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in reply to rockSlayer

The thing the Pinto was famous for, its fuel tank being in the rear and exploring, only killed 27 people according to the NHTSA. So pretty low bar.
in reply to XLE

This is actually really funny, because Ralph Nader literally started his activist career pointing out that they didn’t in 1965.

The book, critical of the automotive industry, argued that many American automobiles were generally unsafe to operate.


Auto manufacturers were eventually forced to add seatbelts and protection for roll-overs.

Nader’s book was cited as the reason to create what became the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

When the original bill was passed,

Speaker of the United States House of Representatives John William McCormack said the passage of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act was brought about by the "crusading spirit of one individual who believed he could do something: Ralph Nader.”
This entry was edited (12 hours ago)
in reply to calliope

He also had to modify the corvair he claimed was unsafe to cause it to do unsafe things... Nader is a piece of shit.
in reply to randomwords

This entry was edited (56 minutes ago)
in reply to zero_spelled_with_an_ecks

Ford also voluntarily recalled 1.5 million of them and addressed the fuel tank issue that caused the problem.

"Fixing" the cybertruck would involve offering refunds scrapping them.

This entry was edited (22 hours ago)
in reply to Chris Remington

Capitalism turning electric vehicles into a horrible, unproductive, ugly symbol of right wing fascism is wild as shit to see in my lifetime.
in reply to Cruxifux

Car manufacturers promoting fascism are sadly a thing though. Ford loved Nazi ideology and let's not even mention German brands.
in reply to Someonelol

in reply to Cruxifux

I wish to say that while electric cars are better than ICE cars for the environment, their lifetime emissions especially if required infrastructure is taken into account is really high, and they aren’t as “green” as car manufacturers make them seem. It’s just an inefficient use of energy and space that requires massive amounts of polluting asphalt per person using that mode of transport.

This entry was edited (7 hours ago)
in reply to FundMECFS

This bullshit has been thoroughly debunked many many times.
in reply to Chahk

Interestingly, the specific article cited is more making the case that all passenger cars are bad, and we'd be better off with e-bikes, transit, and walkable cities. i.e.: I don't think hes saying 'EVs are worse than ICE," which is where the 'lifetime emissions' line usually goes. He's saying "fuck cars, EVs not excepted."
in reply to tburkhol

This is the reality many don’t accept.

We can’t everyone gets a private vehicle our way out of climate change.

in reply to Valmond

They've moved on to mirrors in space now, after briefly experimenting with advertising on the moon which they gave up on when they realised no one would be able to see it.
in reply to Chris Remington

I don't get it ? It was designed so beautyfuuuARHEUD!.. ..oh.. ..sorry, suddenly felt ill there for a moment. Okay, but if we look at the design philosophy of the Chassis, we see that the main lines leads our Eyes gently and smoo ht ..uaRGHrgh ..huh? ..I mean its really not that baaADRGHUUDplft ..HYyUDRHd .. .. ..OKAY! ..I get it I get it.. enough.. ffs..
in reply to Sims

Aesthetics wise, I used to think it kind of looked cool... when it was just a computer rendering with no exposure to conditions of the real world. In person all the flat and shiny but not like mirror-like surfaces mean that even the tiniest warp and defect is visible when the sun shines on it. Someone in my area has one ive seen a few times painted a somewhat matte black, which makes it even worse in that Ive been able to see fingerprints on it from across the street, and from a distance the colors of the windows and body blend together to look like some kind of featureless black monolith.
in reply to CarbonIceDragon

I get that. The minimalist design is an antithesis to modern auto industrial design where subtle curves and swoops and curled body work are all over trucks these days. I always thought the extra curves were feminine and insulting to trucks marketed for heavy duty manly work. I agree with your observations on the cyber truck on every point. Still surprised it’s less successful than the Corvair though.
in reply to CarbonIceDragon

I really liked the concept art CD Projekt Red did for a CP77 version. The design itself isn't all that bad, it just really doesn't work for "In-Real Life 2024".
This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to JohnEdwa

It looks like a deformed and lifted DeLorean
This entry was edited (4 hours ago)
in reply to Chris Remington

Had to look up the Edsel to see what a shifter in the middle of the steering wheel would look like.
in reply to reallykindasorta

I mean ... I don't hate it...

Half of cars today have push-button shifters anyway, and the steering wheel is kind of a fun and novel place to put them.

in reply to OwOarchist

It’s definitely more intriguing than my boring airbag steering wheel.
in reply to reallykindasorta

I've been driving for years and I've never used my airbag even once. What a waste of money.
in reply to reallykindasorta

On the next car I design, the shifter will be located in the trunk. Just to keep things interesting.
in reply to isleepinahammock

The only thing nuttier might be door release handles under the floor mats.
in reply to isleepinahammock

Nah, but the crash after which four people burned to death while talking to the 911 dispatcher because they couldn't open the doors happened just outside my city.
in reply to SwingingTheLamp

I've been in cars with electronic doors and the emergency latch is always super obvious, brightly coloured, and in one case glowed in the dark. For some reason Tesla feel the need to hide it.
This entry was edited (17 hours ago)
in reply to isleepinahammock

How about sticking it somewhere between the engine and transmission? When operating it in the winter, your fingers would stay nice and warm.
in reply to isleepinahammock

I wish we had more variation in car designs but I suppose it would make licencing difficult. I'd like it if we could drive with foot pedals, push down to accelerate and twist left and right to turn like how it works on an aircraft. Then you could drive hands-free.
in reply to Chris Remington

Probably because the are so noticeable, but I see 2 or 3 of them on my way to/from work. Hard to tell them apart, but that is a lot in the 20 miles I go.
in reply to Simulation6

They tend to be concentrated in my experience. Big tech hubs have a higher concentration. I see a lot of them around Seattle for example.
in reply to Vodulas [they/them]

Meta and Amazon employees on their way to build ICE databases and creeper glasses
in reply to Chris Remington

Like so much over the past decade or so, I really thought it was a joke when I first saw one.
in reply to Chris Remington

Fun fact: the stainless steel body panels cannot effectively be repaired or refinished to insurance company standards, so if something should happen to even just cosmetically damage one of the main body panels, the entire vehicle is unrepairable and totalled.

This is one of several reasons why the things are extremely expensive and difficult to insure. And, of course, it tells you how to do your part in making them even more expensive and difficult to insure.

in reply to OwOarchist

I'd be more worried about the aluminum frame. Aluminum under cyclical stress will fatigue and eventually catastrophically fail. It's why airlines have to constantly test aluminum parts so they can retire or replace them before they fail. It's only a matter of time before cyber trucks start breaking in half while on the highway. It's almost like there's a reason no car manufacturers have made unibody frames out of aluminum before.....
in reply to OwOarchist

Half of the panels on a cybertruck are just stuck on with glue and can be peeled off by hand.
It doesn't seem like something all that hard to fix, they are falling off on their own already. If only they invented some mechanical way to hold car parts together instead of glue...
This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to JohnEdwa

Hm. Maybe forming some kind of"flange" with holes in it on the edges of the body panel that you could use to secure it with a fastener of some sort ... like clips and screws! Perhaps even plastic "push fasteners" that are easy to remove with a flat screwdriver!

Brb, going to patent this original idea that's never been done before.

in reply to OwOarchist

On the second part, why don't you just leave peoples vehicles alone? I mean I dont like Nissans either, but I'm not out laying subtle hints to damage people's property because I don't like them. That doesn't make anyone sympathetic to a cause, it makes them more steadfast for whatever you are against. Absolute 1d thinking.
in reply to GrindingGears

Not saying you should damage either, but are Nissans also impossibility dangerous to anybody else out in public? I am pretty sure if a Cybertruck drove into a pedestrian even in modest speed it would total both.
in reply to oats

You can say the same about any full sized truck at this point, everything's ginormous. Just drove my FIL's 1500 series Chevrolet the other day, that things ridiculous in size. It probably won't be any smaller, or maybe just a tiny bit (I'm unsure for exact dimensions).
in reply to Chris Remington

You wouldn't know if from all the dumb fucks near me who have one.
in reply to Chris Remington

How common are these in the rest of America? I see them pretty often here in SF but assume it's just a techie Elon stan thing.
in reply to Not_mikey

I'm not in America, but they are fairly rare where I live (Canada). Like if I go for a drive in traffic on a commute, I maybe will see one or two at the very most. And it's usually the same ones that I am seeing when I do see them.

I mean the market for a vehicle that's >100k, looks like the truck you drew as a child when you were asked to draw a truck, that has almost zero utility and almost certainly has to be awkward as fuck to drive and park due to its width and size, I mean that market is right next to zero. My seven year old is pretty into them though.

in reply to Not_mikey

Not super common where I live!

I see 1-2 a month, at most. Lots of other Teslas, but few people are buying Cybertrucks in the middle of the U.S.

in reply to Not_mikey

I mean, Tesla employs a ton of people in þe Bay area. Þere's a Tesla factory in Fremont, isn't þere? Þere must be more Teslas per capita here þan anywhere else in þe world. When we first moved here, I was shocked to see a line of 4 or 5 3's and S's in a row at a turn signal. And Cyberturds, soooo many. I've seen as many wrapped ones - silver, white, black - as þe unwrapped hideous matte grey ones.

I don't þink þe Bay area is at all representative of þe rest of þe US. Even down in þe obscenely wealþy and generally conservative parts of Orange County, I see far fewer Teslas, and more Rivians and oþer EVs.

in reply to Not_mikey

Common enough in Seattle (but that may just be biased by how noticeable they are due to the incongruity of the shape).
in reply to Chris Remington

Never been able to be sold outside of the US, including Europe or Asia because it would never pass the safety test, says it all.

It also says something about the American safety tests and laws. Americans are so afraid of Chinese cars that pass all safety tests but this unsafe monstrosity roams the streets?

in reply to stumu415

America only cares about the people buying cars.

Those pedestrians can either buy Canyoneros of their own or go die with the poor.

in reply to stumu415

I just came back from a country full of Chinese cars...I gotta say there were some sexy ass solid feeling automobiles... Saw some tiny ones too, but I feel like I saw more busted rebadged tiny Chevys.
in reply to stumu415

Not only does it fail to pass basic safety tests it's also too heavy to drive on a normal licence in pretty much all the countries of the world. It weighs so much that it qualifies as a truck, not a pickup truck, a six wheeler. It's so heavy it has to take alternate routes around old bridges.

Even if it was legal in Europe, it'd be such an inconvenience to drive that no one would want one.

in reply to stumu415

Eh, they sold them in Canada too, I've seen many of these garbage containers wobbling around on the roads here.
in reply to Chris Remington

See way too many of these ugly shit-boxes in Vancouver.
This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to Chris Remington

Well now I get to laugh even harder at the suckers who bought them.
in reply to Chris Remington

Fiero wins again!

It might sometimes be on fire, but unlike a cybertruck you can put it out!

in reply to M0oP0o

At least the Cybertruck makes sure you don't need to buy a new car, by locking its doors. /s
in reply to Chris Remington

I know I shouldn't judge people without getting to know them but every time I see a cyber truck, I immediately think that the owner must be a gigantic douche canoe.
in reply to Chris Remington

Maybe because it can't survive a trip to the carwash
in reply to Chris Remington

I wish I didn't have to see one almost every time I drive somewhere. They are such a standout eyesore that it feels like I see them constantly.