A 7,000-Pound Car Smashed Through a Guardrail. That’s Bad News for All of Us.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11676601
A 7,000-Pound Car Smashed Through a Guardrail. That’s Bad News for All of Us.
https://slate.com/business/2024/02/car-safety-guardrails-bloat-electric-vehicles.htmlOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
A 7,000-pound vehicle is not a car. It is a truck.
It is a car if all it does is transport one worryingly fat human being from their home to their office and back
Now you're getting into the philosophy of names and labels. Does a label follow an objects form or function or neither? Does it's use simply follow from the convenience of relaying an idea through the limitations of language?
In your example, does the label change if the human is not fat? Or if they are going to the bar instead of work? What is really pertaining to the nature of using the label "car" in your example?
A Telsa X LR Plaid carrying 4 extremely obese or muscular passengers wouldn't be a car?
I have no affiliation, but this seems like a good place to bring attention to "The Guardrail Guy" on YouTube. He calls out damaged and improperly-installed guardrails. I'm not implying a bad guardrail had anything yo do with this particular incident. Just bringing awareness to a good citizen.
Yeah if this is the guy I think it is he lost his daughter to a car accident that involved an improperly constructed guardrail. If it was properly constructed she would probably have lived.
So they dont work for semi trucks? Thats concerning.
There is very little that can stop a semi-truck at highway speeds
In Switzerland we have Sand-Strips every so often for exactly that reason. If a Truck loses its Breaks it can drive into these Sand-Strips and it will safely and "gently" be stopped.
We have those in America too, we call them runaway ramps
Yes, I’m not sure if the truck finds the stop so gentle but the driver (and surrounding traffic) at least is able to walk away if their brakes fail.
We have those in the US as well but the are filled with gravel I believe so the truck an get stuck in it to slow down even more but only in mountain areas do we have them.
to be fair, i do believe swizerland is entirely mountain areas
Guess it's more of a guiderail if your car is massive enough, good lord.
That's what it's supposed to be. It's not supposed to stop a car, it's supposed too guide a car away from a certain area, often trees or houses.
cars are too safe for those inside them. This is the result.