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New from Ford - The Childmulcher 750! Precision engineer to smoothly splatter any mammal under 4 foot, you won't even feel the bump!

So *Market Forces* (Richard K Morgan, 2004). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_...

WITNESS ME

Let's just install spike clubs at every intersection They will not hit bikes, mopeds or pedestrians. Then ppl will stop using cars.

to be clear, i am firmly in agreement with you here. this is simple pedantry

Yes, they increased a lot on the last 15 years or so… and maybe they are less popular on the northeast states. They are common on the states where there is a huge culture around farm/country (“agro”) such as Paraná, Mato Grosso, Goiás, São Paulo.

Here in Switzerland you'd never find a parking space for a massive American car. They're all too narrow. I drive a tiny MX5 and still have trouble opening the door

EU cars are also getting larger and now parking spaces and some streets are too small🙃 They also tend to drive carelessly, so that’s delightful. We need better rules so the trend gets stopped.

I had two smaller Ford Rangers, an '85 and a '94. They were much smaller than the Ranger sold today.

Yep and 10 years ago the most popular car in Australia was the humble Toyota Corolla. It’s a sign of what bad tax and regulatory settings gets you. The previous conservative government incentivised these huge trucks. I also see plenty of Rams, Chevrolet Silverados and Ford F-150s in my suburb.

It's just Mutually Assured Destruction, but for transportation instead of nuclear war.

Thank you for start using alt!

everything becomes battlebots given enough time

And this is how the American auto industry persuaded the nation that roads should be for cars, not people, paving the way ;) for the concrete nightmare that is the modern highway system and absence of efficient public transportation: Blame the "careless" pedestrians, not the cars.

I think all cars and trucks should have big rubber bumpers on all sides so we just bounce off eachother in a wreck. 🤣🤣🤣😝😝😝😂😂

I just want to burn the highway lobby to the ground, just a little bit :)

This is how you get Mad Max

@thewaroncars.bsky.social I believe this pretty much sums it up

Also: they remain offroad-legal - you can't drive it on the roads, but in many places kei trucks remain allowed on property much like tractors and other wheeled rural vehicles.

🚚🚚Take a dive into semi lug nut spikes! We are already there!

I don't know...I think a lot of them are designed to be mall crawlers not useful work vehicles

#carsAreATrap #carsBlockTraffic #endCarEra

Hike tax rates and car parking charges for big cars!

And what about Ukraine War drone screens? Drone warfare on the freeways? *It could happen!*

@thewaroncars.bsky.social

they're incredibly prone to flips during high winds / taking a bend at speed.

There's reasons those rally cars and buggies look like they do, instead of being tall, top-heavy SUVs.

I would like to point you to the new electric cars in China that are now ejecting their batteries in the case of a crash/fire. So, the car owner is safe!... Fuck all the bystanders I guess. www.youtube.com/shorts/zBH2l...

And the monsters driving these monstrous things get nastier in cold weather, when they're safely inside with a heater while pedestrians just want to cross with the light.

"You call that a War Rig?"

Hey! Don't forget those spiky things the chariots used to have on their wheels (at least in the chariot movies, that is)!

@thewaroncars.bsky.social

I always use it since I developed that habit... Honestly it's just muscle memory at this point

Yet another reason public transport and walkable/bikable towns and cities are better

Oh c'mon, everyone knows the meta is vertical spinners and eggbeater drums now

And as every xkcd, its accurate af

cf. "Car Wars."

EU regulators have started evaluating cars for pedestrian safety.

Which is weird, because in the US the at-fault party usually pays for everything. Therefore, when everyone is required to have car insurance, your car insurance is there to cover what you do to the other person and their property just as much as what you do to your own.

Doesn't that chart go against your point, that despite cars getting heavier & more people driving, fewer people are killed per year?

Back in the day, stronger engines were taller. High hoodlines almost made sense. Today, 500 hp comes in a shoebox. Truck hoods could slope down 45 degrees & help mileage and visibility. But it wouldn't look butch. Everything on today's pickup truck is there to look butch. Nothing else matters.

You...might want to pick a better graph. If you actually read the numbers on it, that graph is showing we're getting steadily safer. Which, we are, but it's because of safety technology, not these stupidly giant trucks.

Honestly that's why I'm so pissed about the Ranger redesign. As someone who's experienced a 1998 Mazda B2500 for his whole life? I can NEVER get a new truck that size. If it fully breaks I'm fucked. I don't need an F150 4 times the size of my current truck. I just need a small pickup for work.

I don't think it's trying that hard. It's clearly a kid in the picture, and the adult is taking it straight on from the bottom of the driveway. It's not like it's at some extreme angle or using a fisheye lens to enhance the size of the truck. It's just a normal pic of a normal kid next to a truck

That is my wife goal. She wants a car with wheels with defenses like Ben-Hur's enemy carriage.

Europe, too. Especially Germany. Even luxury sedans from the 1980s look positively tiny (in anything but length) in today’s traffic.

Go bigger doesn’t necessarily make one safer. Sometimes being small is an advantage. More nimble for one thing.

Also, we're fatter.

Football Pad Principle

There's a Philip K Dick story called "Nanny" that conveys much the same idea.

“Also I need a big car to feel safe because I’m one of the most incompetent drivers on the road. I can’t take corners, have impaired awareness of other road users and can’t stay off my phone.”

The real history of the Mad Max wasteland.

Headlight brightness…

Okay but it looks like that was actually intentional, which if so sounds like an excellent battle bot/robo war strat.

@hackneycyclist.bsky.social

Bespoke cartoon for @resnikoff.bsky.social

I hope @tomflood.bsky.social @brenttoderian.bsky.social saw this one.

So cars are evolving into general Grievous?

Certified murican problem

Still got it sir

ESCALATION OF FALSEHOODS

Subcompact cars are almost nonexistent now. Yet climate change Was an important issue. Thank-you for your personal attention given.

What an idiotic thing ...back in the day of the old American muscle cars they were as lethal as they are now (sometime even deadlier)although I do support the buy what you want sometimes people really do over themselves...

Also they *think* they are at least a couple of feet bigger each side than they actually are.

real

We are re-evolving dinosaurs, which run on dinosaur juice.

you joke about the whirling spike clubs but when I was a teenager I was in a contest to make a lego robot that would roam a pool table with another team's robot and try to knock down the most cardboard tubes, and the giant whirling tire flail was an excellent strategy for smashing the other robot

I am a bicycle commuter, or will be again soon when I recover from being hit by a car.

Not what you meant, but I'm going to pretend it is: m.xkcd.com/2622/ 😂

"Soon" = russian mad max troops today in Ukraine.

This is a joke but it’s also not. I’ve seen several cars while driving that have wheel hub caps with spikes on them.

This attitude was once posted with so little self-awareness on eX-Twitter at xcancel.com/jerimiahlee/... that (the original itself quoting another tweet) everyone started one-upping him in quote tweets, the best chain to me concluding here: xcancel.com/carl___spack...

US has a problem with cars #43725

I choose not to participate in the meta and have instead gone with a stealth build. It takes longer to travel cross country when you’re dashing between shadows without a vehicle, but there’s a certain satisfaction that makes the utter destruction of your knees from crouch walking worth it.

Isn't it crazy how anything can become an arms race.

bsky.app/profile/theo...

My question is: can any of you motherfuckers open your door? I drive a 20 year old Mini Cooper and if I park between two average sized vehicles, I can't open my door. What do normal people do? Climb in and out through the back? No, I'm serious. Your SUV seems impossible, impractical for anything.

It's impossible to buy a small car in the US because of the unintended consequences of emissions, fuel economy and trade regulations. They say safety has something to do with safety but it's not true. It's because we painted ourselves in a corner. A functioning government would just fix this.

Canyonero!

I'm not sure that they are, but that probably just means it's something to sort out in court after there's an incident

Makes me think of this Simpson's clip: youtu.be/zGEiK9StSfQ?...

WankPanzers

Looking at the pic the one on the right is more average sized for Americans. I drive a 20 YO sedan and it is nearly 17 feet long.

Sounds like they need to encourage smaller cars by limiting the best parking spaces to only the normal sized vehicles.

Cc @thewaroncars.bsky.social Randall enters the chat

I believe Houston is already living in Soon.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2dH...

Americans be commuting by tank in 2050

www.youtube.com/watch?v=57Um... pretty much there already

I miss my hatchback, but the trunk in my wagon is worth it. Still smaller than most cars on the road. I'm not really worried about it, seeing as I also cycle on the road, so my car is huge by comparison!

Solution: Add raid bosses to roads. Therefore, drivers of differently-sized vehicles will be incentivized to instead crash into their common foe, in hopes of taking it down.

l'm angry... (...)

At the bare minimum, trucks and SUVs should lose safety rating points for not being crash compatible with smaller vehicles.