Question of the Day: Are Current Cars Safer Than the Previous Generation?
For two decades now, automakers have worked to make it easier, and in theory safer, to change the radio station, adjust your seat while talking on the phone and driving. Touchscreens were supposed to take safety and convenience to the next level.
However, our own Matt Posky posits it probably ain’t so i n his piece about Swedish safety researchers finding that say today’s vehicles are more complicated and no amount of touchscreen space is going to make them safer.
So we ask you loyal readers: do you think today’s vehicles, despite intense efforts by automakers, are less safe from driver distraction than their predecessors? We look forward to someone telling us it should be a crime to even have food in the car, much less eat it while driving. Fire away!
[Image: Afeela]
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Michael Strong has spent more than 25 years writing about the automotive industry. A Detroit-area native, he’s written about everything from local car shows to product reviews to financial news. Currently he writes and edits for a variety of national and local publications. He’s also a longtime member of the Automotive Press Association and the International Motor Press Association, and a graduate of Georgia Southern University. Hail Southern! Despite a love for ’70s land yachts and BMWs from the late ’80s and early ’90s, his personal vehicle is neither of those.
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Every metric points to the fact that new vehicles are safer i.e. protecting occupants from harm.
The question of whether or not technology reduces the incidence of crashes , and indirectly, harm related to crashes is a different question.
I think we are just as distracted as ever before its just a different venue. billboards and neon lights vs screens. The cars, minus the infotainment system, are much safer than before between airbags, ABS, crumple zones, just better overall handling and braking and crafmanship. I compare it to when people say people's life expectancy doubled in the past 125 years do to medical breakthrough but really the bigger contribution was the spreaded knowledge of proper hygiene and better waste management: indoor plumbing, sewers, trash trucks.
Remember what they used to say? Can't afford a car with air bags? Get a big metal spike and put it in the center of your steering wheel. That will keep you from getting distracted and less accidents will happen.