[jws]

The Google cars are licensed as Neighborhood Electric Vehicles. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighborhood_Electric_Vehicl...

This means they are legally limited to 25mph and legally allowed to drive on roadways with speed limits up to 45mph.

NEVs let you have very light weight, inexpensive vehicles with exceptional economy… that would be instant death traps in a high speed collision. They don't undergo ordinary crash testing. Think of them as posh golf carts.

I looked into getting an NEV, but most of my local streets are 30mph and I can't in good conscience drive down them at 25mph.

[semi-extrinsic]

At least your NEVs are limited to less than 25 mph. Here in Europe, cars like the Renault Twizy [1], the Reva etc. are all registered as four-wheel motorbikes because they won't survive a crash test. But they will easily do 50 mph and you can legally drive them on any highway. These things really are death traps.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Twizy

[Joeri]

It's no more dangerous than driving a motorbike. People do that all the time without worrying about the risk.

[alistairSH]

While they may not "worry" about the risk, they are certainly cognizant of it. Most wear helmets and gloves, many wear armor and leathers.

In the case of a NEV, it's a 4-wheel car with doors... Unless told otherwise, most drivers are going to assume they meet passenger car safety standards.

[reticulated]

That's true, but consider the amount of extra protection a rider wears in order to mitigate risk of injury.

[Piskvorrr]

Worrying about the risk does not correlate with the actual risk. Funny how you picked the poster example of this.