A wide-ranging safety rant links soaring car prices and shrinking fuel economy to policy shifts, then flirts with a fix: let Chinese automakers compete—if they build in the U.S., ditch subsidies, and address cybersecurity. &quot;Ghost” trucking fleets game DOT numbers to erase violations and push unsafe hours, begging for tighter oversight. Europe’s tiny Tesla FSD “quiz” gets mocked as flimsy liability theater, while both Musk and Waymo safety boasts are slammed as data-cherry-picking. Bright spot: $50M for ambulance blood transfusions at crash scenes. Bonus tips: carry a car fire extinguisher. Support the show! https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/04/13/opinion/affordable-car-cost.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylbvU-lmcpI https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-dangerous-trucking-schemes-putting-americans-at-risk-60-minutes-transcript/ https://insideevs.com/news/792801/europe-fsd-quiz-to-activate/ https://electrek.co/2026/04/08/musk-tesla-fsd-10x-safer-claim-doesnt-hold-up/ https://www.wbur.org/news/2026/04/13/blood-transfusion-trauma-patients-connecticut https://www.cbtnews.com/euro-ncap-says-u-s-politics-slowing-vehicle-safety-progress/ https://saferoads.org/2026-av-tech-truck-poll/ https://www.autosafety.org/autonomous-vehicle-checklist/ https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/fire-extinguisher-for-cars-do-you-need-one-and-which-type-is-best/ar-AA20RunG https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2026/RCLRPT-26V218-6077.pdf https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2026/RCLRPT-26V216-4969.pdf https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2026/RCLRPT-26V209-1445.pdf

Automated Gullibility

There Auto Be A Law

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** There Auto Be A Law

## Transcript

You're listening to There Auto Be A Law, the Center for Auto Safety podcast with Executive Director Michael Brooks, Chief Engineer Fred Perkins, and hosted by me, Anthony Simenon. For over 50 years, the Center for Auto Safety has worked to make cars safer. Hey, listeners. Today is Wednesday, April 15th, 2026. Pay your taxes.

Yeah, I guess. So doing this podcast, you get to listen to your own voice and you're like, oh, God. But no, it doesn't sound as good as this podcast. RFK Jr. has a podcast. That reset the bar, doesn't it? Yeah, so I have an amazing voice. But that's not what this show's about. This show's about safety and auto and wonderful things like that. So I'd like to start off this week with an opinion piece from The New York Times.

And no, this is not a nonsense opinion piece, at least in my opinion, my opinion about an opinion piece. No. No, this is one talking about there's where all the affordable cars go. Basically, it talks about how the auto industry has shifted from having in the late 70s, early 80s, these econo boxes, which sounds kind of derogatory, but they're good cars. They've got good fuel mileage and were affordable for people, and they've switched it over to, hey, you know what?

We can sell less cars, higher profit margins, and make them more dangerous. And that's essentially been their business model. And it talks about how there's fewer and fewer cars available at the $20,000 price point. There's fuel available under $30,000. The average vehicle is over $50,000 now, which is insane. It's worth checking out this article.

The one thing that jumped out at me that blew me away was it talks about the Honda Civic that first hit the market in 1973, and it had up to 54 miles per gallon. It got 54 miles per gallon in 1973. That's what – how are we going backwards? And what's the – I mean, I get our current cafe standards are ridiculous now, but it's – what is it supposed to be right now? Is it even 30 miles a gallon?

Average across the fleet, yes. But, you know, that doesn't mean every vehicle, obviously. Sure, it does. But, like, the – I mean, come on. The average from a vehicle from 1973, if that vehicle is getting 54 miles per gallon, it is 2026. Sure, we don't have our flying cars, but there's no reason these vehicles –

Yeah, I mean, before cafe was completely dismantled, we were looking at an average by 2030 of about 50.4 miles per gallon. Yeah, that's – That's not happening anymore, though. Well, at least, you know, under the Trump administration, whether we see a return to cafe and the emissions restrictions that we saw prior to this administration remains in question.

Yeah, it's mind-blowing to me that we used to have good things. And these were cars that – you know, a Honda Civic from 1973, you could probably easily throw 150,000 miles on it before it would die. Anyway, now, I mean, I guess not a lot of cars now, as long as you're not buying Ame...

Automated Gullibility

Transcript

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Automated Gullibility

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.