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Comment by RJIb8RBYxzAMX9u | Hacker News Reader

> [...] awful for those of us who would be interested in driving small, efficient foreign cars.

I currently drive a small efficient car, but I'm seriously contemplating buying an electric SUV for my next car, even though I've no use for it. I don't drive a lot, but every time I drive, I see drivers on their phones, drivers who don't signal, drivers who race the lights, drivers who don't turn their head lights on at night, and other general poor situational awareness, etc. etc. And about once a month I see someone run the red light by a _large_ margin.

By absolute measurements SUVs are worse in most metrics including safety, but alas prisoner's dilemma prevails. No amount of defensive driving on my part is gonna trump physics, if / when my tiny hatchback gets T-boned by a lifted truck.

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Isn’t it better in safety due to the physics you mentioned?

Yes and no. Let's say everyone drives compact cars, then my risk level -- completely made up number -- is 20. However, if everyone's driving para-tanks while I keep driving my compact car, then my risk level rises to 60, due to aforementioned physics. Now, if I join everyone, then my risk level falls to 40, so I'm safer. But compare to the initial case, I'm still less safe. Hence the prisoner's dilemma.

I’ve been downvoted over this before but really we just need weight limits on cars. Efficiency is pretty closely aligned and we seem to regulate that just fine.

Efficiency is pretty closely aligned

Not in the battery power era.

Of course it still is… smaller cars, smaller batteries, better all around.

Versus distance and that is an issue of just the geography of the US, we are insurmountable large, even a high end bullet train would take 8-12 hours crossing the country. Stopping absorbs a lot of time for charging compared to ICE or hybrids.

It isn't an issue for everyday driving though. Most folks never take that trip at all, and they surely aren't doing it for a commute. Truck drivers are an exception.

IIRC, the average commute in the US is about an hour. Realistically, you probably are only going to need a few hours of charging daily.

Of course, the real problem in the US is infrastructure. It does no one any favors if you can't charge your car at your apartment, while at work, or can't find places to charge along the way. I haven't lived in the US for nearly 10 years - I moved to Norway, where electric cars are popular but the infrastructure for them has been growing too and there are places to charge your car. And that's just not possible in the US, and I doubt this is going to change in the current political atmosphere - again, rural and poor areas will be left behind at best.

But how many people, excluding truckers, drive those distances?

Most commutes are under an hour.

China is similarly big and it has trains as the primary form of long distance travel.

It’s possible and should be done, but it’s expensive and not directly profitable.

Weight != size. Battery powered cars tend to weigh a few hundred pounds more than comparably sized gas powered cars, which is more efficient? Weight doesn't give you an answer on efficiency.

Very small cars are available in the USA, people just don’t buy many. Mini Cooper, smart, these exist.

I saw a lot of Smarts in Rome simply because it's easier to find parking spaces for them there.

A typical American pickup truck would be a total nightmare to own while living there.

So fix your city planning issues and people will choose smaller cars.

The Romans I was riding with agreed that the sideways parking was the only reason to get them, otherwise they considered them expensive for the size.

And that's a pretty big reason in cities that aren't littered with giant parking lots.

Smart cars are no longer sold in the US. In general options are limited. Previously compact cars like the Civic are now midsize. And even then they produce them in low volumes so they are always sold with a markup.

The Mini Cooper is bigger than you'd think -- same wheelbase and height as a Corolla, although the cargo area and hood are shorter. But the wheelbase of the Smart car (no longer sold in the US, by the way) is 2/3 that of the Mini.

Japan has vehicle weight taxes. The US has the inverse (trucks and SUV have laxer fuel economy standards)

You need stricter license requirements for more dangerous cars. Get a commercial license if you want to drive an actual truck.

That could be one way to reduce the desirability of these "trucks" and SUVs by making anything classified as a truck require a truck license to drive. Though I believe as in Australia in the USA drivers licenses are on a per-state basis. This makes it much more difficult to get enacted, though I imagine California and New York might be places where it could get traction.

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