Yes, those "tips" were like 2 meters long, basically, instead of just being breaks, the rods had dual function and also acted as accelerators, when they pressed az-5, they didn't enter first, they were already in the core, but something happened which I don't understand where once az-5 was pressed as those tips started lowering an imbalance formed and they they got stuck and it resulted in a runaway reaction, I think at least that's accepted as the most likely theory as IIRC they don't exactly know what happened.
Yeah this is a much better analogy, if you think cars are useless you probably don't have relatives in places where the bus goes maybe twice a day if there is a bus going at all.
And if you think that commuting to your job within the city where there should be well built out public transport is acceptable then you are also mistaken
I am fine with Dr Cox saying it and that's about it