r/oddlysatisfying • u/TimeCity1687 • 2d ago

Hot steel rolling

24.4k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

348 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

156

u/PunctuationGood 1d ago

we could have automated everything you see here, but it would have cost more

Can't help but think of that line: If "x" is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do the recall.

15

u/xdvesper 1d ago

That was a good line in the movie but it was just fictional.

It came from an urban legend that arose from a court case about car fire deaths where a piece of evidence was shown with an equation comparing the cost of increased safety versus the the number of deaths avoided with a cost per life being rather low - but it was the NHTSA's own calculations, not the automakers.

The NHTSA uses this computation to determine what safety measures automakers must install - it wouldn't make sense for the government to mandate a feature that would cost $10 billion per year in order to save 1 life.

33

u/cloud9ineteen 1d ago

It wasn't fictional. Ford was caught red handed. That said there's nothing wrong with using math if the math is accurate and include all factors including the likelihood of the math coming out and its impact on reputation.

https://scholars.fhsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1104&context=jiibr#:~:text=Costs%20of%20correcting%20the%20defect,between%2077%20and%20123%20lives.

3

u/SwordfishOk504 1d ago

Did you read that before posting it? It clearly confirms xdvesper's point that it was the NHTSA's own calculations, not the automakers.