Why are car roofs not made as hard and stable as possible so that you are no longer killed by trees or light poles?
In: Engineering
Cars now have extremely tough roofs. You’ve now prevented an extremely rare freak way people die in cars. In exchange:
* cars are now more expensive due to the extra materials used building the tougher roof
* cars are now more expensive due to increased shipping costs of shipping heavier cars (due to tougher roof)
* cars now have worse gas mileage and increased fuel costs (due to heavier tougher roof)
* cars now wear out their brakes faster and require more frequent pad changes (due to heavier tougher roof)
* cars now have increased stopping distance, increasing the frequency and vehicle speed of accidents.
* cars now have a higher centre of gravity and are more likely to flip/roll in crashes.
The last two points re:safety would probably be enough to completely cancel out the safety benefits of a thicker roof, since that only helps in really specific and rare cases like a tree falling on an occupied car. So now cars are more expensive in at least 4 different ways, for a tiny safety benefit or likely even none at all.
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