explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1837: Rental Car

2017-05-16T23:12:27Z

Phantomspy: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 1837
| date = May 15, 2017
| title = Rental Car
| image = rental_car.png
| titletext = Technically, both cars are haunted, but the murder ghosts can't stand listening to the broken GPS for more than a few minutes.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Work in progress}}

In this comic the couple [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] want to rent a car. The [[:Category:Multiple Cueballs|Cueball-like guy]] from the {{w|car rental}} agency tells them they only have two vehicles available:
* One car that puts its occupants into mortal danger, so much so that it is called ''The Murder Car''. The danger, however, is abstract – the car is haunted by a {{w|ghost}}, and actual death befalls only "maybe one in six". (That is the equivalent of a round of {{w|Russian Roulette}}.) This is the fatality rate for drivers (in this case, Megan), while the rate for passengers is not mentioned.
* The other car, a regular {{w|Sedan (automobile)|sedan}}, has a defective {{w|GPS}} that incessantly gives instructions to go specifically to {{w|Seattle}}, regardless of the driver's intention to go there. And it cannot be turned off.

Megan believes she can ignore this and accepts the least lethal car. The comic suggests that driving with a GPS that tries to guide you to a different destination than that which you wish to visit – so it is always recalculating and asking you to do U-turns – is incredibly annoying. So annoying that given the choice between the persistent low-level annoyance of the GPS on one hand, and the ("low") probability of being murdered on the other, most people will choose the latter option. After all, they might survive murderous ghosts but they feel they will not survive long having to listen to the broken GPS.

According to the title text, the murderous ghosts haunt both cars, but as soon as the car starts driving and the GPS begins to drone on, even the ghost cannot stand listening to the broken GPS and stops possessing it.

Apart from the joke about GPS, there is also a joke on the horrible cars one might get at a car rental service...

==Trivia==
*With an estimated 1.25 million vehicular deaths globally in 2013[http://www.who.int/gho/road_safety/mortality/traffic_deaths_number/en/] and approx. 1,187 million vehicles on the road in the same year [https://www.statista.com/statistics/281134/number-of-vehicles-in-use-worldwide/], the number of fatalities per vehicle comes to be around 0.1% or about 1 in 950. This number includes trucks and commecial vehicles.
* As of 2014, there were 253 million cars on the road in the US [http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-ihs-automotive-average-age-car-20140609-story.html] and only 32,675 deaths [https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812246], giving a rate of fatalities per car of slightly over 0.01%, or 1 in 7,700)
* The car lethality risk is lower in the US by a factor of 8, compared to the worldwide vehicular lethality risk.

*The global number of haunted cars is not available, but believed to be at least five in number. [http://www.autoblog.com/2014/10/31/five-cursed-haunted-cars/]

*Similarly, while the number of faulty car GPS devices is not available, Garmin recalled 1.3 million Nuvi GPS units in 2011. [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/26/garmin-gps-recall-nuvi_n_695967.html] These recalls were not for bad directions, but for fire hazards.

*There are records of several {{w|Death by GPS | deaths resulting from following faulty GPS directions or maps}}, particularly while traveling in unfamiliar or difficult terrain. [http://www.newser.com/story/214008/woman-killed-after-gps-takes-her-to-wrong-street.html] [http://www.npr.org/2011/07/26/137646147/the-gps-a-fatally-misleading-travel-companion] [https://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/05/death-by-gps/]

==Transcript==
:[A Cueball-like guy standing behind a desk looking at a computer screen services Megan and Cueball on the other side of the desk.]
:Guy: We have two rental cars left.
:Guy: One is the murder car. But don't let the name scare you!
:Guy: It's definitely haunted. But most drivers don't get murdered.
:Guy: Maybe one in six.

:[The guy lifts his hand and looks at Megan and Cueball.]
:Guy: The other is a regular sedan.
:Guy: But it has a GPS that's stuck trying to navigate to Seattle, and you can’t turn it off.
:Megan: ...I can ignore it, right? That's fine.

:[In a frame-less panel Megan and Cueball drive in the sedan.]
:GPS: Turn left
:GPS: Recalculating
:GPS: Make a U-Turn
:GPS: Recalculating
:GPS: Turn right
:GPS: Make a U-Turn
:GPS: Recalculating

:[Megan and Cueball walk back into the agency with the guy behind his desk. Megan holds out the car keys in one hand.]
:Guy: Back already?
:Megan: We'll take the murder car.
:Guy: Popular choice.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

1837: Rental Car

2017-05-16T23:07:55Z

Phantomspy: /* Trivia */

{{comic
| number = 1837
| date = May 15, 2017
| title = Rental Car
| image = rental_car.png
| titletext = Technically, both cars are haunted, but the murder ghosts can't stand listening to the broken GPS for more than a few minutes.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Work in progress}}

In this comic the couple [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] want to rent a car. The [[:Category:Multiple Cueballs|Cueball-like guy]] from the {{w|car rental}} agency tells them they only have two vehicles available:
* One car that puts its occupants into mortal danger, so much so that it is called ''The Murder Car''. The danger, however, is abstract – the car is haunted by a {{w|ghost}}, and actual death befalls only "maybe one in six". (That is the equivalent of a round of {{w|Russian Roulette}}.) This is the fatality rate for drivers (in this case, Megan), while the rate for passengers is not mentioned.
* The other car, a regular {{w|Sedan (automobile)|sedan}}, has a defective {{w|GPS}} that incessantly gives instructions to go specifically to {{w|Seattle}}, regardless of the driver's intention to go there. And it cannot be turned off.

Megan believes she can ignore this and accepts the least lethal car. The comic suggests that driving with a GPS that tries to guide you to a different destination than that which you wish to visit – so it is always recalculating and asking you to do U-turns – is incredibly annoying. So annoying that given the choice between the persistent low-level annoyance of the GPS on one hand, and the ("low") probability of being murdered on the other, most people will choose the latter option. After all, they might survive murderous ghosts but they feel they will not survive long having to listen to the broken GPS.

According to the title text, the murderous ghosts haunt both cars, but as soon as the car starts driving and the GPS begins to drone on, even the ghost cannot stand listening to the broken GPS and stops possessing it.

Apart from the joke about GPS, there is also a joke on the horrible cars one might get at a car rental service...

==Trivia==
*With an estimated 1.25 million vehicular deaths globally in 2013[http://www.who.int/gho/road_safety/mortality/traffic_deaths_number/en/] and approx. 1,187 million vehicles on the road in the same year [https://www.statista.com/statistics/281134/number-of-vehicles-in-use-worldwide/], the number of fatalities per vehicle comes to be around 0.1% or about 1 in 950. This number includes trucks and commecial vehicles.
* As of 2014, there were 253 million cars on the road in the US [http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-ihs-automotive-average-age-car-20140609-story.html] and only 32,675 deaths [https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812246], giving a rate of fatalities per car of slightly over 0.01%, or 1 in 7,700)
* The car lethality risk is lower in the US by a factor of 8, compared to the worldwide vehicular lethality risk.

*The global number of haunted cars is not available, but believed to be at least five in number. [http://www.autoblog.com/2014/10/31/five-cursed-haunted-cars/]

*Similarly, while the number of faulty car GPS devices is not available, Garmin recalled 1.3 million Nuvi GPS units in 2011. [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/26/garmin-gps-recall-nuvi_n_695967.html] These recalls were not for bad directions, but for fire hazards.

*There are records of several {{w|Death by GPS | deaths resulting from following faulty GPS directions or maps}}, particularly while traveling in unfamiliar or difficult terrain. [http://www.newser.com/story/214008/woman-killed-after-gps-takes-her-to-wrong-street.html] [http://www.npr.org/2011/07/26/137646147/the-gps-a-fatally-misleading-travel-companion] [https://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/05/death-by-gps/]

==Transcript==
:[A Cueball-like guy standing behind a desk looking at a computer screen services Megan and Cueball on the other side of the desk.]
:Guy: We have two rental cars left.
:Guy: One is the murder car. But don't let the name scare you!
:Guy: It's definitely haunted. But most drivers don't get murdered.
:Guy: Maybe one in six.

:[The guy lifts his hand and looks at Megan and Cueball.]
:Guy: The other is a regular sedan.
:Guy: But it has a GPS that's stuck trying to navigate to Seattle.
:Megan: ...I can ignore it, right? That's fine.

:[In a frame-less panel Megan and Cueball drive in the sedan.]
:GPS: Turn left
:GPS: Recalculating
:GPS: Make a U-Turn
:GPS: Recalculating
:GPS: Turn right
:GPS: Make a U-Turn
:GPS: Recalculating

:[Megan and Cueball walk back into the agency with the guy behind his desk. Megan holds out the car keys in one hand.]
:Guy: Back already?
:Megan: We'll take the murder car.
:Guy: Popular choice.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]