Alternate Route

Style Or Substance?

November 6, 2009 | Categories: car safety, commentary

Ford said on Thursday that beginning in 2010, it planned to be the first automaker to offer inflatable rear seat belts, a technology aimed at reducing injuries to children and elderly passengers in a crash. Sounds noble enough, and I'll even give them clever on the marketing side. But when is enough going to be enough on this quest toward the "100% safe car". There's no such thing and every safety feature added to vehicles not only adds weight (I thought mileage was important), cost and complexity to the vehicles, but it also seems to give a signal to a large number of drivers that there's one less thing that they have to worry about while driving their car. The list keeps growing...

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