Featured EV vs Guardrail crash test

Guard rails are only 'guards' - something meant to slow down or deter......otherwise they would call them something else.

 

Guard rails are like the coast guard, mostly there for idiots who get themselves in trouble

 

They also did the test with a Model 3 earlier. It lifted the rail face up, and passed underneath it.
Nebraska experts weigh highway safety and electric vehicles | College of Engineering | University of Nebraska–Lincoln
I think the rail height had been increased to account for more trucks and SUVs on the road.

Looks legit. A state posting of a federal agency document.
https://highways.dot.gov/safety/rwd/reduce-crash-severity/guardrail-resources

 

Seems it needs a concrete barrier already in place to work. Guard rails are generally used in place of the barriers.

 

Your Tesla weighs the same as my Prius. And the load rating of 195 tires exceeds what's needed (1650lb/ea). Why is Tesla saying we need special high load tires

 

A guardrail saved my life once. Or at least it kept me from flying over a precipice. P.S. I was not the one driving.

I feel that driving a small, lightweight car has some charm to it. The Avalon feels like a boat. My favorite car to drive was my 1972 VW Super Beetle, and it only weighed 1,874 lbs. when stock. Of course buying a car isn't about buying something I like anymore, It's about practicality and safety.

 

The instant torque applied to unmoving tread on the road surface might be more of the cause than being high. The relatively gradual increase with ICE cars is applying less shear forces.

 

Better tires are needed if you are accelerating or braking faster, or taking turns at higher speeds. I believe the rwd and awd tesla model 3 use the same tires, so they are likely speced for the under 5 second acceleration of the dual motor. This applies 4x more power to the tires than the prius. Driver can determine and there is a chill mode to keep acceleration lower.

 

I love smaller cars, as my recent Mini Cooper will attest.
I feel our roads would be safer if the average vehicle size came down, not just due to the size/weight, but due to the psychology.
Some people in big vehicles drive/behave more aggressively. (This is speculation on my part)

I feel that aggression would be less in smaller vehicles.

 

I totally agree!

 

You feel speed less the higher from the ground you sit.

 

Another thing I dislike about heavier vehicles is greater rolling resistance.

It's getting to the point that rolling resistance is starting to become a greater cause of inefficiency than aerodynamic drag, and aerodynamic drag hasn't improved all that much in the past 10 years.

 

The law of diminishing returns

 

But going back to car weights of 2001 would cut rolling resistance by 21%.

Obesity Of Cars: The New Challenge Of The Industry (motor1.com)

 

Agreed, I was thinking about aerodynamics.
Unfortunately, the free market continually drives larger and heavier vehicles.
And as Bob w said, “Americans will do the right thing after exhausting all other possibilities “

 

Moved