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
The short answer is that cars are held to a lower standard than planes. Aircraft are much more heavily regulated and scrutinised because an air disaster can easily kill hundreds of people per accident. They also disrupt a highly intricate industry and the losses reverbetate across many levels and lose billions.
But that’s not to say that cars do not have similar protocols. Recalls happen for defects that are discovered to affect a large number of vehicles, and notices are sent out to owners and announcements are made since some times it’s hard to track down all vehicles affected when the recalls may go back many years and affect millions of vehicles, many of which may have changed multiple owners. The problem ultimately lies with owners not doing their due dilligence and not checking for recalls on their cars and being completely oblivious to them. If a recall has gone out for a serious defect and an owner has not taken their vehicle in to be fixed free of charge then whose fault is it really?
The other factor at play here is that most car accidents and car fatalities occur through driver error, not defects. Are you saying all people should be barred from driving because some people drive like incompetent idiots and cause serious accidents?
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