On Nov 12, 2008, at 11:20 AM, Jed Rothwell wrote:
Horace Heffner wrote:
. . . (2) reducing safety standards for EVs, allowing personal
choice to assume risk at least up to that presented by motor
cycles . . .
BAD IDEA!!! Red Alert! Completely unnecessary and
counterproductive. People will get the mistaken idea that EVs are
inherently unsafe. As I wrote the other day:
"New technology is usually judged more harshly than existing
technology. We expect much higher levels of safety and reliability
from airplanes and automated people-mover trains than we do from
automobiles. When new technology fails at first it often develops
an unwarranted bad reputation, and it never recovers."
EV with present day safety standards will save huge amounts of
energy, especially gasoline. That's good enough.
[snip]
- Jed
The majority of people can't or won't afford a $40,000 EV. Some
great designers are forced to 3 wheel designs in order to fall under
motorcycle rules. India will be, or are, way ahead of us in vehicle
cost and energy conservation simply because their safety standards
are lower. Meanwhile some people here, especially women, are
switching to motor scooters which are way less safe than even
motorcycles. There should be a special class of lightweight 4 wheel
vehicle that is treated like a motorcycle. Perhaps limiting this
class to single passenger vehicle designs would be OK to prevent
children passengers. I think 4 wheel vehicles are much safer than 2
or 3 wheel designs in inclement weather. This would be a move toward
safety, not away from it. Those wanting higher levels of safety can
spend the $30,00 - $40,000 necessary. Those of us willing to take
some risk to drop our gas consumption by 60% or more should be
allowed to, especially since for many of us it means going to a 2
wheeled vehicle.
The auto industry is in the tank anyway. Now is the time to put a
low cost high production high milage option into the market place as
quickly as possible.
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
