Unsafe at any speed
by Ralph Nader · first published 1965
13% recommend86% neutral1% critical
Why HN recommends it
Traces how auto safety was neglected and how regulation came about. Provides background on industry resistance to safety improvements, and explains why cars became safer.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…Given how large Amazon is, and how their marketplace is a nightmare of consumer fraud, I think $30 million is not enough of a penalty to make them clean up their act. For more on this, I suggest reading "Unsafe at Any Speed" by Ralph Nader.
on “Family sues Amazon after hoverboard fire destroys $1M house” ↗Before Ralph Nader was the face of the Green Party and the the 2008 darkhorse candidate in the 2008 election, he was the bane of the automotive industry. Check out his book Unsafe at Any Speed. GM's response to the aforementioned? One of petulance and cowardice. They had to be hauled into Congress, kicking and screaming of course, before anything was done.
on “A small 2009 car demolishes a 1959 Chevy in a crash test [video]” ↗…a bunch of good points about the unintended consequences of regulations, it's clear to me that cars work as is without an auto-pilot -- and have since the original Model T. That said, Ralph Nader's "Unsafe At Any Speed" is a great example of why regulation of automobiles is needed. There's also a reason why cars have safety glass on the windshield. I'd like to see your entire post again, but related only to self-driving…
on “Man accused of dangerous driving for sleeping in self-driving, speeding Tesla” ↗Vehicles became a lot safer because of Ralph Nader. Google “unsafe at any speed”.
on “Current Causes of Death in Children and Adolescents in the United States” ↗See also: "Unsafe at Any Speed" by Ralph Nader
on “The exploding Ford Pinto of 1973 (2021)” ↗…the safety of the entire car industry? I don't think that comparison offers anything interesting, and it ignores the long and storied history of improving automobile safety. Look into Ralph Naders "Unsafe At Any Speed" if you really want to see people looking at "regular" accidents and deciding there was something to be fixed.
on “Autopilot on Cars for $999” ↗Perhaps start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed The market-based process of product optimization you have outlined has many holes -- in this case, market failures including cartel behavior and incomplete information. The thing that's surprising is…
on “When new seat belt laws drew fire as a violation of personal freedom (2020)” ↗…bacterial count was monitored. And drugs? The FDA regulates the printing on the bottle labels to try to reduce accidents. How many companies are going to think up things like that? I suggest checking out "Unsafe at Any Speed" and (nauseatingly and heart-breakingly) "The Jungle" if you want to know what it was like before safety regulations went into place (and those two books were responsible, for car safety and food safety…
on “The Tesla Cyberquad for kids has been recalled for not meeting safety standards” ↗The book unsafe at any speed, is a good background on the resistance regarding security improvements in the car industry.
on “The Binder Linux driver is being rewritten in Rust” ↗Surprised Ralph Nader and "Unsafe at any Speed" wasn't mentioned. The Chevy Corvair should probably be a contender for worst car ever built. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed
on “Driving the “Worst Car Ever Built” (2015)” ↗It wasn't exactly successful in silencing the victim but one of the car companies did this to Ralph Nader when he was investigating their products for Unsafe at Any Speed. I'm honestly surprised that any company would still do this sort of thing to critics after how that turned out back in the 60s. When the harassment of Nader was discovered, it put extra momentum behind…
on “Massachusetts couple suing eBay after employees harassed and stalked them” ↗…the local planning board) so to limit discussion of a corporation to only those on the inside denies the reality that they have effects on the outside. To take an extreme example: Nader and his book Unsafe at Any Speed. Twitter and Apple are integrated in our lives (some more than others). Like Luther nailing his Theses to the church door, creating a stir is sometimes necessary. To say one shouldn't create a stir…
on “Apple should buy Twitter, and they should do it now” ↗…cars and trucks costing auto manufacturers $1.4B to develop a new car, and our cars don't explode and kill us. The reason? A car maker who makes unsafe cars goes out of business. Consider Ralph Nader's "Unsafe At Any Speed" did to the Corvair corporation.
on “The antibiotic paradox: why companies can’t afford to create life-saving drugs” ↗…sues the company, is the company likely to fold into oblivion so no one tries this dumb stunt again? If I remember correctly, this was what led to auto safety features in the first place (IE Nader's Unsafe At Any Speed).
on “Motorcycle airbag vest will stop working if you miss a payment” ↗…1950s and 1960s, there was concern that the malaise of the 1930s would return. What happened instead were a series of environmental and safety concerns -- Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed, and more so the question of whether or not the modern post-Industrial Revolution age was sustainable: the Club of Rome's Limits to Growth. These were immediately followed by peaking of US domestic…
on “Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep” ↗