Fittingly enough after writing an extended review about a book about the pitfalls of rules that don’t allow for exceptions, I came across a recent news story about a recall issued for the recent ID.Buzz electric van from Volkswagen.
Vehicles can be recalled for all kinds of reasons, of course. A vehicle I bought a couple of years ago recently had a recall issued to address a software bug that could make cruise control unexpectedly accelerate to dangerous levels in rare cases. This was clearly a good basis for a recall and for a fix to be issued. So, what was the critical flaw afflicting the ID.Buzz?
Well, it turns out Volkswagen had given passengers in the back row too much space. In most three row vehicles, the seats in the last row tend to be small and cramped, but Volkswagen designed their vehicle to make the seats comfortable and spacious, allowing for a pleasant seating experience. Regulators, however, would have none of this. You see, the back row consists of two seats, both wide enough to comfortably seat two full size adults. In fact, the seats were so spacious that regulators argued people might decide to squeeze a third person in the back row, between the two designated seats. But that third person wouldn’t have a seatbelt! Therefore the only acceptable option according to regulators is to make sure that the seats can only barely fit two people. If you let car manufactures provide space to safely and comfortably fit two passengers, people might take the opportunity to unsafely and uncomfortably squeeze in three passengers. So the rules require you only allow enough space to seat two people uncomfortably.
In order to bring things in line with what The Rules Require™, Volkswagen will take in the recalled vehicles and install a barrier in between the two seats in the back row, effectively shrinking the seating space available to convert it into the kind of cramped seating the law demands. I imagine a lot of current ID.Buzz owners will decline to get their car “fixed” in this way and just ignore the recall, but future owners will not be so lucky.
Of course, it is possible that some people will attempt to do something foolish like squeeze three people into a seating area designed for two, leaving one person without a seatbelt and placing themselves at risk. On the other hand, the list of ways people can make equally foolish and risky decisions is approximately infinity pages long. There really does come a point where sensible rules takes a turn into living a life where Mrs. Grundy is hovering over you at every moment, constantly yelling “No stop it stop it stop it you might hurt yourself!” at your every move.
And when the day-to-day life of citizens looks less like “give me liberty or give me death!” and more like “please regulate my seating space to stop me from hurting myself with bad choices,” I’d say we’ve long since crossed that point.
