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Comment by legitster | Hacker News Reader

EU and US testing criteria are very different - in the US, motor vehicles leaving the roadway and impacting stationary objects is the top source of traffic fatalities. In the EU, it's pedestrian impacts (which makes sense corresponding to the urban vs rural environments in each).

The EU has very stringent testing for pedestrian safety: https://www.euroncap.com/en/car-safety/the-ratings-explained.... One of the tests is literally just taking a foam ball, pressing it on spots all around the front of the car, and looking for hard, sharp corners.

The cybertruck is a steel box made of sharp corners. It was never, ever going to be allowed on European roads - and the US Government here is saying they are not even going to fight for the rarest exception.

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Not knowing how testing works or the criteria in USA/Canada, I'm surprised it's even allowed here. I'd rather be hit as a pedestrian by almost any other truck since at least F-150s and RAMs don't have sharp edges like the Cybertruck...

But again, here in the US we are an order of magnitude less likely to be hit by a car. EDIT: Than being in a car accident

Obviously we could get into incentives and prioritizing pedestrian safety and urbanizing. But if you take the current status quo of where Americans live and how they drive, I can very much understand regulators choosing to prioritize the safety regulations that will save the largest number of lives on the roads we have now.

https://usa.streetsblog.org/2020/10/10/exactly-how-far-u-s-s...

You're right, I misrepresented the idea. Part of the thing is that US roads are just so much more dangerous in every way. Here's the actual data:

US pedestrian fatalities 2 per 100k. US driver fatalities ~7 per 100k.

European pedestrian fatalities: 0.5 per 100k. European driver fatalities: ~2 per 100k.

So it's somewhat understandable that regulators may disproportionately favor crash protection for drivers.

It's especially concerning when you see that US drivers tend to drive huge tanks. Whereas in Europe we have a lot of tiny compact cars. And yet they still die in the US in larger numbers :O

> But again, here in the US we are an order of magnitude less likely to be hit by a car.

hard disagree, in places where cybertrucks are most sold it is urban populated areas and pedestrian incidents and fatalities are very high

> But again, here in the US we are an order of magnitude less likely to be hit by a car.

Huh - do you have a source for that stat?

I don't care so much about the edges. I'm more worried about the height of these newer trucks and SUVs, which create massive front blindspots. The below report focuses on kids, but I'm an adult and some of these trucks seem taller than me.

https://www.wthr.com/article/news/investigations/13-investig...

> I'm more worried about the height of these newer trucks and SUVs, which create massive front blindspots.

There's a bit of meme that an M1 Abrams tank has better forward visibility than many SUVs/pickups:

* https://old.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/140dgn8/many_popu...

So we need to arm children, so SUV drivers also consider good visibility a feature for their safety, just like the M1 designers did.

I drive a Mini. I frequently notice how the hoods of these trucks are taller than my entire car.

I drive a smaller hatchback as well and notice the same thing.

I’ve been on the other side of it once. I got roped into driving an acquaintance’s H3 Hummer years ago. I went to change lanes, checked my mirrors, looked over my shoulder out the window, and all seems clear. It wasn’t. There was a car that was completely invisible to me. Had other people not been in the car and looking, I would have run them right off the road. I have no idea how anyone drives those things on a daily basis. I was a nervous wreck.

I think the best visibility I had in a car was my old GTI. I could see all 4 corners and knew exactly where I was at.

There's a really good video by Road Guy Rob that goes into very good detail about the specific causes of pedestrian fatalities in the US: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEj-pyjA2oo

TL;DW: It's most likely happening at night, on an arterial street, by a truck or SUV.

> In the EU, it's pedestrian impacts (which makes sense corresponding to the urban vs rural environments in each).

The US has a comparable urban population to Western Europe or Scandinavia. However, the urban areas are far more car centric.

Maybe I'm taking your words to mean something other than intended, but are sharp corners on a car in a car vs pedestrian situation more dangerous than any other? Or is it more the angle + materials?

This is one of those things that seems visually more dangerous, but I'm not sure if it is in real world results.

Outside say a pike sticking out I wonder...

wonder if importers can qualify the truck for europe?

They used to do this for lamborghini countach in the US by adding ridiculous bumpers:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Lamborgh...

It's not _just_ the absurd pointiness; it's also far too heavy. Vehicles over 3.5 tonnes (AIUI the Cybertruck would qualify; while its empty weight is 3.2 tonnes, what matters is the laden weight, and you'd have a hard time arguing that it could only take 300kg contents) in Europe require a speed limiter. The imposed limits vary by country, but would make it pretty impractical as a car. Typically 80km/h on motorways, 50km/h in urban areas.

They also need to beep when they reverse and so forth.

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