The prisoners' dilemma : a game theoretic approach to vehicle safety.

This paper assesses the policy implications of the changing demand for passenger vehicles in Australia and debunks the myth that bigger vehicles are safer. In particular, the authors examine the increasing demand for small cars and four-wheel drive using the classic prisoners' dilemma framework in game theory. The paper finds that the current emphasis on occupant protection may result in a pareto inferior outcome whereas a shift in the emphasis towards non-aggressiveness of a vehicle would result in a pareto superior outcome. Among the pure strategy equilibria, the one with only small cars provides the lowest overall level of road trauma. Furthermore, the authors found no mixed strategy equilibrium that would produce a lower level of trauma than the pure strategy equilibria, implying that mixing vehicle type would definitely increase road trauma. In a mixed fleet however, medium cars produced the least trauma and thus were the safest type of passenger vehicle. (Author/publisher) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E202589.