Date:         Thu, 17 Sep 1998 17:22:58 -0400
Reply-To:     Don Gibbons <dgibbons@PRESRAY.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Don Gibbons <dgibbons@PRESRAY.COM>
Subject:      Safety and cost
Comments: To: vanagon@vanagon.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Lots of talk today on DRL's and air bags and other safety features on our VW's.

DRL's are not free. They cost energy to run. Someday the God of Thermodynamics
will come down and say: "Thou shalt not use more energy then you find" We live
on a finite and slightly damp hunk of rock. When the oil runs out what will we
do?  Instead of just the knee-jerk reaction that if its "safer its better" at
any cost, they (we) should consider a more long term solution like driver
education.

Air bags are, at the moment, very complicated. Do race cars use them? Do our
most advanced aircraft use them? No and no. They depend on a harness system that
is almost utterly failproof. As long as its put on properly it works. A few
seconds of a racers or fighter pilots time saves thousands of $ and works better
then air bags. We don't have them in cars because we are too lazy to use them
and don't want to be reminded how dangerious cars are. The general public
"wants" an invisible and automatic safety system and the automakers have
provided them with an expensive system that is not appropriate for mass everday
use in cars. How many drivers will stop driving their cars because the airbag
failure light is on and it will take $1,500 to fix?

The old Beetle (or bus) had 2 electric motors, one for the starter and one for
the wipers.
The new Beetle has at least 8 and as many as 13. Probably more. And airbags.
They (we) have forgotten that all these gagets not only cost money to buy but
also consumes irreplacable natural resourses to make. And recycling has not yet
become effective enough to fix it.

The now common safety cage and deformable safety zone construction cost little
in materials or energy. Ideas like that are what we need today, not another
computerized or electric gizmo.