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Comment by Terr_ | Hacker News Reader

It would be nice if cars got more of a bonus to their safety rating based on how they won't pulp other people in an accident.

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Pedestrian and cyclist protection, emergency braking, etc. have been in the criteria for Euro NCAP for a while. American regulations are probably under siege by the auto industry.

s/under seige by/on the payroll of/

AFAICT, automatic emergency braking has only been required for all new vehicles in Europe as of 2024, although 2022 for new car models. In the U.S. 90% of new vehicles already include this feature, though it won't be legally mandatory until 2029.

The U.S. NHTSA takes a more cooperative approach with industry. Safety features are a critical driver of the model upgrade cycle, so it's in the industry's interest to roll these out. The NHTSA negotiates with the industry on timelines for when mandatory requirements begin, but these hard deadlines lag years behind when these features become ubiquitous voluntarily. Timelines for voluntary rollout are part of the negotiating process, so just because the legal deadline is 2029 doesn't mean NHTSA didn't negotiate for features to be included earlier. This results in less acrimony so industry is less inclined to complain to Congress.

I guess the EC doesn't have to worry about the MEPs being able to do much of anything since they don't have much of a say.

Meanwhile, the actual people affected (drivers/pedestrians) don't exactly have much of a say in the US either.

It would be nice if non-cars, like SUVs and pickups, paid more for insurance (but they pay less, because being tanks they protect their occupants even as they lay waste to everything else - unfortunately insurers care more about the former than the latter).

Insurance on my 1999 Chevy pickup costs more than my 2001 Olds Intrigue.

Or at least it did a few years ago when the car was insured and on the road.

Sounds incorrect. I think the insurance rate is based on the value of the vehicle and SUVs and trucks are much more expensive than compacts and sedans.

The part of your insurance that pays the medical bills for a person you smush (third party liability) is entirely separate from the part that rebuilds your car if it gets wrecked (collision/comprehensive damage). They should be priced separately on your binder, but you can call up your insurer to price compare relatively easily.

Insurance doesn't cover legal expenses and their civil liability is capped pretty low. They'd rather you kill the pedestrian.

In NY it's $50000 mandatory for medical expenses before any liability comes into play. I've burned through the entire pile with costs from a driver induced injury.

Nice idea but killing someone is very cheap. It's injury that requires permanent care that's very expensive. At some point they came up with "moral hazard" for this kind of thing but the lesson was forgotten.

"On average, SUVs are less expensive to insure than other vehicles, especially sedans or trucks."[1]

1: https://www.caranddriver.com/car-insurance/a36331753/are-suv...

coughs in bicyclist ...

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