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.
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...
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.
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.
> thanks to all of the cameras and sensors everywhere.
Cameras are a band-aid that help a bit, but nothing beats actual clear visibility in all directions, something which newer cars lack.
My partner has a newish VW and it's a menace to drive IMO. For example turning left onto our street, just when I need to see clearly if there is anyone on that street (it's a neighborhood of lots of kids) all I see is a giant A pillar and even more giant rearview mirror, blocking most of the view to the left. I have to contort in all directions back and forth to look around these obstacles which creates its own safety concerns. Visibility to the rear quarters is also terrible.
On my older cars with low doorlines and thin pillars I have perfect visibility into any turn, 100x safer.
Smaller cars don't give them the feeling of power they lack in their life. Yearning for feeling bigger, more powerful, and scarier correlates quite well with some folks driving big trucks, it's a purchase to fill a void.
A 10cm increase in bonnet height, from 80cm to 90cm, raises the risk of death in a crash by 27% for pedestrians and cyclists, according to a Belgian study involving 300,000 casualties. Children were substantially more likely to be killed as pedestrians in collisions than adults, the report said.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
As someone who lives near two of the largest USAF bases in Europe, I'm glad the Americans can import vehicles too wide for the average street because it allows the locals to identify them at a distance and somewhat anticipate their non-existent (and often illegal) driving habits.
One very likely drunk US soldier driving a huge American SUV and speeding through a red light in Bucharest killed a famous Romanian musician.
The US blocked any attempts of a Romanian investigation and the American investigation found no wrong doing (the musicians much smaller taxi looked like an accordion, I passed on that street after the accident).
> When questioned by State Department security officials, VanGoethem told them he and Wentworth had spent the evening bar-hopping, followed by an early morning pizza at a third Bucharest establishment called Everest.
> VanGoethem also called Wentworth on his cell phone immediately following the collision and asked her to match his lie when she spoke to investigators.
Also, regarding hearsay... I just said that I saw myself the car wreckage the next day. And actually I also saw the metal panel fence next to the road. The Dacia was totaled, smashed like a plastic toy, and the fence next to it was also destroyed due to the Dacia (a much smaller and lighter car) being catapulted onto the fence. It's been a while since I saw it, but that road was dangerous and the direction the SUV was coming from was famous for allowing high speeds. Maybe the taxi driver ran the red light, but that's extremely unlikely as a taxi driver would have been familiar with the risky road and the possibility of getting hit by a car doing 80kmph or more.
United States Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales murdered 16 Afghan civilians and wounded six others in the Panjwayi District of Kandahar Province, in the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Nine of his victims were children, and 11 of the dead were from the same family.
Bales was taken into custody later that morning when he told authorities, "I did it".
Aren't the rejection reasons true of every US EV truck? They all have gross vehicle weight ratings over 3.5 tons, they all lack speed limiters, and they all fail EU pedestrian safety regulations.
The only exception I know of is the F-150 Lightning. It's allowed in Europe outside the EU (Norway & Switzerland), though its maximum load is limited to 805kg (including passengers) to keep it below the 3,500kg limit.[1]
Edit: Some guy in Poland (which is in the EU) has a Cybertruck.[2] I'm not sure how he made it EU compliant. He claims there are at least five Cybertrucks registered in Poland.[3] There's also a Cybertruck registered in the Czech Republic.[4]
> The Cybertruck has no type-approval from the European Union (EU) due to significant passive safety concerns. Several specifications of the Cybertruck, particularly the sharp-edged, stiff stainless-steel body, violate EU safety standards, primarily for the protection of vulnerable road users.
So it's too dangerous for pedestrians. Good, love to see a government stand up for its people now and then
Counterpoint: one was imported and registered in Czech Republic, so it can be done "in Europe". Although I'm sure it's pricey, hard, depends heavily on jurisdiction.
It's a pretty robust logistics system. The tour lengths are 2-3 years. If your job demanded that you relocate to another continent for 3 years I think we'd all expect some relocation assistance.
True but providing a local vehicle pool might be a lot more sensible. That way vehicles are more innocuous and also meet the local requirements better. Think of the UK for example where they drive on the left. I've driven my Dutch car there and while it was possible with some stickers on the headlamps, it was a real PITA when trying to enter a parking garage because the ticket machine is on the other side.
You are ordered where to go, and have little input into that decision. The military will typically ship one vehicle free of charge to your new duty station.
Yes, that's likely much cheaper than loading up an aircraft carrier with a bunch of Mustangs and Silverados. They're still likely bound to some sort of lowest bidder for contracts. It's also likely to be more economical than having the person find their own transport and reimbursing them.
There are some pictures of aircraft carriers loaded with civilian crew cars, but that's when the carriers home port changes, so it does the trip anyways.
OK, but maybe they plan to use the same group of commercial shippers for the miltary hardware. (Now you are going to tell me that most of these shippers are Chinese, completely demolishing my conjecture.)
Free healthcare for the rest of your life. Help with college costs.. Funny how one of the biggest budget items in the country is used for a socialist system...
From quick reading, seems like if you serve at least 2 years (or leave from a service connected injury) and get an honorable discharge, you get VA healthcare, although lower priority levels have to pay copays, so not entirely free?
Looks like signing up for the military is an 8 year commitment, which is often at least 3 years of active duty and the remainder on reserves. Kind of a lot of commitment for health care, and kind of a lot of risk on the job. If you can manage to stay in for 20 years though, the pension seems pretty nice; I live near a navy base and a lot of parents of my kid's sports team are approaching 20 years, getting paid a pension while having a second career is pretty neat.
“ Another concern is that the Cybertruck would attract a lot of attention when operated in public traffic. This would defeat the purpose of issuing USAREUR-AF cover plates for force protection. It is commonly known that the Cybertruck cannot be registered and operated in Germany.”
Funny, bad OPSEC to drive a huge flashing American flag.
go to spz.penize.cz and lookup license plate 001CYBER, legally registered in Czechia
go to ufg.pl and lookup the insurance policy for license plate S1K6, legally registered in Poland
both countries are EU members and you can drive those cars anywhere in the EU
Afaik there are some ways to get approval for individual vehicles to be imported in the EU, even if non compliant with EU rules, for specific purposes and with a case-by-case basis, which grants such vehicles an exemption.
This requires a per-vehicle (not per model) specific flow which may take long and cost a lot, and you may be fined if you use the vehicle outside its stated purpose.
I can remember some collectors importing cybertruck indeed, I don’t know the limitations for its use.
They tend to get exceptions for much stuff, that makes it newsworthy.
They even get exempted from criminal law. Remember Anna Sacoolas who killed a teenager in the UK and quickly got repatriated before he could be brought to court?
There might be some argument that brews in this thread and I just want to say that it's nearly impossible to debate someone into believing they should care about people they don't know.
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.