5 ms·
> the vehicles have airbags, 360-degree cameras, blind-spot monitoring, collision sensors[, AC,] and anti-lock brakes — all of which are missing on the [old one
by lucb1e 2y ago
> the vehicles have airbags, 360-degree cameras, blind-spot monitoring, collision sensors[, AC,] and anti-lock brakes — all of which are missing on the [old ones].
Woa, is driving without airbags even legal nowadays or do they drive different ones in Germany? I always thought the USPS trucks looked... utilitarian old I guess, so like they shipped them over to keep the historical branding, but I don't know if that's actually the case
Another interesting bit of the article:
> the costs of installing thousands of charging stations and upgrading electrical service, made [electric delivery vehicles] unaffordable at a time [...]. That led to a deal in which the [US] government provided $3 billion
> [they're buying] 106,000 vehicles through 2028. That included 60,000 next-gen vehicles, 45,000 of them electric models, along with 21,000 other electric vehicles
- ghaff 2y ago>Woa, is driving without airbags even legal nowadays I'm sure new vehicles require them in the US. But there's very wide latitude on safety feature requirements for older vehicles in the US.
- bobthepanda 2y agoThere’s also often exceptions and issues when it comes to one agency in the government trying to enforce rules on another. Notably, the death toll on 9/11 was made worse because the state used its authority to override the local building code which would have required more staircases and further spacing of them. Or any locality trying to enforce payment of parking tickets from higher entities or even their own off duty officers.
- ghaff 2y agoAnd there are antique plates etc. States are generally very hesitant to forbid people to drive their cars unless there's something that poses a serious imminent threat to others.
- SoftTalker 2y agoBecause not enough people own really old cars for it to be worth worrying about. And as you note, and increased endangerment is generally to the owner.
- hprotagonist 2y ago“it was legal when i bought it, so it’s legal now!”
- ghaff 2y agoMore like it was legal when someone originally bought it. (With some caveats.)
- Scoundreller 2y agoBetter than aviation: "it was legal when we got it approved it, so it's legal to manufacture now!" (decades later) (I like the discussion about this example: https://www.flightglobal.com/airbus-challenges-737-grandfather-allowance/16468.article https://www.flightglobal.com/airbus-challenges-737-grandfath... )
- winrid 2y agoMany things are this way. The number of houses in the silicon valley that still have knob and tube wiring is kind of hilarious. Can't build new houses with it, but grandfathered in until you have to make changes.
- Qwertious 2y agoThere's an exception for quadricycles IIRC (very small cars).
- kevin_thibedeau 2y agoYou can drive a model-T if you want to. They are lacking any safety features.
- Iulioh 2y agoBegin able to only do 40mph is arguably a safety feature
- Joel_Mckay 2y agoThe top speed of the Model T was 42 mph (68 km/h), but most roads of the time were meant for far slower animal drawn carriages. The primary danger was plate glass windows shredding the occupants, or the gearbox bushing failing (Fords early transmission designs were interesting.) =3
- datavirtue 2y agoThey turbo-charge nicely.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jefftk 2y agoAnd if the transmission fails so does the foot brake.
- is_true 2y agoFord sucks at transmissions even now
- chrisco255 2y agoAirbags weren't invented until many decades after the Model T. And cars were already exceeding 100mph by the 20s. Airbags remained a premium, nonrequired feature until the 90s iirc.
- pohuing 2y agoI have never seen a USPS truck here. And I think all of my imports were delivered by DHL or UPS within Germany. I don't think USPS drives any trucks in Germany
- adgjlsfhk1 2y agoyou don't. USPS is US federal government, not a company
- hedora 2y agoCongress keeps trying to privatize it, which would be a disaster and is wildly unpopular. Instead, they keep sabotaging it. This is why it has bonkers pension requirements and constantly hemorrhages money. Anyway, it does not operate overseas.
- Hasu 2y ago> Congress keeps trying to privatize it, which would be a disaster and is wildly unpopular. Instead, they keep sabotaging it. > This is why it has bonkers pension requirements and constantly hemorrhages money. This is not true. The Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 repealed the disastrous 2006 bill that requires the USPS to pay for their retirement funds out of revenue. The Biden administration has really done a remarkable (well, competent, but that's remarkable for government these days) job with many of America's institutions, including the Post Office, and it's unfortunate that people don't know these things.
- smnrchrds 2y agoYou might be thinking of UPS. USPS doesn't operate outside of the US.
- ssl-3 2y agoAre airbags required for driving in Germany? If a German owns a 1961 BMW Isetta, is it required that it have airbags before it is driven on the roadway?
- rightbyte 2y agoNo it is not.
- mschuster91 2y ago> Woa, is driving without airbags even legal nowadays or do they drive different ones in Germany? German here - as long as your vehicle matches the code requirements back when it was built, it is road legal. You're perfectly fine to ride a pre-WW2 car with only a single side mirror, no rear mirror, no airbags or any other kind of safety feature and no emission controls worth the name. I still would not recommend it to tour such a piece of history on public roads though.
- bombcar 2y agoThis is the case in most jurisdictions (and even the ones that do NOT permit cars older than X years - as I believe Japan does - have exceptions for historical vehicles and other purposes).
- standardUser 2y agoDo school buses even have seatbelts?
- joshvm 2y agoAlso related, the US mandated backup cameras for new vehicles in 2018 while Europe took until 2022. My uneducated guess from visiting the US is that very few people reverse-park and huge cars/SUVs have poor visibility, so the risk of backup collisions is high. I read somewhere that despite this, a lot of models in the US have had backup cameras for years, well in advance of the mandate. In Europe, parallel and reverse bay-parking is much more common. At least in the UK, both are testable manoeuvres so everyone at least learns, even if they don't bother later. I've even worked in places where you had to back into spaces, for evacuation reasons. Last time I bought a car in the not too distance past, even ultrasonic sensors cost extra and when hiring vans, only the newest models have backup cams.