Pickup trucks have gotten bigger, higher-tech – and more dangerous | Hacker News Reader

Pickup trucks have gotten bigger, higher-tech – and more dangerous

axios.com

18 pointsgmays13 comments

I wish for a mid 80s or early 90s Toyota pickup. the problems with this are feature creep, and compliance with federal requirements.

you can still get some simple offerings like the Mahindra Roxor but you need to add the turn signals yourself and can only drive them in a few states.

> the problems with this are feature creep, and compliance with federal requirements

You’re forgetting the demographic who buys pickups not wanting to have a smaller truck compared to their peers. It’s a portion of their ego.

you have a biased and profoundly ignorant opinion on this subject.

In the future when tempted to comment on similar matters I encourage you to instead spend the time trying to make friends with someone outside your political bubble.

Oh sorry I forgot about how, statistically speaking, those who buy large vehicles can’t drive them and keep getting into wrecks, so they purchase an even larger one next time to feel safer.

I want to see that data, please.

Can you elaborate on what the feature creep and compliance hurdles are?

This is what gets me about all the climate change noise: if we truly cared about energy use, then instead of forcing everyone into new electric vehicles and building a completely new network of refueling stations, we should implement the 1978 Gas Guzzler Tax for all vehicles, not just cars:

https://www.epa.gov/fueleconomy/gas-guzzler-tax

So as long as everyone is buying SUVs and humongous, dangerous trucks, I don't really give a shit about climate change, since no one else does. We're going to burn up our home.

Why are trucks exempt?

When the act was passed the average consumer didn't see pickup trucks as the weird kind of status symbol that they've become today. People used them commercially- on farms, plowing, hauling, whatever. So presumably in order not to step on the toes of the economy, pickups got a pass and were exempted. Of course, now that these things have blossomed into full-blown vanity displays and are only occasionally used for work purposes, it'd make sense to lump them into the gas-guzzler category. I'm sure the auto manufacturers won't be the ones to suggest it.

The article has good content (and the overall point is not missed on me) but think using the F-150 for usage breakdown is "sort of" a straw man - it's not a vehicle one can use for "heavy" towing/hauling or commercial applications where you "actually need a truck". Far as I know F-150s (and equivalent 1500 series/half-ton truck from other Makes) are all gasoline while F-250/2500 on up have diesel options (often more desirable/practical for towing/hauling/commercial uses).

OK, but have you ever seen any half-ton truck commercial where the act of towing wasn't prominently featured? The problem isn't people buying these trucks intending to do a lot of towing, but later realizing they got less than the ideal vehicle for the application. The problem is they're buying this crap purely on a fantasy.

For sure I don't disagree with you and am not making any assertions into the root cause for of any problems. Even Rivian trucks talk a lot about their towing capacity (and they're quite capable) but it's likely not going to be the truck of choice for an owner who tows "heavy" loads "often". As mentioned, the overall point of the article is not lost on me.

I don’t understand the need to connect trucks to towing or the concept of a real truck. A truck is a truck because you can put things in the back, it's really that simple.

I get that many people can get by with a sadan or whatever but the idea that I have to rent equipment just to transfer some wood or furniture is unacceptable. Even if I do it rarely it's still more often than most people put passengers in the back seat of their car. Truck is the ultimate vehicle but if questioned I'll just say because I like the way it looks haha. It's really not the hill to die on.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com