I wanted to hear what others have to say about Elon's decision to change air suspension defaults, so that it doesn't decrease until much higher speeds (I think he said 97 MPH). His reasoning was that US had more road debris and he believed the higher suspension would reduce collision of impact in US, but he still wanted good handling on autobahn speeds 90-130 MPHand would therefor lower at higher speeds. (This wasn't in his blog, it was in an interview someplace recently)
it brought up a few questions:
1) since road debris leads to unsafe conditions for ALL cars, how do we in US work to make sure our roads are clearer, and therefore safer for everyone?
2) How many current US Model S owners regularly travel at 90MPH or above?
please do not turn this thread into a duplicate of other threads (ie discussion of probabilities of collisions leading to fire, or whether this temporary software update was the right PR and/or safety decision, there are already multiple threads on these issues.)
Also, I would like to keep this thread polite, and for the purposes of this discussion please give Elon the benefit of the doubt that the lowering of suspension at highway speeds will be a driver decision in January 2014. If you think that is controversial, there are aready other threads on that.
I purposely started this in "off-topic" because road debris is an issue for ICE vehicles AND EV's, so I do not want to make this another thread about the Model S battery.
(Note: these guidelines may sound limiting, but this is an attempt to limit discussion to make it easier for both readers and mods, by not duplicating discussions, and not adding to hot topics and hot tempers... Cheers everyone)
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Another thought. There are two issue to consider for road debris: old debris already in the road, and things flying off cars/ trucks in front do another car.
it seems to me that the roads are clearer in Germany, but there is probably also less rusted parts flying off cars in front. I would assume no one in Germany is on the autobahn with open trucks carrying purely secured cargo, as we see all the time here in US. Is this self selected (common sense?) or is this regulated?
Same question regarding rust car bits: are older cars kept off Autobahn just because they don't handle we'll at high speeds or is this regulated?
In general are cars just 'newer'?
Are there just less accidents (of all kinds) or is it a trade off, and number of 'incidents' is lower, but actual incidents worse? (ie more damage? More fatalities? More multi-vehicle crashes?)
not playing devil's advocate here, I am ignorant about EU stats, and curious.
it brought up a few questions:
1) since road debris leads to unsafe conditions for ALL cars, how do we in US work to make sure our roads are clearer, and therefore safer for everyone?
2) How many current US Model S owners regularly travel at 90MPH or above?
please do not turn this thread into a duplicate of other threads (ie discussion of probabilities of collisions leading to fire, or whether this temporary software update was the right PR and/or safety decision, there are already multiple threads on these issues.)
Also, I would like to keep this thread polite, and for the purposes of this discussion please give Elon the benefit of the doubt that the lowering of suspension at highway speeds will be a driver decision in January 2014. If you think that is controversial, there are aready other threads on that.
I purposely started this in "off-topic" because road debris is an issue for ICE vehicles AND EV's, so I do not want to make this another thread about the Model S battery.
(Note: these guidelines may sound limiting, but this is an attempt to limit discussion to make it easier for both readers and mods, by not duplicating discussions, and not adding to hot topics and hot tempers... Cheers everyone)
- - - Updated - - -
Another thought. There are two issue to consider for road debris: old debris already in the road, and things flying off cars/ trucks in front do another car.
it seems to me that the roads are clearer in Germany, but there is probably also less rusted parts flying off cars in front. I would assume no one in Germany is on the autobahn with open trucks carrying purely secured cargo, as we see all the time here in US. Is this self selected (common sense?) or is this regulated?
Same question regarding rust car bits: are older cars kept off Autobahn just because they don't handle we'll at high speeds or is this regulated?
In general are cars just 'newer'?
Are there just less accidents (of all kinds) or is it a trade off, and number of 'incidents' is lower, but actual incidents worse? (ie more damage? More fatalities? More multi-vehicle crashes?)
not playing devil's advocate here, I am ignorant about EU stats, and curious.
