6 ms·

Very cool! However, I would be concerned about the safety of driving such a small car.

ginko 7y ago
With this kind of thinking you'll end up with an arms race for the largest possible car. Guess motorists can play that game, but what about pedestrians and cyclists?
- Johnny555 7y ago
  In the USA we're in that arms race, and so far, big cars are winning. I could drive a 2500lb Honda Fit on my commute, but I'm sharing the road with 5000lb+ full-size SUVs and drivers that are not paying attention. I don't want to get crushed between 2 SUV's, so I drive a mid-size sedan instead.
  - stevenicr 7y ago
    Even if you are paying attention, there is an 8 x 10 foot blind spot right in front of many of them, https://www.kidsandcars.org/2019/04/26/millions-of-vehicles-have-unexpected-dangerous-front-blind-zone/ https://www.kidsandcars.org/2019/04/26/millions-of-vehicles-... 7 - 14 sitting kids in front of your vehicle and you can't see any of them if you trying to see them.
- eeZah7Ux 7y ago
  This arms race is inherently violent. People are buying heavier and bigger cars to offset life risk onto other drivers. Less risk for one driver equals more risk for somebody else. And it's not a "zero sum game". Pollution and energy usage increases and so the risk for pedestrians.
simion314 7y ago
Imagine how a bicyclist feels when a bus or large car drives a few centimeters next to you, I biked once in a city and I decided I can't take the risk so I walked or used public transport instead.
tobylane 7y ago
Clarkson drove a similar sized car on Top Gear and talked about that issue. https://youtu.be/dJfSS0ZXYdo https://youtu.be/dJfSS0ZXYdo
Pxtl 7y ago
The trick is that you wouldn't take it onto roads where people go over 30mph.
- massysett 7y ago
  That’s the problem with this car. Only 30 mph means city centers only. In those places there are already many other options for quick trips: public transit, Uber/Lyft, old-fashioned taxis, membership car rentals (Car2go, Zipcar), bicycle sharing, sidewalk scooters. With all that I don’t see them selling too many of these. You buy it, you have to park it, which would be expensive in many of the cities in which you could use it. All those other options don’t need to be parked (not at user’s expense at least.) Even for car rentals parking is a pain because you have to find it, even if you don’t have to pay. I could see a market of selling them to fleet operators who team up with cities to get free parking for them, as Zipcar and Car2go do, but that’s about it.
  - Pxtl 7y ago
    Yeah, it's not alternative to a car, it's a bike that takes up more space that's easier to drive in winter.
  - chrisseaton 7y ago
    > Only 30 mph means city centers only. Or around towns. I could use this to go around my town, and to the surrounding towns. And people could use it around suburbs too. So useful to people in cities, towns, suburbs, which is most people.
    - asdff 7y ago
      I'd say a moped offers more utility and range, and can be had for like a grand used right now, but those haven't caught on in the burbs either. People have a highway mentality in the suburbs. They'd rather get on for one mile and take the next exit than take a parallel running surface road. Plus, suburban commutes are long, even errands are long. This EV claims a 40 mile range, so 30 miles in practice. That can make some trips pretty tight whether or not you get stranded, and there isn't going to be much infrastructure in the suburbs where you can pull off and charge. With more range it would be more viable. I think a city setting might be better, for cities without too much congestion at least. Otherwise it's another vehicle on the road that could be a moped taking up way less space to move a single butt from their home to their desk in some office building. Cars pollute, but part of their harm in an urban environment is also the amount of physical space that they demand. You can fit way more people in an electric subway train than you can in a similar length line of traffic of these vehicles, for instance.
alamortsubite 7y ago
Concerned with your safety, or the safety of others around you? We seriously need to de-escalate from this mentality in the U.S. There's nothing inherently dangerous about everyone driving smaller and lighter vehicles, and if we find the political will it'd be easy to put society on that trajectory. Convincing people of the damage they're doing to our environment by driving unnecessarily large vehicles is probably the place to start.
- petre 7y ago
  The "E-scooters are dangerous because you could hit one with your Toyota Tundra or Dodge Ram" fallacy.
  - rossjudson 7y ago
    I think that's more like, "The estates of former E-scooter owners are dangerous to the finances of SUV owners."
- chipsa 7y ago
  Own safety. This class of vehicles doesn't do crash testing, like motorcycles don't.

With this kind of thinking you'll end up with an arms race for the largest possible car. Guess motorists can play that game, but what about pedestrians and cyclists?

Johnny555 7y ago
In the USA we're in that arms race, and so far, big cars are winning. I could drive a 2500lb Honda Fit on my commute, but I'm sharing the road with 5000lb+ full-size SUVs and drivers that are not paying attention. I don't want to get crushed between 2 SUV's, so I drive a mid-size sedan instead.
- stevenicr 7y ago
  Even if you are paying attention, there is an 8 x 10 foot blind spot right in front of many of them, https://www.kidsandcars.org/2019/04/26/millions-of-vehicles-have-unexpected-dangerous-front-blind-zone/ https://www.kidsandcars.org/2019/04/26/millions-of-vehicles-... 7 - 14 sitting kids in front of your vehicle and you can't see any of them if you trying to see them.
eeZah7Ux 7y ago
This arms race is inherently violent. People are buying heavier and bigger cars to offset life risk onto other drivers. Less risk for one driver equals more risk for somebody else. And it's not a "zero sum game". Pollution and energy usage increases and so the risk for pedestrians.

simion314 7y ago

Imagine how a bicyclist feels when a bus or large car drives a few centimeters next to you, I biked once in a city and I decided I can't take the risk so I walked or used public transport instead.

tobylane 7y ago

Clarkson drove a similar sized car on Top Gear and talked about that issue. https://youtu.be/dJfSS0ZXYdo https://youtu.be/dJfSS0ZXYdo

Pxtl 7y ago

The trick is that you wouldn't take it onto roads where people go over 30mph.

massysett 7y ago
That’s the problem with this car. Only 30 mph means city centers only. In those places there are already many other options for quick trips: public transit, Uber/Lyft, old-fashioned taxis, membership car rentals (Car2go, Zipcar), bicycle sharing, sidewalk scooters. With all that I don’t see them selling too many of these. You buy it, you have to park it, which would be expensive in many of the cities in which you could use it. All those other options don’t need to be parked (not at user’s expense at least.) Even for car rentals parking is a pain because you have to find it, even if you don’t have to pay. I could see a market of selling them to fleet operators who team up with cities to get free parking for them, as Zipcar and Car2go do, but that’s about it.
- Pxtl 7y ago
  Yeah, it's not alternative to a car, it's a bike that takes up more space that's easier to drive in winter.
- chrisseaton 7y ago
  > Only 30 mph means city centers only. Or around towns. I could use this to go around my town, and to the surrounding towns. And people could use it around suburbs too. So useful to people in cities, towns, suburbs, which is most people.
  - asdff 7y ago
    I'd say a moped offers more utility and range, and can be had for like a grand used right now, but those haven't caught on in the burbs either. People have a highway mentality in the suburbs. They'd rather get on for one mile and take the next exit than take a parallel running surface road. Plus, suburban commutes are long, even errands are long. This EV claims a 40 mile range, so 30 miles in practice. That can make some trips pretty tight whether or not you get stranded, and there isn't going to be much infrastructure in the suburbs where you can pull off and charge. With more range it would be more viable. I think a city setting might be better, for cities without too much congestion at least. Otherwise it's another vehicle on the road that could be a moped taking up way less space to move a single butt from their home to their desk in some office building. Cars pollute, but part of their harm in an urban environment is also the amount of physical space that they demand. You can fit way more people in an electric subway train than you can in a similar length line of traffic of these vehicles, for instance.

alamortsubite 7y ago

Concerned with your safety, or the safety of others around you? We seriously need to de-escalate from this mentality in the U.S. There's nothing inherently dangerous about everyone driving smaller and lighter vehicles, and if we find the political will it'd be easy to put society on that trajectory. Convincing people of the damage they're doing to our environment by driving unnecessarily large vehicles is probably the place to start.

petre 7y ago
The "E-scooters are dangerous because you could hit one with your Toyota Tundra or Dodge Ram" fallacy.
- rossjudson 7y ago
  I think that's more like, "The estates of former E-scooter owners are dangerous to the finances of SUV owners."
chipsa 7y ago
Own safety. This class of vehicles doesn't do crash testing, like motorcycles don't.