cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/47995540
The physics of being hit by a tall car are gruesome. With a standard sedan, which has a hood height of around two and a half feet, a pedestrian who gets struck straight-on gets flung onto the hood. While perilously acrobatic, hoods are designed to absorb impacts and cushion the pedestrian’s fall.
If you drive a pickup like this, you have made an arbitrary choice to kill the next person you accidentally hit.
Given our understanding of just how randomly incorrect clankers tend to be on occasion, I’m losing faith that self-driving will ever be the solution to this issue.
Trains! Literally, trains, everywhere, would fix the problem. The odds of getting hit by a train at a railroad crossing are infinitely smaller than getting hit by a pavement princess at an intersection.