The design is bad. The front trunk is a bad use of space, and the Japanese figured this out decades ago with the Kei truck. If you want see real utility, look at this design.
The front trunk is a safety feature called a crumple zone and is objectively safer to be in a crash with.
Hm. Interesting point.
Maybe as we move our economy away from cars, and people dont all have to be drivers, we could also move away from cars that are poorly designed specifically around bad drivers.
Americans won’t buy a Kei truck though. Granted, the frunk is a marketing concession, but it’s a fine one, if it can help push the market away from huge and expensive SUVs.
Or, more succinctly, don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
Frugal design. I love it.
no touchscreen
Sounds like a dream. Or public transport. It doesn’t have touchscreen either.
See, tariffs work!
/s
No stereo is the only thing I would chsnge
Perfect except for it being a truck. Why is North America allergic to small cars?
I have an answer for this that’s from my personal life if that’s helpful.
I’ve lived either in the great plains or in the rural south my entire life, and I only found out a year ago you can pay $20 to rent a pickup truck. So up until that point, I thought, every group (of friends or family) has to have a person with a truck in it, in case someone needs to move, or in case of an emergency (like a tornado effing up their house and now you have to clear the property).
When I found out that renting a truck is so cheap, I was so mad! All that time wasted paying extra for more car than I needed! I prefer something small and cheap and efficient, personally, but so does everyone else I know so I always wound up with the truck. (And I helped a LOT of people move over the years as a result.)
Obviously this is n=1 but at least it’s my story? And my answer is legit, “ignorance and being too poor to own my house, and landlords like to jack rent on someone staying in one place every year so you have to keep moving to avoid that needless creep of fees.”
Trucks are incredibly useful?
I hate that Bezos backed them
No stereo is fine if it has ports for me to just buy my own car stereo kit and add it afterwards. I don’t see the point of no paint, like don’t you need it to protect the metal from the environment
It’s no paint because the body is plastic. It’s not even black plastic coated grey. Just grey plastic.
I see, are there any other all plastic mass market cars out there, I’m just not sure how that material holds up in terms of wear and tear and accidents
I find this minimalism strangely appealing. Unfortunately, I do not live on a farm. I hope this thing is useful to those who do, though.
I live in a rural area and need to do truck stuff frequently (ex. We have no trash pickup and have to haul it ourselves to the dump). Something like this is very appealing to me. I could also see this being useful as a fleet vehicle that doesn’t really leave campus grounds (think facilities/grounds/maintenance).
I pretty much do and I’m kinda stoked, cautiously
If I can have a Linux truck that works and can tow something if need be… I’m dowm
Linux truck
And has to resemble the late 1970s-1980s body styles because of the kiss methodology. I’d love me a 1972 C10 or a 1981 F150 with Debian.
Because a decafe old TN panel touchscreen and a lick of paint was what made cars 70k.
You misspelled “I didn’t read the article.”
Gross. Cars are a dead end for humanity.
While I’m with you it’s far too late. We’ve got decades if not centuries of infrastructure construction to get anywhere else. There are needs for trucks, and a barebones electric one is real good thing
We need hover boards. Though I’ve been told they don’t work on water.
And no buyers
Hell yes, take my money. As long as it’s not a limit and manages to keep its range and I can get parts fuck yes
You know, I like the design. If I can take a wrench to it and customise it or repair broken stuff easily and for cheap, even better.
The range is kinda meh, but for working in remote sites, bringing a diesel generator is already par for the course, and that bed looks like it fits a lot of stuff.
No stereo sucks though.
I often drive long distances for work, and I NEVER listen to the radio. All my listening is through headphones off my phone. I even keep a spare pair charging at all times. Not only does it sound a million times better than any crappy car system, it’s far easier to take phone calls. I hate holding my phone while driving. It’s also easier to hear the map navigation lady.
Your car just has a shitty sound system in it. That experience is in no way representative of most vehicles. I drive almost 200 miles a day.
I spent much of my career in the music business, with a significant portion in the audiophile audio business. ALL car stereo systems are a shitty compromise to real high quality audio.
All my listening [in my car] is through headphones off my phone.
This is unsafe at best. Illegal at worst.
Nonsense, how is it either?
Too loud? I’m a musician, I value my hearing, so I don’t play anything too loud. I always use earbuds, so I can always hear emergency vehicles. Besides, I’ve heard plenty of car speaker systems that were loud enough to block out sirens easily.
Illegal? In what way? In states that have banned holding phones, they encourage hands-free phone calls. If speaking on the phone is considered a distraction, then why isn’t speaking to another passenger, or listening to music? Both would be just as distracting as a hands free call. Modern cars all connect to a cell phone automatically, and take calls through the speaker system. If it’s illegal, then why are car companies allowed to install them as standard equipment? I don’t use that system only because I like the audio quality of my ear buds far more.
By your logic, sound systems and phones in cars should just be totally illegal.
Headphones are considered like ear plugs. A tendency to block out surrounding noises like horns and sirens.
I use earbuds, not headphones, but use the terms interchangeably. I don’t have any problems hearing emergency vehicles. If you are using them so loudly you can’t hear sirems, then you are going to go deaf soon anyway, and by your logic, deaf people shouldn’t be allowed to drive, right?
And whether you can hear properly or not, it’s still not illegal.
In most states that don’t have specific laws about them its considered distracted driving. I wouldn’t wear them because it opens you up to legal scrutiny if you do fuck up while driving. Insurance will throw you under the bus the moment they can prove you had headphones on.
It’s often illegal to have headphones on both ears.
I don’t know why you’re trying to claim it shouldn’t be illegal to a random internet stranger. Most things that are illegal shouldn’t be, but the HOA types that care about rules are also the ones who want to fuck rules so bad they get into positions of power. So if you want to fix it, go be a rule fucker. Or Luigi the rule fuckers.
It’s a lot easier to block out emergency sirens at normal volume levels vs the stereo where you have to have already lost your hearing before it’s loud enough to block a siren. The counterpoint to this is when the siren is actually in the music, which is why I don’t listen to certain rap while driving anymore.
Only 6 states ban headphones in both ears.
I’ve driven hundreds of thousands of miles, and never had anyone question it. I’m not stopping now.
I’d build a mount for my DeWalt speaker that I’m already taking to my job sites who cares about a stereo
Aight but does it have cruise control? If so it’s still too much. But they’re almost there.
It should have cruise control. Otoh most people driving work trucks drive at like half the speed limit, so maybe they’d also set their cruise control at half the speed limit.
This will never come to market. Perhaps in a different timeline, but not this one.
Why not?
The past is prologue. If this startup was happening in any other country I would give it a chance. But it has zero chance of success here because of… checks notes… greed, corruption, weaponization of venture capital, weaponization of regulatory state and many many more.
Weaponisation of venture capital?
Agree. Elon… Err Doge will change regulatory rules until they run out of money.
Here is where Bezos makes sense. He is also evil, but he’s actually smart, and can take on Elon. The last thing Elon needs right now is Bezos head on.
Paywalled.
Anyone got a battery range on this vehicle?
150 miles per charge
Thanks.
