So until today, you didn't know that you could potentially have locked someone in a ball of hot death because you assumed everything was fine because it looks cool
And your attitude about that horrifying revelation, is the equivalent of a snide shrug
Any car can potentially be a ball of hot death for the people inside. What do you expect me to do, sell the vehicle because some day I might hit all the points necessary for someone to be trapped in the back seat and at risk of harm or death? When I rarely ever have anyone back there? That's fucking ludicrous and a perfect fuck_cars take.
I don't think you understand the forces at play here. Gasoline burns at around 1000°c while lithium burns at over 2000°c. There is also the firefighting efforts about it (which is my job) which really suck. For a normal car or diesel fire with a water source we can fight the fire with foam, no problem. The NFPA doesn't even require us to carry Class D (metal fires) fire extinguishers on our trucks. We do have them on our trucks but they are designed for like, small appliances mostly, they don't have enough powder to actually manage a Tesla power system. We have to pull out whoever is inside then basically wait for the dump truck (literally a dump truck full of sand) to show up so we can glass most of the car in order to deny oxygen. Electric cars are a fucking grift, transport should be powered with overhead wires, maybe third rails.
Edit: also if you aren't car pooling why do you own a car? Why enter the "fuck cars" fray if you aren't anti-car?
Because I live in America and there's no way any kind of massive infrastructure bill that expands reliable public transit to every corner of the country gets anywhere in this day and age. Would love to be proven wrong.
my desire for fancy treats is going to make your life personally objectively more dangerous. Thats life
Literally yes. That's how it works sometimes.
But sure, let's all just go back to horses and donkeys. Wait, no... those were dangerous, too. Fuck.
I don't get why you're so dismissive of public transit being possible. Is it something with the ideological make up of the USA? I could give that until Miami is under water in about a decade. If its for physical limitations though then I couldn't give that, once again the USSR was primarily mass transit. If they could do it back then the USA could do it now.
Is it something with the ideological make up of the USA?
Very much so, yes.
I live in a state that has pretty dang good public transit (by USA standards) and even still, the county I live in is rural with no buses or trains within walking distance. I could bike, but there are no bike lanes or margins on the roads leading to the closest bus stop that I know. This is for the most populous state in the country while simultaneously being one of the smallest geographically.
If we as a society can accept that we need to allocate over an hour (and that's being generous) for the first leg a 20 mile round trip to make an appointment or whatever at a massive loss of convenience then, sure... maybe we can make it work. Right now? It's a pipe dream and getting angry at people who own a car to make their schedules work isn't doing your "side" any favors.
I will admit that I am part of your problem. I really like my car. I like the idea of having a tool that can quickly, conveniently, and comfortably give me the freedom to travel from place to place without having to deal with other people. That is a selfish stance, I admit. Until it becomes feasible to implement public transit at the scale needed to get rid of cars I am likely going to continue to feel this way.
You don't like, see if things work and stuff? Maybe I'm too used to having to deal with old beaters but checking if doors can be opened from the inside is a critical safety check. Its like checking to see if the seatbelts work. Do you ever drive people around?