Eli5: why do plane fleets get grounded after accidents but car fleets remain on the road even though they may have serious issues?

Question

Outside of a brief aside in the movie Fight Club and what I assume are economic reasons, I’ve never seen good compelling reasons why airplanes are grounded for accidents, while cars do not seem to undergo the same level of scrutiny?

Is it just because cars are tested more before they enter the market?

From an outsider’s perspective, it seems that airplanes are already much safer than cars- so what gives?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

Cars don’t fall on your house.

Well, not very often anyways.

There are in fact DO NOT DRIVE recalls. The Toyota Matrix and others got one yesterday for an airbag fault. But most recalls are annoyances more than anything.