zlacker

>>jasonc+(OP)
There’s degrees of “conquered”. Seat belts ‘conquered’ motor vehicle trauma before airbags did. Each new thing helps fill in the gaps left by the already-existing things.

>>taneq+wG
Auto safety has shown a very consitent rate of improvement with deaths per passenger mile halving about every 20 years, since 1920.

That's the red line in this chart: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/US...

The period of most rapid car safety improvements came during a single ten-year period, from 1910 - 1920, where deaths, again, expressed per passenger mile, halved in only ten years.

>>dredmo+O51
Any idea what major improvements there were between 1910 and 1920? I had no idea there were any improvements made before seatbelts in the 1950s.

>>hacker+c61
There was a tremendous amount of general standardisation, things we take almost entirely for granted now:

- Electric / automatic starters.

- Arrangement of controls (accelerator, brake, clutch)

- Windshields.

- Brakes.

- Brake lights.

- Turn indicators.

Various improvements to roads, signage, and lighting as well, I suspect. As well as people simply knowing what cars were and what to expect from their behaviour.