Interesting Links for 24-03-2021

[andrewducker]

Amazon sell sex toys. If your affiliate links to them are from a site with adult content then they'll drop you and keep the money you earned

(tags:Amazon sextoys OhForFucksSake )

Chances of eliminating Covid from UK or around the world 'close to zero'

(tags:pandemic thefuture )

One of the world's largest cargo ships is stuck blocking the Suez Canal

(tags:canal shipping epicfail )

UK seeks to drill more oil and gas from North Sea

(tags:oil gas UK globalwarming Doom )

How Penny Arcade manages PAX tickets - and why your idea to fix them won't work

(tags:tickets pennyarcade )

Boris Johnson faces barrage of criticism for claiming 'greed' is behind Covid vaccine success

(tags:vaccine UK BorisJohnson conservatives )

Unpaid environmental damages from fossil fuels are a $600B annual subsidy

(tags:environment usa electricity energy subsidies )

Comments

[andrewducker]

From the data here it looks like there will be a significant number of petrol cars on the road until about 2050.
https://www.smmt.co.uk/industry-topics/sustainability/average-vehicle-age/

[danieldwilliam]

So that's an average of about 7% of cars being scrapped each year.

[armiphlage]

I suspect that insurance company policies will be what takes ICE vehicles off the road. Not because of the engine, but because collision-avoidance systems in newer vehicles will make older vehicles riskier to insure in comparison, with correspondingly high premiums. ICE vehicles will rapidly become status symbols for the rich.

The same goes for self-driving cars. The technology doesn't have to be perfect before there is a sudden change, it just has to be better than the average driver. The day insurance companies start charging you extra for having a steering wheel is the day that autonomous vehicle adoption will spike.

[danieldwilliam]

I think there is a something in what you say. In a world where collision avoidance technology is rapidly improving newer cars will be cheaper to insure than older cars. Anhd combined with other cost factors like new electric cars being cheaper to buy and to drive and to own we might see a bit of an uptick in car turnover.

I'm not convinced that it's enough of a difference to drive a signficantly increased turn over.

I'm not sure I know by how much it would reduce car insurance. I don't know how much of the cost of an insurance policy is changed by a reduction in the likelihood of crash. A fair bit based on the reduction in premiums you see between young men in their first few years of driving and pretty much everyone else.

But young men in their first years of driving usually lack the capital to buy a brand new car.

My Lovely Wife's car insurance policy is about £200 a year. She's a good driver, with many, many years of no accidents. My 23 year old daughter pays £600 a year to be the second named driver on her boyfriend's car. My 40 year old brother in Australia is about £250 a year.

So even if collision avoidance software on a new car halved those insurance premiums I'm not convinced that's enough of a difference to bring forward the purchase of a new car.

There might be more of an impact for fleet vehicles.

[armiphlage]

WOW!

Googling indicates the UK averages £471 per year, but that's really cheap compared to North America. I don't understand why there is such a significant difference.


The average price of car insurance in my province (Ontario, Canada) is double that of the UK, at $1920 CAD per year, or 1,108 UK lbs. Asking around at work gave similar numbers - my department (mostly women in their 50s with no accidents) is $1100 - $1600 Canadian per year (635 to 924 UK lbs). Most insurance companies will discount this by 5% if you install snow tires each winter.

In the US, perhaps because of its health care system, the average price of car insurance is higher, with one source giving the average to be $2388 US per year, or 1727 UK lbs.


https://insureye.com/average-car-insurance-rates-in-ontario-1920-per-year/
https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/average-cost-of-car-insurance
https://www.finder.com/uk/how-much-does-car-insurance-cost
https://mozo.com.au/insurance/car-insurance/guides/car-insurance-in-2019-how-much-does-it-cost-and-how-can-you-save#:~:text=Aussies%20are%20paying%20an%20average,Australia%20is%20%241%2C047%20on%20average.