5 ms·

This vehicle looks like a pedestrian killing machine. The high front ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶p̶i̶l̶l̶a̶r̶ (edit, it is a tinted piece of glass). I hope it

This vehicle looks like a pedestrian killing machine. The high front ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶p̶i̶l̶l̶a̶r̶ (edit, it is a tinted piece of glass). I hope it has pedestrian detection and automatic braking. https://www.iihs.org/topics/bibliography/ref/2293 https://www.iihs.org/topics/bibliography/ref/2293 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE8X7D4svyw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE8X7D4svyw

hasty_pudding 3y ago
Was feeling critical of your comment until I looked at the photo. That's a literal wall driving down the street. That's one underestimated value of a hood. Gives the pedestrian an option besides going under the vehicle. With something like this, pedestrian contact survivability drops to absolute zero.
- jefftk 3y ago
  The hood needs to be pretty low for a pedestrian to go above it, lower than you'd see on the delivery vehicles (ex: current Sprinter platform) this is competing with.
- SoftTalker 3y ago
  > With something like this, pedestrian contact survivability drops to absolute zero. Which is to say, not much. Auto vs. Pedestrian is going to be a bad day for the pedestrian no matter what.
  - nerpderp82 3y ago
    That is not an engineering attitude to take. Cars can absolutely be designed to increase pedestrian survivability. There is a large body of research around this.
    - SoftTalker 3y ago
      Pedestrians can increase their survivability by not stepping in front of a moving car, but that's not an attitude to take either apparently.
  - hasty_pudding 3y ago
    But this it looks like even at low speeds of pedestrian is out of luck.
crooked-v 3y ago
From Youtube videos, the visibility inside these actually seems pretty great, including that front bottom panel having a transparent section that's not obvious from the outside. See at about 3 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfHP9A07XYY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfHP9A07XYY
- jjcm 3y ago
  Link to a shot with the timestamp directly: https://youtu.be/YfHP9A07XYY?t=49 https://youtu.be/YfHP9A07XYY?t=49 Agree with crooked-v here - the visibility is actually pretty great. That said, the research paper showed that it wasn't just a visibility issue for high hooded cars, it's the geometry during impact that throws pedestrians.
- nerpderp82 3y ago
  Visibility might reduce the number of impacts, but it is mostly the shape of the vehicle that dictates pedestrian survival rates. Read the link in my post.
jefftk 3y ago
Which pillar are you thinking is thick? In the rightmost vehicle of the header image it looks thick, but that's just glare. The front section is also a window, which makes for very good forward visibility: https://media.canoo.com/images/dotcom/hotspots/cabin.webp https://media.canoo.com/images/dotcom/hotspots/cabin.webp
- nerpderp82 3y ago
  It looked like a pillar from the outside, but it is a tinted piece of glass. Still the high blunt shape of the vehicle is going to rocket pedestrians to their death in an impact. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE8X7D4svyw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE8X7D4svyw
  - jefftk 3y ago
    Is there any delivery van with a hood height low enough to lift pedestrians, though? Others have more of a curve, but it starts high enough not to matter. For example, the bend on a Sprinter is around 46", above almost anyone's center of gravity. (See https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/vehicles-with-higher-more-vertical-front-ends-pose-greater-risk-to-pedestrians https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/vehicles-with-higher-more-v...)
badRNG 3y ago
What I think you are interpreting as a thick pillar is actually a window. It looks like a pillar in the vehicles on the sides, but is transparent in the middle vehicle.
AlgorithmicTime 3y ago
[dead]
cossatot 3y ago
We have had, for some time, the necessary technology: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=cow+catcher&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=cow+catcher&iax=images&ia=i...
alistairSH 3y ago
Any worse than the 6' tall mid-size pickups that are all over the place? https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F6i9fw47qac561.jpg https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F6...

hasty_pudding 3y ago

Was feeling critical of your comment until I looked at the photo. That's a literal wall driving down the street. That's one underestimated value of a hood. Gives the pedestrian an option besides going under the vehicle. With something like this, pedestrian contact survivability drops to absolute zero.

jefftk 3y ago
The hood needs to be pretty low for a pedestrian to go above it, lower than you'd see on the delivery vehicles (ex: current Sprinter platform) this is competing with.
SoftTalker 3y ago
> With something like this, pedestrian contact survivability drops to absolute zero. Which is to say, not much. Auto vs. Pedestrian is going to be a bad day for the pedestrian no matter what.
- nerpderp82 3y ago
  That is not an engineering attitude to take. Cars can absolutely be designed to increase pedestrian survivability. There is a large body of research around this.
  - SoftTalker 3y ago
    Pedestrians can increase their survivability by not stepping in front of a moving car, but that's not an attitude to take either apparently.
- hasty_pudding 3y ago
  But this it looks like even at low speeds of pedestrian is out of luck.

crooked-v 3y ago

From Youtube videos, the visibility inside these actually seems pretty great, including that front bottom panel having a transparent section that's not obvious from the outside. See at about 3 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfHP9A07XYY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfHP9A07XYY

jjcm 3y ago
Link to a shot with the timestamp directly: https://youtu.be/YfHP9A07XYY?t=49 https://youtu.be/YfHP9A07XYY?t=49 Agree with crooked-v here - the visibility is actually pretty great. That said, the research paper showed that it wasn't just a visibility issue for high hooded cars, it's the geometry during impact that throws pedestrians.
nerpderp82 3y ago
Visibility might reduce the number of impacts, but it is mostly the shape of the vehicle that dictates pedestrian survival rates. Read the link in my post.

jefftk 3y ago

Which pillar are you thinking is thick? In the rightmost vehicle of the header image it looks thick, but that's just glare. The front section is also a window, which makes for very good forward visibility: https://media.canoo.com/images/dotcom/hotspots/cabin.webp https://media.canoo.com/images/dotcom/hotspots/cabin.webp

nerpderp82 3y ago
It looked like a pillar from the outside, but it is a tinted piece of glass. Still the high blunt shape of the vehicle is going to rocket pedestrians to their death in an impact. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE8X7D4svyw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE8X7D4svyw
- jefftk 3y ago
  Is there any delivery van with a hood height low enough to lift pedestrians, though? Others have more of a curve, but it starts high enough not to matter. For example, the bend on a Sprinter is around 46", above almost anyone's center of gravity. (See https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/vehicles-with-higher-more-vertical-front-ends-pose-greater-risk-to-pedestrians https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/vehicles-with-higher-more-v...)

badRNG 3y ago

What I think you are interpreting as a thick pillar is actually a window. It looks like a pillar in the vehicles on the sides, but is transparent in the middle vehicle.

AlgorithmicTime 3y ago

[dead]

cossatot 3y ago

We have had, for some time, the necessary technology: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=cow+catcher&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=cow+catcher&iax=images&ia=i...

alistairSH 3y ago

Any worse than the 6' tall mid-size pickups that are all over the place? https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F6i9fw47qac561.jpg https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F6...