Innovation makes useful things smaller - overconsumption makes them bigger and more meaningless
Innovation makes useful things smaller - overconsumption makes them bigger and more meaningless
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Aren’t modern vehicles more fuel efficient though, despite being bigger? Imagine if we kept them the same size and still improved their efficiency.
Imagine if we kept them the same size and still improved their efficiency
Well, we did! In Europe.
Depends, many oversized SUVs here in Germany unfortunately.
Yes, but Europe also had plenty of small and efficient cars which are not exported to the US. And people love their BMW 3 Series still!
And I'm pretty sure the selection of compact BMWs has only grown in those years.
More fuel efficient in the sense that they use the same amount of fuel to move more weight around.
Want safety features in your car? That's the price to pay, it will be heavier than a tin can from the 80s.
Euh, no. Used to have a renault clio, which was a lot safer than a car from the 80's like, lets say, a vw beetle. Lighter too, as back then cars were mostly made of steel, while its a combination of steel, aluminium and plastic now.
Same size of car too, so size doesnt matter either.1990 Clio 930kg vs 2020 Clio 1090kg
1985 Polo 730kg vs 2020 Polo 1181kg vs 2020 Lupo 975kg (the Lupo is actually smaller)
1980s Corolla 940kg vs 2020 Corolla 1395kg
Need me to go on?
We make a 2 ton metal box, cruising at 70mph, and driven by basically anyone. The only way to do this while having a reasonable level of safety is to cram it full of features that make it heavy and expensive. This is fundamentally terrible.
People's needs for transportation will never cease to exist and there will always be some people that will need individual transportation so even in a world where only those who need a vehicle have one, I think it's only fair that they should be as safe as possible in it.
That's fine; there's always special accommodations needed. Can we stop making it the default?