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Questions tagged [road-vehicles]

Use this tag for question about cars, trucks and other road transport.

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89 votes
3 answers
10k views

Does a car with a hybrid engine and Lithium batteries pollute more than a car with conventional technology?

You hear a lot of claims that, once you include manufacturing and battery replacement, hybrids pollute more than an efficient, more conventional engine. Are there any end-to-end studies measuring any ...
Russell Steen's user avatar
31 votes
1 answer
18k views

Is running the engine for five minutes before driving beneficial for the car?

There is a belief among a lot of people that you should start your car and leave it on for 5 minutes before moving it in the morning. Is this practice good for the car in any significant way, or it is ...
TheTechGuy's user avatar
  • 2,762
30 votes
2 answers
4k views

Does gender affect driving skill?

Are there any differences in either sex which are provably beneficial and/or detrimental to their driving abilities? Also, is it possible that stereotypical gender roles make any difference in ...
zzzzBov's user avatar
  • 533
10 votes
2 answers
2k views

Does a prototype car that runs on water exist?

In a conversation with a friend recently, she was telling me about a new car that "some Japanese company" had developed, apparently a working prototype that's about to be put into production. It has ...
Mason Wheeler's user avatar
29 votes
3 answers
2k views

Do cars pass with less space for bicyclists who wear helmets?

This question is an off-shoot of from the discussion about helmet safety. There is an assertion that when a car passes a bicycle, it allows less space to those who wear a helmet than those without. ...
Wai Yip Tung's user avatar
23 votes
2 answers
4k views

Does marijuana impair driving?

Is the use of cannabis/marijuana/THC associated with risks when driving a motor vehicle, similar to impairment from the use of alcohol? The conclusions of public studies seem inconsistent. For example,...
Brian M. Hunt's user avatar
19 votes
3 answers
2k views

Do electric cars create more fine dust pollution than comparable petrol cars?

According to this Flanders Today (a local Belgian newspaper) article (dead link, archive on archive.org). a new small car on petrol in the city creates less fine dust than an electric car of average ...
THelper's user avatar
  • 317
18 votes
3 answers
2k views

Are electric cars beneficial to the environment compared to low consumption modern cars?

Imagine an electric car in a country where most energy come from coal (which i believe is the dirtiest). Add this to the pollution that disposing the batteries will create, or the carbon footprint ...
ariel's user avatar
  • 745
10 votes
1 answer
991 views

Are pets as bad for environment as cars?

In this article referring to a book the authors claim: Taking the dog for a walk to the store would seem like a more environmentally-friendly option than piling into the SUV. Not so, say two ...
sashkello's user avatar
  • 3,762
104 votes
4 answers
27k views

Does the production of a Tesla battery produce as much CO2 as driving 200,000 km?

Recently I read on Greenpeace's website, that the production of a 100 kWh battery, as in the Tesla Model S, produces as much CO2 as driving a regular car for 200,000 km. Source: Tesla car ...
user1721135's user avatar
  • 2,706
74 votes
4 answers
27k views

Does the source code of the software for a high-end car contain on average around 100 million lines of code?

This infographic shows the different number of lines that some software applications (or a general type of them) have on average. The number of lines shown for an average modern high-end car strikes ...
Jesús Gómez's user avatar
42 votes
4 answers
6k views

Is driving the speed limit on a highway safer?

I'd have thought this would have been asked already but I didn't see it. Is driving the speed limit safer on a highway? By "highway" I mean high-traffic areas, such as 4-lane divided thoroughfares. ...
Brian M. Hunt's user avatar
37 votes
1 answer
99k views

Were there only two cars in Ohio in 1895, and they managed to crash into each other?

Currently on Today I Learned, Reddit. TIL [Today I Learned] In the entire state of Ohio in 1895, there were only two cars on the road, and the drivers of these two cars crashed into each other. ...
Casebash's user avatar
  • 10.2k
35 votes
1 answer
5k views

Are old car models more reliable than new ones?

I heard that components from older cars (like the ones before '92-93) are more resistant than the ones from new cars. New ones are made from cheap elements, so if you push them to the limit they will ...
Alex's user avatar
  • 1,259
30 votes
1 answer
5k views

Do car alarms provide a significant reduction in automobile theft?

Noise That movie got me thinking, because it makes a number of claims about car alarms that jive with my personal feelings about them. They're noisy, obnoxious, tend to go off at night, and are ...
John Rhoades's user avatar
  • 2,156
28 votes
2 answers
5k views

Have children's car seats not been proven to be more effective than seat belts alone for kids older than 24 months?

A comment on a question on the Travel Stack Exchange claims that "child seats [in cars] have never been proven to be more effective than seat belts for kids older than 24 months", and links ...
Jake's user avatar
  • 483
24 votes
3 answers
2k views

Is premium fuel "better"?

Is there any evidence that premium and/or high-octane fuel (petrol/gas for cars): improves performance; and/or improves engine longevity; and/or improves mileage so that money is saved on fuel, even ...
Thomas O's user avatar
  • 11.9k
22 votes
3 answers
4k views

Do automobile manufacturers make parts wear out and break easily, just so they can make more money?

It is sometimes heard that automobile manufacturers design low-quality parts that wear out or break easily, so that they can make money on the repair or replacement of these parts. I believe this to ...
Keith Groben's user avatar
22 votes
1 answer
5k views

Does the US ban high-gas-mileage cars?

A recent YouTube video features a claim that the VW Passat TDI 1.6 and similar cars have been banned by the US government, specifically because their gas mileage is too high. The purported reasoning ...
Mark Eichenlaub's user avatar
21 votes
1 answer
731 views

Do lower speed limits reduce gasoline usage?

There are three parts to this question: Does speed have an effect on miles-per-gallon? Is there a more accurate causal effect than speed that would also cause a connection at varying speeds? (perhaps ...
MrHen's user avatar
  • 6,153
16 votes
3 answers
1k views

Does lowering speed limits by 10 km/h have any impact on air pollution?

Europe has been under exceptional sunlight for the past ten days, cf. Eumetsat's picture. According to French media, this prevents smog from escaping major hubs. In an attempt to reduce this air ...
ChrisR's user avatar
  • 1,393
10 votes
1 answer
836 views

Can an on-the-fly water electrolyzer linked to the air intake improve fuel efficiency of a gasoline engine?

This article initially seems to investigate so-called water powered cars. The final few paragraphs of the article however branches off into discussion about a system where (as I understand it): A car'...
Highly Irregular's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
957 views

Did DUI fatalities increase or decrease due to legalization of marijuana?

I've seen conflicting articles claiming that DUI fatalities either increased or decreased after states legalized marijuana. Here are two samples, though there are many articles out there; "Since ...
dsollen's user avatar
  • 9,830
8 votes
1 answer
347 views

Would lowering the speed limit in NYC by 5mph lower the number of pedestrian deaths by a factor of 2?

According to the Mayor of New York City, De Blasio: (my emphasis) Excessive speed contributes to 25 percent of roadway fatalities on New York City Streets and is the leading cause of motor vehicle ...
ike's user avatar
  • 4,960
7 votes
2 answers
1k views

Is the self-driving car technology of 2017 less lethal than human drivers?

Youtube channel veritasium, on a video called "The real moral dilemma of self-driving cars" (ref) claims that if all cars in 2017 were self-driving, hundreds of lives could be saved. So he is claming ...
Mindwin Remember Monica's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
912 views

Can all new gasoline vehicles run on E85 ethanol-based fuel?

From the the documentary Pump at 1:07: NARRATOR: But what if we don't need a flex fuel car or even a kit? What if the car you drive today already contained the technology that could enable it to ...
user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
3k views

Does the time of day affect fuel economy?

One tip that I heard as a young driver was something along the following: Try to refuel in the early morning or in the evening as the denser gas will get you better fuel economy. Since then I ...
rjzii's user avatar
  • 17k
4 votes
1 answer
771 views

Does Honda Civic CNG fare well in crash safety tests as claimed by its manufacturer?

Honda touts great safety for their Civic CNG, but I have second thoughts concerning their fuel tank's safety in rear-end collisions. I looked for some tests and data, but could not find anything ...
GregC's user avatar
  • 193
4 votes
0 answers
1k views

Are rear-end collisions more dangerous in Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) than Petrol cars?

Is it more dangerous to be in a passenger car with compressed natural gas than with a petrol fuel tank when it comes to rear-end collisions? Lawrence Godwin, on eZine claims there is a explosion risk ...
GregC's user avatar
  • 193