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GM, NHTSA Delayed Volt Warnings To Prop Up Sales
Lauren Weinstein excerpts the most interesting part of a BBC story about the safety hazards associated with the Chevy Volt — specifically, the risk that its battery pack could catch fire after even a minor impact. While it might be unsurprising that GM was reluctant to shout out safety warnings that would dampen early sales of its much touted hybrid, according to the linked story the NHTSA was as well, and for the same reason: "Part of the reason for delaying the disclosure was the 'fragility of Volt sales' up until that point, according to Joan Claybrook, a former administrator at NHTSA."
Oh fuck off, you pussy.
Why is it that most of the people that I encounter seem to have been shat from the Sphincter of Mediocrity?
Just like I know that nuclear power is actually relatively safe
Everything is safe when it isn't breaking. It's the breaking part that makes things unsafe and when nuclear reactors 'break' they are highly 'unsafe'. There's a reason why they have massive redundancies built into every single point of failure. Failure simply isn't an option with nuclear.
So while you can minimize the likelihood of failure from planned activities...it's the unplanned things, like tsunami's, that tend to really screw you up.
This is why nuclear is a bad option. It's ridiculously expensive because of the risks, massive redundancy needed and of course spent fuel storage for centuries. It will be necessary for another 50-100 years unfortunately but we'll get off it as renewable sources and battery tech gets better. They simply don't have the risks that nuclear will always have.
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people