Saw a lady driving a truck which its hood was taller than my veloster and all I saw was knuckles. This old lady probably couldn’t even see the road.
Fuck these people and fuck the companies that make emLarge trucks like that should be like transports. Ya should have to take a special license course to even be able to own to prove you can drive it. 90% of truck owners can’t so they own the biggest POS to ensure their safety at everyone’s else’s safety.
I see A LOT of older people who can’t see over the dash. I bet they don’t know their seat raises vertically. their eyes line up with the top of the steering wheel, no way they’re paying attention enough to what’s going on beyond 15 feet, much less around them.
GOP judge declaring NHTSA unconstitutional in 3… 2… 1…
That’s not to mention the optics.
#4 is the optic for the RWS. This cannot be used to aim the main gun, but it can be used as an alternate form of CITV, especially since it’s so damned high off the ground, it may be able to see over obstacles. Not as good as CITV in the thermal range, though.
That being said, some civilian vehicles are gonna have their own camera systems too, so…
Civilian vehicles should all have thermals and a night driving HUD. If I’m paying 30,000 dollars then they can damn well put some actual stuff in there. Headlights being weaponized isn’t something we have to tolerate.
Sorry, no can do, also cupholders are extra, best we can do is plastic hubcaps and a 10,000/6 month warranty.
Ugh. Too true. Cars would be 100% better if they weren’t a mass market necessity.
This is actually a good point. And here’s a video discussing the issue.
This is misleading because being higher up you can see much better further ahead, and over obstacles and barriers. Your special awareness is much better at distances that are relevant for avoiding collisions. If something is 1.5m away its too late anyway.
The angle is also incorrect because they are putting the eyes of the driver straight in line with the hood, which is not how its been in any vehicle I’ve ever driven, the head should be higher or further forward.
You don’t want to see “over” obstacles close to your vehicle when said obstacles are in fact human beings standing in front of your car.
At parking lot speeds, 1.5 meters is also not “too late,” and it certainly isn’t when you are at a standstill but need to determine if it is safe to move or if there is a small person in front of your vehicle, i.e. in the school pickup line, or in a parking lot, or your own driveway.
Ooo ooo we can do it like buses do. We’ll put a bar on the front that folds out. 3 year olds totally know what that is right? They’ll just get out of the way!
(/s)
You need one with a hand on the end, and the motor that drives it is strong enough to pimp slap people out of the way.
The origin of the line is at head height…
Also these vehicles gain in distant visibility at the expense of everyone else on the road, blocking their views.
Also, an astounding proportion of fatal pedestrian collisions happen at low-speed, close to home where these sightlines explicitly matter.
The best way to avoid getting into an accident is to see it long before you get there. But situational awareness is not something the vast majority of drivers actually practice or have…
I will gladly trade my SUV in for a gently used M1
Only 20 gallons to the mile, not bad
Absolutely nobody will cut you off in traffic, though. At least nobody who wants to see the next sunrise…
what if the M1 doesn’t have a touch screen though
It actually does, but it’s a hundred times more useful. It helps make things go boom.
good
touchscreens should be banned from vehiclesTouch targeting
The whole chart is rather fascinating and eye opening: Vehicle visibility
I’d be curious to see that chart for a Toyota Yaris. I drove one for a few years and it was almost unnerving how little hood it had.
Same here. Going from a 1990 VW Passat to a 2009 Yaris was wild.
Astounding. Hummer H2 beating the Sierra by 3m is incredible. A truck designed almost exclusively to express how selfish you are and it has better viability.
This chart is eye-opening…I always thought Hummers were made by…Hummer…
GM marketing. They purchased the hummer brand from AM General. OG Hummer (later renamed H1) was based on AM General’s military Humvee design, but released to the civilian market. H2 and H3 were designed by GM for mass marketing. Can be seen in the price. H1 nearly 10x more than H2 and H3.
Also, the H1 was 10x better for what it was designed for than the H2 and H3.
The H1 was not designed for commuting to work.
I’m not sure what it was designed for. It doesn’t have a lot of space for hauling compared to its size. It’s not great for offroading. It’s a plastic money extraction machine.
Oh, neat. Thanks for all the information
The H2 was just a Tahoe with a different body on it.
Thanks, embedding:
An articulated quarry hauler is barely worse than a pick-up truck
‘murca
It’s out of control. I drive a 2019 Kona and I moved to that from my 2013 Elantra. Last time I was at the dealer was looking at the new Konas and they’re bigger, too big for me.
The most jarring thing is when I was picking up a prescription for my cat, and on the way home I was driving next to a plain vanilla, factory-stock GMC truck whose hood was literally taller than my entire car. And I don’t drive a miata or some other sub-compact, I drive a freaking Nissan Leaf, so about the size of your average sedan.
Since then it’s like a switch flipped in my brain, and I can’t unsee just how insanely huge modern-day pickup trucks have gotten.
I have conservative family members who deliberately go for the biggest SUV with the lowest gas mileage available just to “stick it to the government.” If the government told them that they couldn’t drive a small car, they’d be out there shopping for a small car. It’s incredibly childish.
Toddler core behaviour
I had a student get just the worst giant diesel truck that was constantly breaking down so she could “stick it to the libs”.
Girl was 18. Future of the nation?
Yeah, at some point we’re going to have to crank up gas prices
budgeting and foregoing food to own the libs
Ironic, considering how much gasoline is taxed.
Barely at all?
Yeah, a lot of stupid culture war crap is now tied up into the car your own.
If people actually prioritized performance, handling, viability, cost to drive, and cabin features, then a LOT of people would probably be better off with a sedan.
If you don’t need the space, you can get so much more bang for your buck with a smaller car. The $10k more you spend on the larger form factor could go toward a nicer power train and cabin luxury features.
Not to mention longer term cost of maintenance and insurance.
Most other countries I’ve been to, all the trades use these, and seem to have no problem getting projects done.
Let’s ignore the lack of crush zones, air bags, seat belts, re-enforced door panels and cabin pillars, for a moment. (The lack of any safety features is why they are mostly illegal to operate on roads in the US.)
How far do you think that roller skate could pull my empty 24,000lbs tandem axle tilt bed trailer? Or even my 4000lbs trailer? On a highway at highway speeds.
It’s almost like that it isn’t the intended purpose of these vehicles… you don’t need 19ft long 10ft tall super duty ford f-250s and up to pull a 4klb trailer though… a 70s f150 half that size could do it just fine and modern engines in that size vehicle would be even better
Kei trucks and vans are the perfect vehicles for most jobs and most tradesman not hauling loads meant for real trucks not light truck frames
Japanese Kei trucks are pretty rad, but they don’t fly with US highway safety regulations. They’re meant for slower roads / slower collisions speeds.
That said, most American trucks do not need to be remotely as big as they are.
Good point.
Or a hatchback or a station wagon…
Oops, nobody makes station wagons anymore. We stopped making them because, uh, people stopped buying them. Yeah, that’s the ticket. People stopped buying them because we stopped making them.
The Americans don’t, but Volvo, Benz, Audi still do.
Ya know it probably says something that the concept of “cabin luxury features” made we want to burn the inside of a car. Ill stick to my lack of cupholders in my 30 year old car thanks, but seriously when I see the interior of modern cars they make me want to rip into them with wire cutters. Bunch of useless crap like lane assist, cruise control, and addaptive road assist, powered stearing is the only luxury I need.
Fun fact I am only 24, I just am tech literate in the way that causes me to think 90% of technology is worthless crap that shouldve never been created and needs to be recycled.
I’m almost 40 and a lot of my cars in my teens and 20s were from the '80s and '90s. Almost everything I’ve owned has had at least a rudimentary cruise control although there are some ('80s Bronco II, '95 Miata, early '90s 240sx, 99 Impreza Wagon) where it was broken or I just never used it.
All that said, I LOVE the radar controlled cruise control on my current vehicle. I’ve used it for at least 20,000 miles of driving at this point. Interstate, highway, city, you name it… Pretty much any time I want to maintain a steady speed over 28 and there’s not a lot of stop and go traffic. I hate thinking about life without it now (and I hate using standard cruise control without radar)!
True. I’m mostly saying that you could probably take that cash and upgrade to a nicer car that isn’t covered in creaking injection molded plastic inside, or something with nicer seats and upholstery.
AKA decent materials, and not the cheap garbage you get on a base model American SUV.
I get that its just the concept disgusts me, but then again my Scottish ancestors would rise from the dead and kill me for wasting money on such superfluous things. Profligacy is quite literally killing the planet, ya aint gonna catch me wasting money on stupid pointless shit too often. My grandmother though aint bound by such ancestral limits and it annoys me.
I’m with you. I want my car to have three pedals, a steering wheel, and a stick. Air conditioning, heat, and one cigarette lighter socket. That’s it.
Cruise control is hardly luxury, most cars have had it for a while
Im mostly joking that most of the cars ive owned havent had cruise control. Gotta love old base model jeeps.
I love cruise control. Get on the highway, set it and go. Ideally find someone driving the same direction and speed, and follow along behing them. No more stressing that I’m going to get a speeding ticket.
So the US just starts importing the cars europe had for ages? thats hardly a frontier, it’s willful ignorance of an age old issue.
If you guys could stop trying to take away things, people love six weeks before the election that would be great
I love tiny cars. It would be great if there were more of those. And affordable EVs. and affordable tiny EVs.
I love pedestrians not being killed.
Why is driving a big heavy piece of crap so important to you? It’s not like there aren’t other cars or smaller SUVs you can drive. And it’s not like guns where there is technically a valid use case for them.
Road to Trump is paved with good intentions.
I thought it was paved with being a bigot?
But they absolutely need their shiny, factory clean F-350 so they can go to the drive through and get McDonald’s for dinner after picking up the kids. What, you expect them to drive a sedan? Or a minivan!?
It’s solely for emotional support needs really
Gotta have that support given the emotional impact of having a small underperforming penis.
It makes up for it you see…
“MUH FREEDOM. FUCKIN COMMIES”
I can just see the pavement princess brigade seething because their next emotional support penismobile won’t be exaggerated anymore and they will actually be able to see pedestrians and cyclists.
Man, I’m not all that interested in owning a truck or an SUV but there are so few Sudan’s out there that fit folks like me over 6ft tall. (If anyone has suggestions please share, and no public transportation isn’t an option where I live)
I am over 6ft and my 2013 Kia Soul fits me easily. It’s actually impressive, given how small the Kia is. Probably means the walls are ridiculously thin
I’m over 6’ and fit in my Camry just fine. It’s also insanely reliable.
I’m 6ft as well, I drove my 2015 Mitsubishi lancer pretty comfortably and then 2018 Hyundai Sonata as well. I’m currently driving Hyundai IONIQ I think it’s a sweet spot between an SUV and a Sedan, but you can go slightly smaller than that even with cars like Kona.
I am not sponsored by Hyundai
Iam 2m (6,5 feet) and drive a 2015 toyota auris hybrid. Seating position is good and i already drove multiple 8h journeys with it.
Why do little cars have to withstand a collision with a huge truck but trucks just get bigger and bigger? The new Hummer is over 9,000lbs (4,090 kg)
The cybertruck is like 7k lbs.
Cars are getting a lot heavier now that EVs are becoming mainstream.
I mean they’re getting heavier, but not, like, whole number multiples heavier. An electric might be some 60% heavier than a comparable gas car. But the aforementioned hummer is more than 5 times heavier than even a heavy electric “utility vehicle”. That’s more than 400% heavier.
Huh? Are you saying heavy electric utility vehicles are less than 2k lbs? I think you’re math is a bit off, or I’m misunderstanding you. 9k lbs is heavy but it’s only around 2k lbs heavier than it’s gas counter parts (most SUVs are around 6.5-7k lbs). Most electric cars are 1-2k lbs heavier than their gas counterparts already. Batteries are not light.
I’m saying smaller cars are usually lighter than bigger cars, even when the smaller cars are electric. And the car I was comparing to was the Chevrolet bolt “electric utility vehicle” that’s trying to be an electric SUV. Which, yeah, is 1600 lbs.
Where a Ford fiesta that’s almost the same size is still 1100.
Chevy Bolt (electric) is approx. 3,600 lbs. Ford Fiesta (gas) is approx. 2,500 lbs. I think your numbers are kilograms. Sorry to be pedantic, just trying to get correct numbers. But what you’re saying is basically correct. Most small EVs are still lighter than midsize and bigger ICE cars. If you want apples to apples: the 2024 Chevy Equinox EV is 5,000 lbs, whereas the 2024 gas version is approx. 3,400 lbs.
Oh, shit, you’re right. I was looking at kilograms. Thank you.
But yeah, the point stands that small cars are lighter and safer than big cars, especially for the things they hit.
wtf in Europe that thing couldn’t be driven with a regular class B drivers license
Commercial license requirements for full sized trucks over a certain size and weight would be an excellent solution. In addition to the increased effort and cost to get one, commercial licenses are way easier to lose.
It depends on the state, but it usually is. It’s just very high, like a gvwr of 26k lbs.
Thing is, a CDL covers a bunch of stuff you really don’t need to know for something smaller than that, like air brakes. That said, some kind of graduated licensing is called for, here.
Motorcycles, too, while we’re at it. It’s insane that you can go through MSF and then immediately buy a literbike.
I agree. It’s felt weird each time I’ve rented a moving truck and was able to drive it myself. They are giant and I’m not used to driving something so big plus no visibility out of the rear of the vehicle. And on top of that, they are so massive that mistakes will hurt more and will be harder to notice while they are happening.
Though even normal licenses are too easy IMO. I haven’t been tested or trained on driving in decades. Most people don’t know how 2 way stop signs work, I’ve even had a cop wave me through when it was their right of way. The bar should be higher for getting and keeping a license and lower for losing it. And “but people need cars to get to work and such” addressed with better mass transportation and city planning.
Regardless of truck size, I don’t think tractor trailers are going anywhere. Even if we made trucks smaller those would still be out there
Smaller trucks would still get in accidents though, and I imagine they would be less deadly
Man, if only we could separate freight from commuter traffic. Like, imagine if all those tractor trailers were on their own separate road, but make it out of, IDK, metal or something so it can withstand the weight better. You could even just have metal right under the wheels, to reduce costs. But what do I know, I’m just some pie in the sky nobody who doesn’t know what he’s talking about
Not to mention it would reduce all the underride crashes.
All these improved vehicle safety standards are generally for bumper-to-bumper collisions, not windshield-to-truck-bed. Frontline released a well-done 2023 episode on it. Highly recommend.
Edit: md link
That sounds like a neat idea—here’s a wild thought, what would happen if we tried the same thing with passengers? Eh, you’re right, sounds positively un-American.
Unless you’re going to run train tracks to every business in existence, freight will need to be moved using a semi at some point.
I think getting semis off the highway where they’re going 60-70 mph would make a big difference in highway safety though. And you could have less semis going from depots to stores if stores were smaller and more frequent, such that deliveries could be made via cargo vans rather than semis.
Even if we made trucks smaller those would still be out there
If we made them smaller there’d just be more of them on the road. There’d also be higher prices for everything to compensate for the extra expense of having those extra trucks and bodies to pilot them.
Tractor trailers are heavily regulated with training, licensing, driving hours and sleep break logging etc. Are they really a significant source of pedestrian collisions?
You should check out the safety stuff with them and cars. You’ll stay near one on the road again.
I really just want small cars to make a comeback
At 60 MPH the Hummer EV has the same kinetic energy as a 1993 Honda Civic Hatchback going 120mph.
Holy shit
Trying to imagine my old Civic doing that …… holy shit that engine is winding up, glowing red hot, and I probably needed rocket boosters!
Works fine in need for speed 😏
Forced induction will get your old Civic to 120mph in a jiffy. 😆
The only 93 Civic that hit 120mph was falling out of a plane at 35000’.
Yay we will have the return of small trucks. These behemoths are good for towing and work, but not everyday driving.
Hey buddy! Without a Ford F150 that’s taller than the average elementary school student and a box that can barely fit an average grocery store trip, how else am I supposed to tell people I have a tiny penis?
Most of the behemoths aren’t even good as utilitary vehicles…
I’ve got a 15yo Renault Kangoo which could beat almost any oversized suburban pedestrian flattener in all metrics except price.
The last frontier, that showed up like forty years ago.
Every time I see a movie from the 90s and older, and they show a parking lot, I get sad. Everyone used to drive reasonably sized sedans. Family vehicles were wagons. Fuck SUVs and trucks.
Bumper height needs to be standardized so they match up properly. One of the biggest safety issues is how modern SUV bumpers don’t align with cars bumper bars.
My Sequoia is like 2.5x the size of my Honda fit. If I ever hit my Honda while pulling into the driveway I’ll total it.
I fully agree with your statement.
Do you like your Sequoia? I have been thinking about trading in my Explorer for one. Or an Expedition.
Know this is a hate thread about SUV’s, but those of us with large families don’t have any other options.
I have a 2012 platinum it’s amazing. I get 12-15mpg…lol yea I have a 5 person family with the 7 seater Sequoia.
It’s like a negative feedback loop I want an SUV because of a truck or another SUV hit me. I feel like I might be able to survive that but if I’m in my geometro, or a small compact car. I don’t think I’m coming out of that alive if a giant trucker or suv hit me And I know that’s not gonna change. They’re not gonna suddenly recall thousands of oversized pick up trucks those trucks are gonna be on the road for the next 10 to 15 years to come, even if something changes soon. It would take a while to phase them out.
I just want public high-speed rail everywhere 15 minutes cities please
