Safer cars might not be all that much safer
I know, that’s crazy, right? Look at all the safety items cars have gotten over the years. CHMSL’s, ABS brakes, stability control, parking assist cameras, collapsible steering columns, padded dashboards—we’ve come a long way, baby!
Or have we?
Vanderbilt writes “…in an oft-repeated pattern with safety devices from seat belts to air bags, the actual drop in fatalities did not live up to the early hopes.” He goes on to reference a study done of German taxi drivers that demonstrated that drivers in ABS-equipped cars drove faster and closer to other cars than those without and were more likely to be rear-ended.
He then introduces the reader to the Peltzman effect, which effectively suggests that drivers adjust their habits in response to perceived levels of risk. Ipso facto, a car loaded with all the latest safety features might just tempt drivers to ratchet up their driving aggression—just like the German cabbies.
The CHMSL (third brake light) is a good example and one Vanderbilt covers in the book. The third brake light has shown a long-term crash reduction rate of around 4.3%. Now, as we all know, this doesn’t add a ton of cost to a vehicle, so the benefits stack up nicely against the costs. But many drivers—self included—have adjusted consciously and unconsciously to that advancement, so a lot of the potential benefit is erased.
You’ve probably seen similar parallels with the rise of ADAS, which is often offset by how much cell phone use occurs. Tesla’s Autopilot has a similar hangup—what should be a really beneficial second set of “eyes” on the road is mitigated when a driver jumps in the passenger seat and works on his laptop on the morning commute. Increased safety, Vanderbilt argues, is offset by users. So it’s important we fix these pieces of safety equipment because people get used to having them. We’re literally helping keep our customers alive.
Ultimately, this was a good read, albeit a bit dry. Everyone with a car deals with traffic, but those of us who repair them have a little different take on the situation. If this article wasn’t mind-numbingly boring to you, it might be worth picking up the book and making some time to read it because there are other eye-opening nuggets of information in there that aren’t strictly repair-related, but automotive-adjacent and thus still worth reading.