QOTD: What Tech Would You Mandate?
Earlier today I went on a bit of a rant about why I don't think, at this point in time at least, that automatic emergency braking shouldn't be mandated to be standard in new cars. Of course, it will be starting in 2029.
My feelings on that specific issue aside, there probably are some pieces of safety technology that should be mandated to be present in cars. Or, perhaps, consumer protection tech -- maybe it should be made so that our cars aren't hoovering up our data?
Maybe the government should force OEMs to bring back knobs and buttons in interior design, so people aren't distracted by touchscreens and haptic-touch controls?
That's the sort of thing I am asking here.
What do you think?
Sound off below.
[Image: Jacob_09/Shutterstock.com]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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Another observation during my time as a firefighter EMT was that seatbelts and helmets do save lives and reduce injury. And its always the other person getting hurt.
I’ve responded to several bike accidents where if the guy wasn’t wearing a helmet he would’ve been in a casket. Plus it saves your hearing.
Jeff I also have a 1980 Suzuki GS1000G I rode during college and it was a lot of fun. My other bike was a 1977 Suzuki GT 750 2 stroke. My post army retirement time will be restoring those old bikes next to the 02 Hayabusa, 05 Suzuki Vstrom and klr 650. I love riding but at much reduced speeds nowadays. I got it out of my system as a young flight Lieutenant.
I know this will never be seen, but the real answer is NO Government mandated tech. The reason why is that when the government mandates something, we miss out on signals that the free market will give to weather or not people actually want this or that this tech would actually help. It's like mandating AM radio for cars when people could just buy a $10 am radio if they really like am so much.