Zero to Deadly: How More Powerful Cars Endanger Lives

Car companies boast about the rapid acceleration of their vehicles. Tesla and electric rivals Rivian, Porsche, and Audi claim their vehicles can hit 60 miles per hour in two seconds. Writing in Bloomberg CityLab, Dan Albert asks, what does this mean for road safety? 

Albert provides an illuminating history of the drive for acceleration and power in the car industry. While the muscle car is the quintessential example of that impulse, “EVs possess a big technical advantage over their gas-powered kin when it comes to acceleration.” As Albert explains, “Electric motors can generate all of their power from zero RPM, giving EVs their eye-popping acceleration figures, particularly at the lower end of the speedometer.”

The article goes on to explain why this poses a danger to pedestrians, particularly in urban areas. Albert acknowledges that “The degree to which extreme acceleration could be contributing to the surge in traffic deaths the US has been experiencing in recent years isn’t known; a slew of factors, including the growing popularity of oversized SUVs and pickup trucks, have combined to make American roadways disproportionately lethal, and the dangers that larger vehicles pose is dramatically magnified by speed.” But faster acceleration gives drivers a smaller margin of error, making it harder for a driver to react before a crash. “Safety experts have only begun to consider what this new generation of high-powered vehicles means for the passenger alighting from the bus or the pedestrian scurrying across the road.” While the auto industry is likely to resist regulation, technology such as geofencing that reduces vehicle speeds in certain zones can limit the negative impact of faster acceleration.