Title text:
‘They really shouldn’t let those small cars drive in traffic. I worry I’m going to kill someone if I hit one! They should have to drive on the sidewalk, safely out of the way.’
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3167/
INTRODUCING…GRAVE DIGGER!!!
Oh he’s about to flip over.
You’ve fallen for one of the classic blunders!
i like fire truck and monster truck. walter
Reminds me of the lead up to WW1 where Germany and Britain were in a race to see who could crank out the biggest dreadnaughts.
There really is an xkcd for everything.
The number of massive trucks I see without a speck of dirt in the bed that are used mainly for commuting and groceries is pathetic.
Lucky! I’d love to live somewhere where that was a SMALL number
So much this. I can somewhat forgive a stupid sized truck if it was used for work or some kind of off roading.
I think there have been occasions where I have passed a truck stopped at a red light on my bike, while carrying more groceries or other materials than they have in their entire backseat and bed.
And with the short box option, so you can’t fit 4x8 sheets of stuff in there anyway. Better off with a minivan.
If I could have a Fully electric mid 90s chevy S10 style pickup with modern safety features and no surveillance I would be sooooo happy. But no, if I want a truck I can buy old as fuck or get a wanktank. Closest option to what I want in the US currently is a Ford Maverick (which is literally just a rebadged explorer sport trac for the modern age) but that would mean supporting Ford, and like, fuck Ford.
What’s crazy (and sucks) is they DID have an EV S10 from the mid 90’s (hence why it sucks: it’s exactly what you want, but they killed it)
Of course it doesn’t have the modern safety features, but I bet you could still find one if you’re determined enough! Although it’s possible you already knew this 😉
I had no idea, I’ll have a to keep an eye out for those 👀
Glad I could open your eyes! I have no idea how rare they are so it’s possible you’ll never see one (or you’ll have to build one yourself maybe?)
I only heard about them a day or two before commenting because of the recent EV1 auction! Turns out Jared from The Questionable Garage (formerly Wrench Every Day) got one driving again, which he brought up in his video talking about the EV1 auction
Interesting to read that and see how far we’ve come with EVs and charging.
Even crazier to think how far we could’ve been if they didn’t kill all of these projects as soon as they could!
You’re basically asking for what slate promises to be.
Also, you totally didn’t say it, but I feel like whining about it so: A lot of people think that the infotainment in cars could be stripped out to lower the price, but a big touch screen is actually very cheap and it might even be more expensive to have a bunch of bespoke buttons per model, so really, the idea of a gutted out vehicle wouldn’t save any money. The only actual money savers would be in areas like the suspension, build quality, engine size, that sort of thing.
Perhaps, but having tactile options like buttons and dials is considerably safer as the ui can’t change and you can keep your eyes on the road
Perhaps, but having tactile options like buttons and dials is considerably safer as the ui can’t change and you can keep your eyes on the road
Meh. Debatable.
I think a few crucial buttons and a screen is most safe. To have all the modern features and settings of a normal car and have buttons alone would leave you with a 747 cockpit you have to look at anyways, and you’d have to cover more area to find things.
You don’t need software developers for a button
You need someone to figure out how to get the car to interpret that button press. Whether it’s an electrical engineer or a dev doesn’t make too much difference to the argument.
the software route actually makes a bit more sense at scale, as you can abstract all the same functions into the car’s computer regardless of what human interface device is activating that function.
Depends on how the button works
While you do not need software devs for a button, once you have enough buttons doing enough things controlling them with a computer becomes much easier than controlling them using mechanical circuitry. This is the whole reason for SBCs like the Arduino, so people can make the transitionary step between “my project is simple enough to have physical logic built into it” and “my project is so complex it no longer makes sense for me to hand build the logic”
If you haven’t messed with physical logic gates before, I recommend it! If you don’t have a physical workspace to do it in, Minecraft actually Makes a ‘great’ sandbox for playing with logic circuits. Superflat Creative worlds are the bomb for that.
Start with a simple yes gate, then learn a not gate, then an And, then an Or, and build up from there!
You’ll find very quickly that once you need persistence involved, projects with physical logic can scale massively with each additional bit of storage added. Doing something with that storage? Good luck! As a result, nowadays we pay someone for a tiny computer they already made, and program it to make our buttons do stuff, instead of just having the buttons do stuff directly.
Edit: removed a word, analog does not mean mechanical, mea culpa.
Correct me if I’m wrong, is Slate not Amazon backed? No judgement either way, I just know that rubs some lemmings the wrong way
Oh don’t worry, it isn’t! Its just backed by Jeff Bezos himself…
Yeah…
This world sucks, and sometimes you gotta make some shitty pragmatic choices. I would judge someone harshly for a Tesla but less so for Slate given that 1. Jeff isn’t so openly racist so much as being a greedy bastard of a human being, and 2. Slate is backed by him but not fully owned by him.
Ah the fun of the world we live in…
Yeah 100%, I’m fully on board with your reasoning. I’m continuously arguing with myself over a Bronco or a Tacoma (only modern backcontry capable vehicles with manuals I’m aware of), so I do NOT have a moral high ground here haha
My understanding that the “Amazon backed” was a comparatively small portion of the funding, and largely to generate an air of legitimacy for the normies.
Absolutely fair, the more I know. Thanks for the clarification!
Same, I recently looked for vehicles and this was an option we desperately wanted. We have a great ev now that’s tiny and efficient, but a small truck would have been great
I think Toyota just teased an EV Hilux
Someone pointed out the shape is very Tacoma-esque, so maybe an EV Toyota quarter ton is on the way
It’s become a wealth/status symbol for people who don’t like the more traditional bougie shit. Lets them still delude themselves into thinking they’re salt of the earth types.
I can afford for 2/3 of my vehicle to be functionally useless! Dohohohoho!
A wealth symbol you can finance for 84 months 🤣
t’s become a wealth/status symbol for people who don’t like the more traditional bougie shit
It’s because they are actual luxury vehicles. Get inside one of the new ones, and it’s basically what you would imagine a lexus or lincoln would be like. All the fanciness, all the nifty little features… Finding one that is actually made to ‘work’ is hard.
I knew it!
“We’re also going to make cars uglier as they get bigger too. Can’t have style, that might distract other drivers”
We’re in the “I need to make my headlights brighter than the sun phase”. It’s just before the spike club panel
Clearly we need to start actively destroying larger vehicles to address this problem.
All while the subprime delinquency rate is getting worse. Yes, AmeriKa, keep buying those gas guzzling fully loaded behemoths that you can barely afford to insure, fuel up and maintain. Don’t forget to apply for a 96 month car loan.
This is how Mad Max was made.
Just gonna keep on posting this
I should get an M1 Abrams and write off as a business expense
It would probably be quieter than any of the diesel pickup trucks on the road too!
I remember hearing years ago how the M1 Abrams was a battlefield domination machine that could only be killed by another M1. That was clearly propaganda. Those overweight, overpriced pieces of shit got lit the fuck up after being shipped to Ukraine.
Russian invasion of ukraine has been the only war in quite a long time where a major power has been fighting against a major power. most other conflicts in many decades have been asymmetrical warfare/symmetrical warfare between outdated militaries. Ukraine has shown that drones are the new thing in warfare, they provide excellent intel, cheap short range pinpoint accurate light artillery. unmatched spotting for heavier artillery and with a bit more expense long range strategic strikes are also possible. With drone warfare MBTs seem to be mostly just the juiciest of targets.
Where previously M1 could be resistant to most attacks, now with drone spotting a direct hit with guided shells can score a direct hit of 155mm shell on top armour of tanks.
I’ve driven a Volvo L120H. It had. A pretty great visibility forward, better than my own car (Peugeot 108) lol. But that’s due to sitting so high up and only when I took the front loader off. Backwards it had a camera, which I was so jelly of when backing
“Your honor, I got the M1 because it was safer than an F150 in my neighborhood with lots of small children.”
“And here is the data to prove it.”
audience gasps
A 0.2m tall 3 year old??nope, reading comprehension, that’s distance
Just a few thousand truck flipping cars on the road might be a good start
What’s the Lancia logo doing on there?
Lancia Stratos Zero was kinda similar.
Not to speak of the Lancia Stratos, the original cheese wedge:
That one apparently did well in rally, so I have trouble seeing it as a ‘hugging the ground’ supercar. Even though Porsches and Lambos also were in rally.
It’s a bit of a misconception. Soft-sprung cars can be hella fast on roads.
But modern supercars are sprung so slow for downforce, to try to turn their bottoms into vacuum cleaners. But (outside of racetracks) its mostly for show and ‘sporty feel,’ as this downforce doesn’t really kick in till like 90mph+. In fact, many racecars are faster around hairpins when sprung looser and higher.
Idk I just hot linked some random image on the internet
I don’t know where that’s from, but it kinda has Lancia Stratos concept vibes to me.
That has traffic-flipping vibes of the upgraded Agency Supercar from the game Crackdown. I like.
Just passed one of those on my work today. It was LADA 2108 with lowered roof and suspension planted all the way down. Kind of like hybrid of theese two:
It got stuck in a pothole at an intersection…
Can only drive on well-maintained streets tho.
Oh please do the 50 year mortgage!
Please! Oh pretty please!
The 50 year mortgage is begging for some laughs.
Yep. And now we have little old ladies, who should’ve had their license yanked years ago, driving 4 ton trucks to get groceries.
C’mon! I’m in the South and never saw some shit like that. Spent 6-months loading cars at Lowe’s, not one elderly person in a monster truck. Old dude’s like me stick to “normal” pickups like my 2004 F150.
While net even being able to see over the steering wheel.
The thing that really frustrates me is that I can’t buy the car I want. I would like a successor to my Chevy Volt but it’s become very difficult to find a compact hybrid hatchback in the States. It’s basically Prius Prime or bust, and the Prius is not nearly as fun to drive as the Volt.
Yeah. I am getting an Integra.
It’s the only decent hatchback that is sporty that’s left. And it’s not cheap either.
The civic hybrid is really good, it just came out. Much better than the Prius. But there is very limited selection.
Yes, Civic hybrid looks good. Too bad no plug-in option for it :( The discontinued Honda Clarity plug-in might be a used option, but it’s kind of frumpy to be honest.
