They are so big and it seems like so much could go wrong yet they are statistically extremely successful.
In: Engineering
Commercial air travel is one of the most highly regulated industries in the world.
Imagine if it was the same for driving:
– Every new model of car is put through years of testing by a government agency to ensure safety
– Every crash is investigated by that agency and new traffic laws or design changes are mandated every time.
– Every time you bought a new car, you had to study the differences and then retake your drivers test to prove you can drive the new model.
– Every quarter, you had to log simulator time on that car, practicing scenarios that could go wrong. If you fail, you can’t drive until you pass.
– You had a team of mechanics that checked the car out every time you drove it. If there was something off, you didn’t drive until they signed off.
– You logged the mileage on every critical part and replaced them before the broke.
– You had a team of people feeding you real time traffic and weather information so you could take the safest route.
– If the weather is too bad, all driving is canceled until it clears up.
– You had someone in the passenger seat with the exact same training that could take over at a moments notice.
– Every other driver on the road was doing the _exact_ same thing.
If driving had all that, we’d see _far_ fewer crashes.
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