I'm sure most people are aware that the difference in danger is quite large but maybe not just how absurdly large.
Sharks kill about 10 people per year.
For cars the number is 1,670,000 deaths. Every year.
As a point of comparison, in 2025, about 250k people were killed in armed conflicts, which was the highest number in decades.
A lot of people think it's weird to hate cars as much as I do. But they are quantitatively in a similar category as the Holocaust in terms of how many people they kill. From the perspective, it seems a bit crazy not to hate them.
I am somewhat disturbed by how right you are about this. Car sales estimates are 90-100 million new cars per year, so assuming we're not putting 99 million new cars on the road every year, we're destroying a lot more than we're making. I'm not even gonna look at the numbers for sharks cuz I know it'll make me big sad.
I want us to redefine "pro-life" to mean pro-urbanism, pro-renewables, and pro-universal-healthcare. Just those 3 things would make for such a dramatic increase in life expectancy and fall in child mortality, it's crazy.
One thing I learned in my journey to power a home and drive an electric car is that automobiles, even small "slow" cars, are thr most powerful thing that most people ever personally own. A firearm will accelerate a 7.5 gram projectile up to 425 meters per second. But my car will accelrate 1600 kg up to 44 meters per second and I can just take it wherever I want. I could even get a larger, faster one if I wanted and nobody would care.
Unfortunately, evil people are starting to realize that heavy machinery is a far more deadly weapon than firearms in untrained hands. Guns may be for killing, but their chief merit is that they are designed to be reusable and at range, intended to encourage trained soldiers to fight in relative safety for many days.
The people taking cars and ramming into parades? They don't want to live, so they can use an extremely powerful weapon, no skill required. And this tool is everywhere, just barely regulated.
This is an important issue. People get upset when I bring this up because usually they're angry and they want to punish someone after these events, so they want to make it about immigrants, or fascists, or terrorists or whoever. But those people exist and frankly you are not going to get rid of them without doing something even worse than what they did.
The proper solution is to ensure that there is always physical separation between large groups of pedestrians and cars so that these ramming attacks simply cannot take place. Some well-placed bollards are all it takes.
I think both metrics would tell you different things. Even unadjusted it gives you an idea about which thing you should be concerned about addressing and reducing your own risk or the risk of those you care about.
Plus, I don't have exposure data like that to make the comparison. If you do then it would certainly be interesting to see.
This was exactly my thought. Like I grew up by the ocean where lots of people swam and there were sharks. Did car deaths outnumber shark deaths? Of course. Was it 6 orders of magnitude as much? Not even close lmao.
Nah, they're just very territorial, protective of their young, and deceptively fast. Long as you steer clear, it's not like they're going to stalk you for several miles to kill you like a tiger might 🤷🏻
Last I checked, there's very little territorial overlap between hippos and sharks 😄
I used to be surf patrol. Would explain it, "You're far more likely to die in the car on the way to the beach. If you survive that, odds are you drown before a shark is even in the area. So stay where I can see you and you might just get lucky one day."
I was just at an aquarium the other day joking that jaws would be a very different movie if you swapped out the shark design for, say, an epaulette shark. Would look too goofy to take seriously.
sharks play into man's fear of nature, and regardless of the reality of shark attacks, the plot is going to seem reasonable. man can't control nature. oohhh, scary.
a killer car film is generally going to require some supernatural element and then be accused of being 'schlocky' or 'so bad it's good,' like in this thread. if you're killed by a car, most people would consider it someone's fault--either the pedestrian or one of the drivers, and an 80 year old with poor eyesight doesn't make for a good horror film.
i guess you could make some silly a24 'arthouse' film called 'the passenger.' it would be about a sane passenger in a car driven by an increasingly reckless driver that builds up to a life-altering crash. it could answer questions about 'why didn't they just ask to be let out?'
I kind of think car crashes could fit pretty well into my horror movie idea, Sanewashing; in which an amateur serial killer is clumsily killing people, but an overbearing sense of “normalcy” is preventing people from panicking or investigating, just viewing the deaths as tragedies rather than mysteries.
Something that could be thematic is to just have someone hear about a friend being killed, and be completely on edge; but then hear it was a car crash, and all tension releases.
if you make this into a colored wrap i'll embarrass my bike guy, Jimmy Bikes when i go in to talk about my annual tuneup and ask him how much to make my bike look like this
So it makes sense. In the Cars universe, everything seems to be build for human, but perhaps sentient cars started to kill off everyone and then live in that world.
There's a few of them but they're pretty schlocky. Christine is probably the best known one. There is also Duel, The Car, and maximum overdrive are the classics. Wheels of Terror was one I watched and tbh it wasn't bad enough to go over to the "so bad it's good" camp.
88 Comments
LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net · 83 pts · 4d
I'm sure most people are aware that the difference in danger is quite large but maybe not just how absurdly large.
Sharks kill about 10 people per year.
For cars the number is 1,670,000 deaths. Every year.
As a point of comparison, in 2025, about 250k people were killed in armed conflicts, which was the highest number in decades.
A lot of people think it's weird to hate cars as much as I do. But they are quantitatively in a similar category as the Holocaust in terms of how many people they kill. From the perspective, it seems a bit crazy not to hate them.
Sources: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692324000267 https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/yearly-worldwide-summary/ https://www.npr.org/2026/06/09/nx-s1-5850355/data-highest-conflicts-iran-israel-ukraine-russia-world-war-ii
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 4d
I'd ask if you come from !fuckcars@lemmy.world but I think we both know the answer is yes.
Me too.
LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net · 19 pts · 4d
I've always felt this way but that community has been huge for making me realize that a lot of other people feel the same way too!
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 21 pts · 4d
Also, in both cases many more are killed by humans than the other way around.
CombatWombat@feddit.online · 20 pts · 4d
I am somewhat disturbed by how right you are about this. Car sales estimates are 90-100 million new cars per year, so assuming we're not putting 99 million new cars on the road every year, we're destroying a lot more than we're making. I'm not even gonna look at the numbers for sharks cuz I know it'll make me big sad.
Bytemeister@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 4d
Watch this and be not so sad...
https://youtu.be/5GRp7NoCWiA
In case you are paranoid from the thumbnail, no one gets even close to getting hurt, including the sharks.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 4d
And yet people think I’m crazy for hating people as much as I do.
VieuxQueb@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 4d
I'm the one that's sick apparently not the world.
MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 4d
balsoft@lemmy.ml · 17 pts · 4d
I want us to redefine "pro-life" to mean pro-urbanism, pro-renewables, and pro-universal-healthcare. Just those 3 things would make for such a dramatic increase in life expectancy and fall in child mortality, it's crazy.
LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net · 4 pts · 4d
Great idea!
CADmonkey@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 4d
One thing I learned in my journey to power a home and drive an electric car is that automobiles, even small "slow" cars, are thr most powerful thing that most people ever personally own. A firearm will accelerate a 7.5 gram projectile up to 425 meters per second. But my car will accelrate 1600 kg up to 44 meters per second and I can just take it wherever I want. I could even get a larger, faster one if I wanted and nobody would care.
SabinStargem@lemmy.today · 7 pts · 4d
Unfortunately, evil people are starting to realize that heavy machinery is a far more deadly weapon than firearms in untrained hands. Guns may be for killing, but their chief merit is that they are designed to be reusable and at range, intended to encourage trained soldiers to fight in relative safety for many days.
The people taking cars and ramming into parades? They don't want to live, so they can use an extremely powerful weapon, no skill required. And this tool is everywhere, just barely regulated.
LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net · 8 pts · 4d
This is an important issue. People get upset when I bring this up because usually they're angry and they want to punish someone after these events, so they want to make it about immigrants, or fascists, or terrorists or whoever. But those people exist and frankly you are not going to get rid of them without doing something even worse than what they did.
The proper solution is to ensure that there is always physical separation between large groups of pedestrians and cars so that these ramming attacks simply cannot take place. Some well-placed bollards are all it takes.
CADmonkey@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 4d
Its also very easy to kill someone with a car "aCciDenTaLly" and get away with it, maybe have to pay a ticket.
LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 4d
Yeah. I know someone who was hit by a car at low speeds and survived but they still received a life-changing injury.
CADmonkey@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 4d
Thats the other thing. Doesn't have to kill to ruin a life. :-(
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 4d
While I don't disagree much, let's not be silly. The numbers need to be divided by hours of exposure.
LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net · 4 pts · 4d
I think both metrics would tell you different things. Even unadjusted it gives you an idea about which thing you should be concerned about addressing and reducing your own risk or the risk of those you care about.
Plus, I don't have exposure data like that to make the comparison. If you do then it would certainly be interesting to see.
Azazel@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 4d
This was exactly my thought. Like I grew up by the ocean where lots of people swam and there were sharks. Did car deaths outnumber shark deaths? Of course. Was it 6 orders of magnitude as much? Not even close lmao.
AviAdi@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 4d
#theydidthemath
RoidingOldMan@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 4d
Stephen King wrote this book and it was made into a movie and a Futurama episode.
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 4d
Really? I must have forgotten the part of Christine where the car becomes amphibious!
Granted, it HAS been a few decades since I read it..
Vandals_handle@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 4d
Stephen King wrote this short story and directed the movie it was made into.
marcos@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 4d
Yeah, I tried searching for it, but all I got where some sites with "20 best ghost car movies of all times"...
sundray@lemmus.org · 14 pts · 4d
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works · 13 pts · 4d
Y'know, I think I could believe that cars kill more people than sharks even at sea.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 4d
what if we were to give cars, idunno, wings. or maybe rockets. i know let's have a rocket company build cars and see how many people those would kill
the_flying_pig@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 4d
Hippos kill a lot more people than sharks.
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 32 pts · 4d
I'm frankly surprised that hippos kill ANY sharks tbh 🤷🏻
Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 4d
I'm not. IIRC they're technically herbivores, they just really fuckin' hate other creatures for some reason
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 8 pts · 4d
Nah, they're just very territorial, protective of their young, and deceptively fast. Long as you steer clear, it's not like they're going to stalk you for several miles to kill you like a tiger might 🤷🏻
Last I checked, there's very little territorial overlap between hippos and sharks 😄
Frenchgeek@lemmy.ml · 10 pts · 4d
The driver? A loan shark.
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 10 pts · 4d
The passenger? A pool shark
tetris11@feddit.uk · 5 pts · 4d
The person in the trunk? A card shark
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 3d
The fish seeing to their injuries? A nurse shark
tetris11@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 3d
The shark circling the altruistic fish? A cat in disguise.
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 3d
The weirdo trying and failing spectacularly to go "pspspspsps" underwater? Me
tetris11@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 3d
*cat comes anyway and sits on your lap, sinking you further into the watery abyss*
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 3d
Worth it
saltesc@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 4d
I used to be surf patrol. Would explain it, "You're far more likely to die in the car on the way to the beach. If you survive that, odds are you drown before a shark is even in the area. So stay where I can see you and you might just get lucky one day."
CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social · 9 pts · 4d
I was just at an aquarium the other day joking that jaws would be a very different movie if you swapped out the shark design for, say, an epaulette shark. Would look too goofy to take seriously.
schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 4d
You couldn't very well call it Jaws with choppers like that. Maybe Spots?
AviAdi@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 4d
FuckCars is spreading 😂😂
Wataba@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 4d
How repugnant.
FreeLikeGNU@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 4d
Christine (1983) rolls into the room.
tacosanonymous@mander.xyz · 5 pts · 4d
And Maximum Overdrive too.
FluidBeef@quokk.au · 3 pts · 4d
And Herbie Goes Bananas.
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 4d
And Debbie Does Dallas
..wait, what were we talking about again?
rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 8 pts · 4d
whereitsat@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 4d
sharks play into man's fear of nature, and regardless of the reality of shark attacks, the plot is going to seem reasonable. man can't control nature. oohhh, scary.
a killer car film is generally going to require some supernatural element and then be accused of being 'schlocky' or 'so bad it's good,' like in this thread. if you're killed by a car, most people would consider it someone's fault--either the pedestrian or one of the drivers, and an 80 year old with poor eyesight doesn't make for a good horror film.
i guess you could make some silly a24 'arthouse' film called 'the passenger.' it would be about a sane passenger in a car driven by an increasingly reckless driver that builds up to a life-altering crash. it could answer questions about 'why didn't they just ask to be let out?'
Katana314@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 4d
I kind of think car crashes could fit pretty well into my horror movie idea, Sanewashing; in which an amateur serial killer is clumsily killing people, but an overbearing sense of “normalcy” is preventing people from panicking or investigating, just viewing the deaths as tragedies rather than mysteries.
Something that could be thematic is to just have someone hear about a friend being killed, and be completely on edge; but then hear it was a car crash, and all tension releases.
dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 4d
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Proof
tetris11@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 4d
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_(2010_film)
WesternInfidels@feddit.online · 2 pts · 3d
The Car (1977)
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 4d
ThE WaYmO wItH bUsTed HaNdLeS
DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth · 5 pts · 4d
Pretty sure they made that movie a few times.
Plus, there's that tire documentary called Rubber.
OwOarchist@pawb.social · 4 pts · 4d
They dramatized it a bit, but tires actually do kill a lot of people. Mostly by releasing toxic dust as they gradually wear down.
DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth · 5 pts · 4d
Sometimes that, sometimes they fly off and hit people, sometimes they psychically destroy them with crazy magic tire powers.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 4d
dude i have to change my bike tires and i have those tannis inserts do NOT remind me. i am just going to pay the shop this time.
DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth · 2 pts · 3d
Nothing wrong with that! I did the same last time haha
Jiral@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 4d
That car is way too cute. They usually come in XXL.
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 4d
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 4d
if you make this into a colored wrap i'll embarrass my bike guy, Jimmy Bikes when i go in to talk about my annual tuneup and ask him how much to make my bike look like this
edit i tell a like his name is Ronaldo Bikes
Wataba@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 4d
It's called Maximum Overdrive.
rslogix89@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 4d
Gonna need a bigger car…
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 4d
And so goes the us automotive industry.
Nasan@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 4d
Jaws theme but all you hear is a rattly bass and the windows close to breaking
ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 3d
Compared to shark attacks, more than 1,000 times the number of people each year choke to death. Now THAT'S a movie I'd watch!
FluidBeef@quokk.au · 4 pts · 4d
Did anyone else think this was going to be cows? (more people are killed by cattle each year than by shark attacks)
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 4d
🙋🏻
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 4d
i thought it was going to be vending machines or pianos
MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 4d
Revenge of the Street Fighter bonus stage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmXbHsXS6Tc
psx_crab@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 4d
So it makes sense. In the Cars universe, everything seems to be build for human, but perhaps sentient cars started to kill off everyone and then live in that world.
Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 4d
Oh shit, SHARK CAR!
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 4d
dun dun vrooom vrooom
Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 4d
Mosquitoes.
neuromorph@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 4d
moose jaws!!!
CADmonkey@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 4d
I remember a book about a killer car. Don't know if there was a movie.
notthebees@reddthat.com · 3 pts · 4d
There's a few of them but they're pretty schlocky. Christine is probably the best known one. There is also Duel, The Car, and maximum overdrive are the classics. Wheels of Terror was one I watched and tbh it wasn't bad enough to go over to the "so bad it's good" camp.
CADmonkey@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 4d
Ok so there IS a movie based on the book.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 4d
Death Race
Vandals_handle@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 4d
Which boot you referring to?
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 8 pts · 4d
The boot (trunk) of the car.
Also, there's a double entendre since "boot" is also German for boat. Triple if you find a way of making Das Boot relevant to the comic 🤷🏻
Vandals_handle@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 4d
Boat, car trunk and foot ware. Isn't that a triple right there.
Full disclosure, I may of been dropped on my math cells as a child.
OwOarchist@pawb.social · 1 pts · 4d
Canadian as well.
MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 4d
How boot you take a long walk off a short dock, ya hoser.
MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 4d
The British kind.