embraces and understands this, we will also be able to send our soldiers out into the battle fields without weapons, but with a really good grasp of psychology and they will talk sense into the enemy....