Watch a modern car utterly crush a huge 1959 Chevy in crash test

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It’s worth remembering that the improvements have largely been in crash survivability(with some advances for cases like braking on ice/other difficult surfaces); the advances in collision avoidance have been markedly smaller. Basically zero in areas that depend on the driver’s reflexes and response times; modest at best in terms of vehicle inertia and response times.

It is nice that you have a better chance of surviving a crash, often even without ghastly neurological damage; but if you are in one, your odds of having your car totaled aren’t much better than they were in the 50s(possibly worse, given the deliberately sacrificial nature of crumple zones) and you are still going to play hell with traffic, seriously disrupt your day, quite possibly end up in the hospital for at least a function-test.

Until we have made appropriate advances in making collisions avoidable, the fact that they are more survivable than they used to be is of only modest assistance.

(edit: in case my post didn’t make it clear, I think that @snek is incorrect, for the ‘survivability vs. avoidance’ reasons given above; but I also think that we could be a lot more civil about pointing that out. I’m not against snide dismissal of assertions too mind-blowingly idiotic to dignify a reply; but this seemed like a flavor of wrong interesting enough to be worth discussing.)

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While I appreciate your benevolence @fuzzyfungus, I’d like to point some of the many advances in collision avoidance available in modern cars: vastly improved lighting (both on cars and on the roads) and safer roadway design. But most importantly, just about every manufacturer now uses some kind of an electronic collision avoidance system. For instance Audi, Mercedes and many others use radar to detect obstructions and apply automatic brake assist. BMW has lane-departure warnings and driver drowsiness detection. Fiats have autonomous emergency braking using a laser for detection. Honda has night vision cameras. Toyotas can detect pedestrians, issue warnings to the driver and apply brakes. Volvos detect oncoming traffic and apply brakes if you attend to turn left. Some cars use rear facing cameras that can brighten the tail lights to avoid rear end collisions. Etc. etc.
I also want to apologize to @Marktech for speaking up when I was attacked and therefore not conforming to the unwritten rules of this BBS, which are apparently based on some State Penitentiary Code of Ethics.

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