Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [road-vehicles]

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

Road vehicle with four wheels and an engine intended to be a means of transport.

190 questions
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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. Having commuted for some time, I've noticed that…
Brian M. Hunt
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Does China control 85% of the supply of rare metals used in lithium batteries?

A selected letter in The Guardian talking about electric vehicles claims: The rare metals in lithium batteries are produced only in inconvenient places. More than 85% of the world’s supply comes from China. How dependent will that make us upon…
Fizz
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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. The source provided is All Fun and Games which itself…
Casebash
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Does the 'two-second rule' provide a valid minimum gap for safe driving?

Most of us will have been taught the two-second rule when learning to drive. The two-second rule is a rule of thumb by which a driver may maintain a safe following distance at any speed. The rule is that a driver should ideally stay at least two…
Mark Booth
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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 almost certainly fail. Is this true? PS: my…
Alex
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Did car and oil companies actively try to suppress electric cars' development?

According to some (e.g. the documentary film Who Killed the Electric Car?), car and oil companies have actively tried to suppress electric cars' development. Electric cars seem to have technological benefits so indeed I wonder why they're virtually…
StackExchange saddens dancek
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Do women get cheaper car insurance?

My coworker told me women pay less car insurance than men. So I did some research and found some sites proving that. For example: According to How Age And Gender Affect Car Insurance Rates, women tend to pay less for car insurance than men. How can…
Grasper
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Did older car odometers rewind when driving backwards?

I've always heard that way-back-when, the simplest way to rewind a car's odometer was to drive backwards (at least in some models). Is this true? Did those manufacturers miss such an obvious gaming method?
yydl
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Did 9/11 lead to many deaths due to car accidents "dwarfing" the attacks themselves?

Well-renowned security expert Bruce Schneier claims that In the months after 9/11, so many people chose to drive instead of fly that the resulting deaths dwarfed the deaths from the terrorist attack itself, because cars are much more dangerous than…
Sklivvz
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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 just a myth?
TheTechGuy
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Will putting a car remote under your chin increase its range?

Image source: Miniseed blog I've heard this before and anecdotally have thought I've experienced it working, but I thought I'd ask here. Many years ago, someone told me that putting a car remote (unlock/lock/alarm/auto-start) under my chin would…
Hendy
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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 almost universally ignored by passersby, people in…
John Rhoades
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Is gearing down more energy efficient than braking?

When spotting a red light or similar, I often release the gas pedal, gear down and let the engine decelerate instead of pressing the brake pedal. I was taught that this was more energy efficient for some reason, but I never really understood why. Is…
Benjamin Lindqvist
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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 driving ability? For example: Men stereotypically tend…
zzzzBov
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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. While this is metric is only one part of the larger…
Wai Yip Tung
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