On Nov 12, 2008, at 11:20 AM, Jed Rothwell wrote:
Horace Heffner wrote:
[snip]
. . . (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.
Oh! The above statement (2) above should say: "(2) reducing safety
standards for A SPECIAL CLASS OF EVs, allowing personal choice to
assume risk at least up to that presented by motor cycles,".
Yes, I certainly agree with you Jed that it is desirable to have
production EVs and PHEVs with the same standards as regular
vehicles. In the present economic and world circumstances I think it
is also important to give the consumer the option to forego those
high safety standards to buy a comparatively safe light 4 wheel
vehicle instead of going to a motorcycle. A special class of
vehicles could provide that choice without compromising the image of
ordinary vehicles.
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
