don't get me wrong
npr is one thousand times better
than what normally passes for news
but even they have a tendency to beat things to death
like every other peddler of
the twenty-four hour news cycle
this week it's non-stop toyota recall
updates
and just like every other safety story
it spawns others
a 737 goes down for reasons unknown
and suddenly we're hearing about
rudder problems
landing gear issues
before we even know what happened
lacking real substance
these things fade promptly
but we enjoy the panic for
a few days
the thought that machines to which we
entrust
our lives
are made so shoddily
by evil corporations
that the revelation of one problem
is the proverbial tip of the iceberg
it's not that i have faith in corporations
hardly
but i have faith in their fear of
lawsuit
of regulation
[back when we had that sort of thing]
and faith in the idea that they have
a thousand engineers for every
moustache twirling
fat cat ready to weigh the decision
on cost alone
i have no love for toyota either
i've mentioned before that their advertisements
reach that transcendent point of annoyance where they
inspire antipathy
for their brand
but let's look at it in simple terms
a small problem with a gas pedal
that has not yet resulted in mediagenic fiery wrecks
is being conscientiously fixed
and the next logical thing is to start airing out
speculative 'problems' with other parts of their vehicles
cars are complicated animals
that have design flaws
and are sometimes put together imperfectly
just like everything else
probability suggests that the combination of circumstance
does not result in fiery wrecks very often
if we start digging under every problem
we're going to find more
they almost certainly exist
remember
humans design these things
and humans build them
humans also drive them
in general when they kill someone it's operator error
in the event the design increases the likelihood of something
bad
happening
something should be done
which it is
so why isn't it the end of the story
