I actually agree with most of this (have had the same experience with automatic braking). You know what the most underrated feature on a car I have ever driven was? A lot of Fords (I had a 2014 Mustang) came with the little wide-angle mirrors (akin to, but much better than, the stick on ones you can get at AutoZone)…

Classic excuse to not do anything. “Oh this won’t fix all the problems, so let’s not fix this one problem.”

There were people who said this about seatbelts/airbags/ABS when they were mandated. There are people who say this about manuals now (we all know they will be gone someday).

Ok good. I see people on here rail on backup cameras as being a nanny device. Those people are not serious adults and I treat them accordingly. Glad you aren’t one.

You don’t like any safety features? What about backup cameras? Please think about this answer thoroughly before replying. (Hint: the reason they mandate them is to specifically prevent children from dying).

Articles like this should cite the economic costs associated with accidents.

I don’t know man...

Clearly it wouldn’t have to be every car. You just make old-enough cars exempt. No different than seat belt laws. We mandated cars have seat belts, and then much later we mandated (in many states) that you have to wear your seatbelt while driving.

I completely understand your point and even thought of that. So I should have been more precise. This would be the long term way of doing it...once every car had the technology.

The speed limits in my residential area seem fine. So just fix the speed limits on your roads. Agree about the highway though. You would need to probably bump those up a little.

I think we should try this. Something has to be done. If it sucks for whatever reason, just scrap the idea.

There is a lot to be critical of with respect to this country (the US), but we can still do some cool shit. Yeah, you can complain that instead of flying helicopters on Mars, we should be doing xyz, and you might be right (that’s a much longer discussion) but this is still impressive. Kudos to the scientists/engineers…

Not a forgettable car, as it was good for what it cost, but I walked past my Scion Tc once. Living in Boston, the car was street parked, and I walked to where I though I parked it. When it wasn’t there, I turned to walk back home assuming it had been towed* (as had happened before...another story...the karma gods got…

Dinosaur here (despite only being 42). I know videos are the preeminent form of media nowadays, but I prefer the written word (with pics of course). Yeah I know, excuses are like assholes, right? Weird that in my daily reading of various new outlets (automotive and regular) that I have rarely seen such articles. I…

Whoa...what’s with the name calling? I thought we were having a good discussion and you completely devolved it. Sorry I asked some questions. All my statements/question where about the crux of what we were discussing. At no point did I ever malign you whatsoever. And now you call me ‘lazy’, a ‘fucking saint’…

1+ 4. You seem to be having it both ways. You want the government to regulate housing but not regulate Chinese car imports?

Not sure I am that cynical (close, but not quite), though I agree with everything besides your first two sentences. I think it’s still our own collective fault and that the biggest problem is the lack of an informed/engaged electorate. What I mean by ‘informed’ would probably be like a 5 page essay. Bottom line is we…

Are they? Is data available? Who took said data? 

Citizens United was a disaster. Gerrymandering is also a disaster. But at then end of the day we still elect our officials. And we elected the officials who allowed Citizens United/Gerrymandering to happen. So at the end of the day we have only ourselves to blame.

So this is where government can step in. Markets are not perfect. Things like environmental destruction, bad/atrocious labor practices, non-competitive government funding are not baked into the price of the product. So the government regulates.