Japanese idea of using satellite for split water on the ground

I wonder about the product liability implications of hydrogen-powered
automobiles. I saw an article in the paper recently discussing a company
that is making hydrogen storage tanks for use in such vehicles. The tanks
described were pressurized to several thousand PSI (four thousand, if I
remember correctly). Although I am sure that engineers can do wonders to
keep such a device as safe as possible, it is inevitable that as cars age
and very high energy collisions take place that there will eventually be
uncontained explosions and catastrophic fires associated with such tanks.

When that happens, the product liability plaintiff lawyers will go ape and
have a field day, and they will sway jurors to award billion dollar
punitive damage awards to the family of poor Mary Lou who was burned to
crisp. If you think this is an exaggeration, you're wrong. I used to
work for a firm called Failure Analysis Associates (now a subsidiary of
Exponent Group) that provided expert testimony for product liability
cases. When I started, the first $100 million dollar product liability
punitive damage awards (e.g., Mosely trial, GM C/K pickup trucks, 1973-87)
were in the news; now they are a dime a dozen. This is the sickness of
American product liability law. Even if the frequency of such explosions
and burning deaths is vanishingly rare, it is still the case that
plaintiff lawyers can extract hundreds of millions (even billions!) of
dollars in settlement fees (typical -- most cases never go to court) or
punitive damage awards.

So, the question I have to any fan of hydrogen-powered cars is this:
"How will you (you, meaning the manufacturer) protect your company against
product liability arising from explosions or burning deaths associated
with the hydrogen?"

Ron

cfrjlr@...
01/10/02 09:15 AM

ground

There has been a lot of talk on TV about using hydrogen powered cars, in
poroduction by 2007.

Fuel efficient petrol/gasoline cars are being dropped.

How will the hydrogen be produced ?

Is this a possible new mass market for SPS ?

Cheers,

Charles R.