#845 Laying Rubber

It’s rare that I stomp on the gas. I’ve never been one of those “jackrabbit start” sort of drivers. Maybe I’m just too much of skinflint, but it never seemed smart to burn off a layer of rubber just to prove I had the capacity to reproduce.
Signs of maleness and displays of mating behavior have their place. I’m just not sure any potential mate would be impressed by a streak of black on the pavement. As I currently don’t have a mate, maybe I’m wrong.
Likewise, the strain to one’s automobile, in the stress put on the transmission and other mechanical items, can’t be economical in the long run. Nor is it particularly gas efficient. Study after study has shown that a sure way to burn off excess gas is to emerge from an intersection like a bat out of hell.
So with gas prices skyrocketing, Nissan thinks it has a fuel-saving answer to jackrabbiting drivers—a pedal that pushes back. If you stomp down on it too hard, it resists you. The car refuses to be pushed to inefficiency. The ECO pedal system can increase fuel efficiency by 5 to 10%.
You know, this is the stupidest thing I’ve heard in a long time. After years and years of tooling automotive engines to be super responsive, to go from 0 to 60 in 8 seconds, to be nimble in traffic and have the instantaneous power you need to pass and get out from under a lumbering duo of semis about to crush you, you’re going to install a pedal that pushes back?
How the hell does the pedal know whether I’m in a life or death situation and suddenly need to squirt out of there?
How the hell does the pedal know if I’m sitting at a stop sign and look in my rearview mirror and see some idiot about to plow into my backside because he’s yammering on his cellphone and not paying attention?
In this instance peeling out can save your life.
And yes, I suppose that means you’ll live to reproduce another day.
So I guess burning rubber can be a mating strategy.
America, ya gotta love it.