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Congress mandates new car technology to stop drunken driving (2021)

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Re: Congress mandates new car technology to stop drunken driving (2021)

#32

I am really dreading the day my current car from 2015 that has no fancy tech features fails beyond repair and I have to get a new car. I will first attempt to get an older car with low mileage, but old cars won't last forever.

> old cars won't last forever

Depends how old. Older cars have better survivability than newer ones, almost exclusively due to the simplicity[0] of the design and parts. If you want a car that can last forever (with maintenance and from an odysseus ship perspective) then an old car with a diesel engine and manual transmission is the way to go.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxSNT1bmEQY&t=75s

Re: Congress mandates new car technology to stop drunken driving (2021)

#33
post #17

This is terrible. All such systems will have false positives. It's wrong to treat everyone as a criminal instead of reserving such systems for people who actually have been convicted of it.

It also increases the cost of every new car. People complain about housing, and goods like cars being expensive. But many fail to realize that every do-good law has a cost. "There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs."

Cities hate cars, and cities dominate the legislative process at the state and federal regulatory levels. Cars are a constant problem for cities, it makes sense that they'd rather spend their time and money on things other than fixing congestion and maintaining existing roads.

They can't attack cars directly, it would be political suicide, but they can boil the frog by making them increasingly expensive. That's what they're doing.

Re: Congress mandates new car technology to stop drunken driving (2021)

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this would go in the cars, not in the roads, so that's irrelevant.

And the TSA rules apply to my suitcase, not to the plane. What's the difference?

Your suitcase isn't required to have a built-in X-ray machine.

Re: Congress mandates new car technology to stop drunken driving (2021)

#35
post #10

This is going to be so awesome when I can't drive my car because I just used hand sanitizer. Or won't let me drive because i just cleaned the windows with window cleaner. Solution is cars that drive themselves.

If you read the article, it speculates that the most likely mechanism will be IR cameras that detect distracted driving/sleep. This technology is already widely used in commercial truck driving.

Re: Congress mandates new car technology to stop drunken driving (2021)

#36
post #33
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also increases the cost of every new car. People complain about housing, and goods like cars being expensive. But many fail to realize that every do-good law has a cost. "There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs."

Cities hate cars, and cities dominate the legislative process at the state and federal regulatory levels. Cars are a constant problem for cities, it makes sense that they'd rather spend their time and money on things other than fixing congestion and maintaining existing roads. They can't attack cars directly, it would be political suicide, but they can boil the frog by making them increasingly expensive. That's what…

I wonder if this is being downvoted because it's

a) off topic b) low quality c) true

Re: Congress mandates new car technology to stop drunken driving (2021)

#37

I am really dreading the day my current car from 2015 that has no fancy tech features fails beyond repair and I have to get a new car. I will first attempt to get an older car with low mileage, but old cars won't last forever.

Technically old cars can last forever if you simply keep repairing and replacing parts.

Got an engine with 200k miles on it? Swap it with a new one!

Obviously it’s not easy and can be very expensive (and many mechanics will look at you weird if asking them to do $20k of maintenance on a 20 year old car, but they won’t say no!)

Re: Congress mandates new car technology to stop drunken driving (2021)

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>old cars won't last forever. The Cubans would like a word

The Cubans don't have to deal with snow and ice that requires a corrosive brine on the roads.

Their corrosive brine is natural and all year. Maritime environments are hell on cars.

Re: Congress mandates new car technology to stop drunken driving (2021)

#39
post #7

This is terrible. All such systems will have false positives. It's wrong to treat everyone as a criminal instead of reserving such systems for people who actually have been convicted of it.

I'm sympathetic to this point of view, but then we have to be consistent with it. No TSA. No license plate scanners. No fare gates for trains. No locks on doors. No anti-shoplifting tags. EDIT: Is there some Emerson convention in town? You can look at my comments for some of his other quotes (It's actually not very surprising to me that an Anglo abolitionist who also believed that Anglos were the 'best' race wasn't a…

Right! Right! Also, we can't require railings on stairs or prohibit electrical wiring from being attached to doorknobs as a trick, or stop people from driving on sidewalks.

Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds and this commenter exhibits the smallest of them all.

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