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Comment by 6stringmerc | Hacker News Reader

They have to be a lot more efficient to haul around all the extraneous shit that people have demanded be put into cars over the years. Of course it's always extreme in "Top of the Line" products like this Bentley (http://blog.caranddriver.com/it-takes-a-lot-of-wiring-to-kee...) but the trickle-down effect is inevitable. Happened with air bags, IIRC. Look how many companies are adding variations of "Auto Pilot" or driver assists.

Basically we painted ourselves into a corner. Technology and Distractions have an inverse relationship with Driver Attention and Performance. People don't like hearing that, but I don't like having to honk at people weaving into my lane because they're on their phone at 70 MPH.

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The sensors and actuators used in active safety driver assistance systems are light and take up very little space. Most of the extra weight comes from passive safety improvements such as stronger unibodies. Those are far from extraneous.

Plus cars are simply growing because most people prefer larger vehicles. A long drive in a tiny penalty box car is a miserable experience.

Another "hidden" weight adder is the dreaded "NVH" (Noise, Vibration, and Harshness). Basically car manufacturers add "heavy stuff" to make the car quieter and ride better.

Driving is massively safer now than it was even 20 years ago. Automated safety systems are big reason why, and we aren't too far from fully automated braking/lane holding systems being cheap enough to be standard equipment, and reduce accident rates substantially more (even with distracted drivers).

People are going to be on their phone at 70 MPH no matter what do-dads are in their car. The best we can do is take the human element out of the equation.

>People are going to be on their phone at 70 MPH no matter what do-dads are in their car

Somewhat disagree. It's not a distraction panacea (based on various studies) but if we had voice recognition and natural language processing in cars that really worked well, there would be a whole lot less temptation to look down at a screen or type.

Not justifying people who do so. Just observing that better tech would largely eliminate any reason to do so.

Well I was alive before cell phones and I'll tell you people will find plenty of reason to not pay attention at 70MPH.

Fair enough. Although I suspect that the level of distraction has gone up.

The MPG chart is of median MPG among production vehicles, not mean, and not mean weighted by person-miles driven.

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