Austin Vernon on X: "@mattyglesias Once driving automation software nearly eliminates wrecks then you can lightweight the vehicles by removing all the safety related equipment and steel frame. That will decrease road, tire, and brake wear significantly." / X

An inconvenient truth … also raises the question of whether anyone is working on tires and breaks that don’t have these characteristics.

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Stefan Schubert

@StefanFSchubert

11h

Particulate matter local air pollution from road transport is much less due to petrol exhaust than most people think. More is due to brake, tyre, and road wear. This means the effects of electrifying the car fleet in local air pollution are smaller than one might have wished.

Oh wait good news here, the regenerative breaks that EVs use are less prone to this kind of wear than conventional friction breaks so electrification does help with the non-exhaust pollution as well. alphamotorinc.com/about/regenera.

alphamotorinc.com

Alpha Motor — Regenerative Braking: A Key Advantage Of EVs

Regenerative braking enhances EV efficiency, range, and reduces brake wear, outperforming ICE vehicles.

20K

Austin Vernon

@Vernon3Austin

Once driving automation software nearly eliminates wrecks then you can lightweight the vehicles by removing all the safety related equipment and steel frame. That will decrease road, tire, and brake wear significantly.

5:01 AM · Jun 7, 2025

23.5K

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Dale Cooper, NH Supremacist

@Dbl_R_Diner

7h

In this case you’d have to assume government removed safety regulations. Having enough autonomous vehicles on the road to even start considering changing regulations is decades away. Though, i guess this is a theoretically possible 50-year horizon outcome.

IIRC for trains in America, similar improvements in safety have not led to reducing their safety mechanisms to make the trains lighter. That has happened elsewhere, though. Also, will the accident rate in inclement weather get low enough? Many snow accidents aren’t human error.

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@NittoTire

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Can't lightweight trucks.

Ubiquitous autonomous cars can also eliminate the need for speed bumps, stop signs, and traffic lights. Brakes would effectively be only for emergencies.