A long discussion all about cars finally turns to reality.

40,000 deaths per year and how many serious injuries?

Why not bike at 20 mph instead?  It really puts the whole car issue in another light, any alien observor would definitely spot the insanity.

The Walmart stampede killed one person and it was on the news constantly.  The Hadj stampedes in Mecca regularly kill hundreds.

40,000 per year and maybe 200,000 serious injuries?  And we go on driving like maniacs?  Yow.  Collective insanity rules the roads.

Does making the insanity slightly less destructive of humans and the climate, justify this whole mess?  We will probably see regardless.  I like this plan.

Why not go electric carbon fiber design, the first wave with a 30 mile battery range and backup generator.  When batteries improve, replace the batteries every few years, not the whole car.  Then eventually as batteries that quick charge and allow 200 mile range become  affordable, get rid of the backup generator.

Of course urban drivers and  very careful (to not run out of charge) drivers could go pure electric with only a 60 mile range, for instance, and rent a plugin backup generator from the dealer if/when they go on a longer trip.

The original car could last for 10 or 20 years.  of course the trend setters could still get a new car every few years, the rest of us could drive their trade-ins.  I like used cars myself.

Would it ever become trendy to drive a 20 year old car with the latest batteries?  Hehey.  I think so.

Really though, couldn't we make three wheeled, covered, plugin bikes trendy?  That would be a good replacement for maybe half the cars we now use.