[extropy-chat] Real Extropians don't drive SUVs

[David Lubkin]

BillK wrote:

>Why should we care whether in certain specific circumstances an SUV
>might be preferred? The road death figures show that SUVs are killing
>their drivers in increasing numbers.
>         :
>but you can't argue with the road kill
>figures. That's how Nader got famous, when the motor industry was
>selling cars that killed people in excessive numbers.

Funny you should bring up Nader. There's a fairly good case that he 
misrepresented what was going on. As with thalidomide and with Erin 
Brockovich, reality differs from "what everyone knows."

http://www.corvaircorsa.com/handling01.html
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/printts20040303.shtml

I see you participated in the July thread "Driver safety and the 
immortalist" but apparently don't agree with the points raised about the 
distinction between correlation and causation, and the difficulty in 
teasing out causes.

As in everything else, safety is not the only consideration in vehicle 
selection. And no vehicle choice will be the safest under all plausible 
driving scenarios. To me, the goal of a discussion among immortalists is to 
clarify the options and trade-offs so we can each make informed decisions 
for ourselves and recommendations for those we love.

>but you can't argue with the road kill figures.

*That's* plain goofy. We can and do argue with anything.


-- David Lubkin.