Special concerns about electric vehicles in the collapsed garage.

0:00 Speaker 1 What is today’s Doctor Peter Michlos are in house doctor, a scientist, historian, observer, Doctor Mihlosa. I so much enjoyed talking to you. And there’s so many problems in the world. Which one are we facing now?

0:19 Speaker 2 Well, today we’re going to talk about some of the new research done by the civil engineers in England who are very concerned about the increased weight of electric cars with the electric car batteries, and some of the older parking garages that were built in the sixties, seventies and eighties, which structurally were designed to handle the average weight of

0:41 a car and during those periods, which was around three thousand pounds, and now we’ve been approaching five thousand pounds. And there’s one particular model of a new electric larger suv that weighs nine thousand, four hundred and six pounds.

0:58 So guess what happens with these old large parking garages which have rebar that is now starting to rust out and some of the concrete may not be up to the high PSI necessary. So these engineers have done calculations and said that if we have some of these heavier cars parking, especially in the upper floors of some of

1:20 these parking garages, we’re going to start seeing these collapses, and these collapses are going to be quite severe and also will potentially put on the large moldering car fires, which are a big problem. So they’re making recommendations that these buildings have to be short up with additional beams and poles and strengthening the floors up by twenty percent

1:48 to avoid a major disaster. So they’re making these recommendations preemptively.

1:53 Speaker 1 Are you talking about almost almost every garage in our city. If they’re going to get more and more electric cars, which is double the weight because of the batteries.

2:03 Speaker 2 Yeah, that’s going to be a problem. So I think we’re going to you know that, I think preemptively a lot of owners of these garages, their insurance companies now are going to become aware and they’re going to have engineers do engineering reports and they’re going to have to start shoring up because of the large weight. But the

2:18 large weight of electric cars is also a problem because the Independent Safety and Insurance the IHSS, which evaluates car safety, says that yes, electric cars are being built structurally safe, but because of their extra weight, they’re putting other cars the lighter spoiler cars at risk because the amount of force per unit area. When a electric car it’s a

2:40 smaller car or even a large regular sedan car, the weight is so disproportionately higher that it will end up causing severe damage to the occupants of the other car. And this is going to be an increasing issue with the large weight. Does people want more range and we now know that in cold weather cuts the range of

3:01 the electric car, So people getting these larger batteries adding more weight. So if you get hit or t boned and aside impact collision by one of these super heavy electric cars, we’re going to be seeing more fatalities and these types of crashes. So the engineers are putting out the alert and we just want to make our audience

3:21 aware on WABC and all those people out there who might own parking garages start doing a due diligence and be preemptive because it would be a real disaster if the weight brought down one of these older parking garages that are located throughout the country and throughout our five boroughs as well.

3:40 Speaker 1 If the other thing I’m concerned about one thing is the weight of those electric cars with the batteries the other thing is the volatility of them catching fire, like I know we’re gonna we had the other day we had on people from the Fire Union that are concerned that the fires can happen and you can’t put them

4:04 out that easily.

4:06 Speaker 2 Yeah, that’s one of the concerns. We need to have a national standard that any batteries related to these electric bicycles, for example, have to be UL approved and they should not be really allowed to be imported into the country until they can pass a United Laboratories inspection. And also to consider when they’re being stored or they’re being charged,

4:27 that they have fire bags. Just like you have bags that you can put in valuables and papers in your house, there should be bags that you can put these batteries in while they’re charging, so if they do ignite or they do catch fire, that there is some type of shielding to limit the degree of spread of the fires.

4:47 Because we not only worry about the fire and burning itself, but we worry about the hydrogen cyanide gas that is produced by the electric battery burning and breeding in that lithium ion for a sustained period of just more than a few minutes could potentially kill someone, So that’s something that also needs to be considered and addressed.

5:11 Speaker 1 Well, that’s a lot of uh, that’s a lot of new things on our plates. Uh and uh any good news, I mean, it’s just.

5:19 Speaker 2 Well, the good news is that you know, cars today are extremely safe, just like you know some of the great cars, like our friends over at Ramsey Mazda that make the Mazda five, the Mazda three, those are excellent cars and they get perfect front and side impact collisions.

5:38 And the newer cars have airbags in the front at the side and ease and the structural safety cages on cars are being made much better. And now we have cars that can stop automatically, have the pedestrian stops in front of them with these new radars and ice sight devices, and sometimes if your reflexes aren’t fast enough, if somebody

5:58 stops in front of you, cars can stop dally. And some of these features are going to save a lot of lives and reduce a lot of collisions with these electronic safety things that are coming out. So we’re seeing a lot of progress and car safety. But one of the things we worry about is the operator of cars.

6:15 That’s why we talked about in WABC. We worry about all these marijuana drivers now who are going to have DW high and driving around while high in marijuana. So we might be seeing more accidents. But the cars are getting smarter and safer, so that hopefully will help save lives, and especially with children. Please use the proper car seats

6:38 and buckle in your children properly. And the preferred space is the back middle seat. So if you get a side impact then you have a child, that’s probably one of the safest places in the car and the highest survival rate as long as you’re belted in properly.

6:53 Speaker 1 Well, Doctor Peterman, hellos, thank you so much for coming on and keeping the American people and all New Yorkers and Americans informed. And I think we got to do some more homework on these electric cars. And I think we have to do some more homework on the weight of these cars and garages and the other thing I’m

7:15 concerned about. I’m having lunch with one of the big executives of an insurance company. If these cars are exploding, how do you put them into your family home? Because if they can’t put the fire out, you didn’t lose the whole house. Why would the insurance company ensure your house.

7:34 Speaker 2 You know, one of the problems of the society. Sometimes our technology is a little bit faster than the realities of the side effects of some of these new technologies. Like we’ve talked about in WABC, when X rays first came out, they use it for acne until they found out it caused thyroid cancer. So sometimes we need to

7:51 do more due diligence. You’re right, and that’s why people need to listen to WABC and keep track of what’s going on to make things better and safer and keep getting the truth out.

8:01 Speaker 1 Well, thank you, doctor Peter me hello, and we’ll catch up with again real soon. Thank you so much.

8:06 Speaker 2 Thank you John