DOE joins drive for fuel cell cars

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Can anyone say Hindenburg?

This might be a dumb statement but can anyone say Hindenburg? If the fuel cell doesn't convert hydrogen, as needed, from water or some other stable, safe source then the vehicle will have a storage tank filled with very volatile hydrogen. Regardless of how much the auto industry does to make this safe there is no way to prevent an explosive disaster.

After all we know the auto industry has a history of reactive design. Most of the time they only make safety corrections after years of denials and after lots government/public pressure.

Remember the Pinto? One small sheet metal screw that would puncture the fuel tank in a rear end collision. But the cost of making the correction was more then the cost of paying for the damage (lost lives), so the problem remained until there was no way to continue avoiding not addressing it.

What about Ford and Firestone - was the problem with the Explorer or the tires or the driver? Firestone said the Explorer and the driver, Ford said the tires and the driver. How long did it take to finally get the problem addressed? It existed years before the public was even made aware of it. They acted only after there was so much negative publicity that they had to. Before that the public was never even told about the problem. After all if Ford or Firestone had admitted to the problem that would mean there was a problem. They would have had to explain why they had not already addressed the problem and it would imply blame and uncover their negligence and cause lots of lawsuits (or more lost lawsuits). It was cheaper to go to court and, if they lost, just settle the case on the condition that the records are sealed and the victims could not talk publicly about it.

Do we want these types building a "safe" hydrogen containment system? Not me. I don't want to die when someone rear ends me as 5 mile-per-hour and we both go boom. If they develop an on-demand delivery system I might consider it then.

Posted by: wolfinaz   Posted on: 05/09/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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