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Engineers Design Safer SUV
vex24 writes "Engineers from the Union of Concerned Scientists have unveiled blueprints for a "safer, more fuel efficient" SUV using "off-the-shelf technology". Looks like good stuff if the big automakers decide to pay attention."
Now someone just has to take the plans and use them, not just have them in concept design only. Would the oil and gas industries try to fight something like this? You betcha. If we ever got to a point where reducing gas/oil consumption here was a priority, we could not only save people financially, but reduce our need for foreign resources. But, we have corporate fiends who want to exploit people for profit, so I don't see these designs being put into use for a while.
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I read the artical. Not much there, don't waste time on it...
That said, this appears to be a one size fits none situation. It assumes that SUVs are only about appearence and image. So it gives you a bunch of things that make the SUV useless off road. (as if most were not already useless off road, but that is a different topic). It assumes you only uses it for people or light cargo.
Unibody has advantages and disadvantages. For a car the compromise is different than for a truck. SUVs sit in the middle, sometimes you need the full frame under for a task, and other times you don't. Guess what, you can already buy small SUVs with unibody construction. They are all image machines with no SUV abilities that I would want, but you can get them.
Note that some things are a good idea. I like the idea of seat belts that lock in a roll-over. Side airbags again are a good idea - IF they don't harm children. I like that idea in cars, trucks, mini-vans, buses, SUVs, and semis.
The buzzer until everyone is buckeled up is a stupid idea. Everyone has it in their car, and everyone hates it. Those who don't buckle up because it just annoys them for 10 seconds, those who do because there are many times where you start the car before buckling up. (My habbit is to let oil pressure stablize for the time it takes to buckle before driving) Note that their design calls for seat belts that buzz until everyone buckles up. That has been tried, and turns out tha everyone includes that package in the passanger seat too big for the seat belt to reach around, so you get the annoying buzzer distracting the driver (dangerious) for the entire trip. Those that never wear their seat belt will just disconnect this, or buckle all the seat belts in the car and never unbuckle them.
Speaking of seatbelt buzzers that don't turn off. There are times when wearing a seat belt is dangerious. Never wear a seat belt while driving on a frozen lake. If the car breaks through the time it takes to get a seat belt off could be the difference between getting out of the car while it is floating, and having to figgure out how to get out and up while it is under water.
Correction: People are idiots. They are also assholes. You are both if you purchase an SUV when you don't need one to clear large road obstacles. Why? Because you are ruining the world both for you now, and everyone else now and later. You are consuming more than your share of fossil fuels. In addition, SUVs are more likely to be in single-car accidents than other types of vehicles. Given that you don't drive over large obstacles, you would be much better off in a minivan, but you probably didn't want to be seen in one.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"