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Comment by sho_hn | Hacker News Reader

Body-work is heavy regulated. E.g. location and size of bumpers, certain lights not allowed on movable body-work, etc. A lot of the "top shell" also has structural elements under other regulations.

Lots of older-gen designs would not be certifyably street legal if released today.

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That's true. Morgan does make some new vehicles with a classic look though.

https://i.imgur.com/5sc1Baz.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/FVlIX2V.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/eEalrSe.jpg

i believe Morgan falls under the exemptions for small-volume carmakers. Toyota couldn't get away with that design on the next-gen Camry for example, but as long as you're only making a few cars you can do some more adventurous things with the design.

I don't think you can buy a complete Morgan in the US except for the 3 wheeler, which sneaks in as a motorcycle.

Another important thing to note is pedestrian crash safety- cars these days are sort of bulbous because you can't have hard edges and pass pedestrian crash safety tests

Could you make them out of thin plastic? I'm thinking, like, disposable coke bottle.

...or add exterior air bags, perhaps?

edit: upon googling the subject, apparently some companies are already working on it. I'm not surprised.

Look the the Plymouth Prowler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Prowler. It can be done but probably not profitably.

The Prowler is a 23+ year old design. It's not an indicator of what can be built and sold in volume today.

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