The Cybertruck Appears to Be More Deadly Than the Infamous Ford Pinto, According to a New Analysis

I was driving out of a parking lot yesterday just as a Cybertruck started to pull in off the street from the left. The driver was white-knuckling the wheel and was frantically looking around as I assume he could barely see out of the goddamn thing as he swung so wide he nearly clipped my car. He needed almost the entire driveway to make his turn.

I cannot imagine dropping so much money on something so useless and so hideous.

The thing is a very obvious death trap to anyone that knows simple physics. There are videos testing what happens when a Cybertruck hits a hard wall at certain speeds. That thing didn't crumple at all until speeds greater than 35 mph. And even then it only barely crumples at all. The damage it could produce hitting another vehicle would be catastrophic and fatal.

I love Elon Bad posts, but I think it's worthwhile to examine why Elon bad in this case.

Like many reactionaries, Elon's business philosophy is pure tech-bro-libertarianism. And like all libertarians, he's stuck in the neoliberal mindset of less regulation (don't scrutinize) and more efficiency (let me be cheap), in order to create the safe space that industrialists need to extract, er create.

He's literally said things like (paraphrasing)

When I see a specification for three bolts I ask: why can't we do it with two?

His transparent reasoning is that if he's allowed to cut corners, he'll save money today and consequences can be dealt with when they arise.

He's following the software model of release a minimally viable product and patch it later. Only instead of user frustration at being beta testers, you fucking die maybe.

...and unlike the Pinto, because we are so deep into fucked-reality-ville, it won't get recalled.

I'm guessing that some people at the National Transportation Safety Board are about to get fired by Elon Musk.

I believe 4 of the 5 Cybertruck fatalities were from a single crash. While the truck may indeed be dangerous, there is hardly enough data yet to draw conclusions.

Cybertruck will have 14.52 fatalities per 100,000 units — far eclipsing the Pinto’s 0.85.

Holy shit, that means the Cybertruck fatality rate is around 17 times higher than the Pinto's!

I was thinking “What’s that red stu—oh…” Yikes.

The Pinto got well known for a couple of reasons.

One, the classic "exploding in a rear end collision." The design flaw here was that in certain rear collisions, the fuel tank would be pushed into the rear differential. Not only could this rupture the fuel tank, it could also produce a spark. Boom. Lots of cars had this same design in the 70s, with the fuel tank low in the rear, right behind the rear differential.

Two, the infamous Pinto Memo, which did a cost benefit analysis that determined it would be cheaper for Ford to not fix the problem, and just settle whatever cases came up. This very clearly inspired the Fight Club recall formula scene. Take note that the car used in that scene is a Lincoln Town Car, produced by Ford Motor Company.

The kicker for the Pinto recall? What they did to fix it:

• Two sheets of 1/8" plastic, each about 18" square
• Some long zip ties
• Layer the two sheets over the rear diff, zip tie them to the axle

That's it. My dad pointed this out to me in his shop some time in the late 80s or early 90s. He had a Pinto in for an oil change or something, "Hey, let me show you this." It was such a hacky "repair."

Is it me or are there guts in this picture?

Really took the wind out of my satirical comment that Musk wanted to bring back the Pinto.

Do they have emergency releases on the outside? I know a locked door of a car with traditional latching mechanisms won't open. But an unlocked vehicle where a bystander cannot render aid in an emergency seems so.... Short sighted.

What a dumpster fire that truck is.

No shit, it's literally just a big bullet. Or a wrecking ball on wheels.

But at least its bulletproof!

It seems obvious in hindsight. Sheet metal doors will crumple in a way that can't be opened, trapping occupants. The fire doesn't need to start in the relatively safe and armored battery system. It could be pinched wiring causing a short that ignites plastic interiors, or a fire from another vehicle spreading to the cybertruck.

I'm sure someone mentioned all this to them during design.

Why are we talkaing about this? Who needs this sheet?

I would trust a Smart Fortwo more than the POS Cybertruck.

Garbage in, garbage out

Seems like natural selection in progress.

Buy a Cybertruck, fuck around, see what happens.

It also handily preselects for douche.

Was the Pinto really that bad, though, or did Mother Jones do them dirty?

In the numbers above, the Pinto is hardly a standout deathtrap; I mean, by modern standards, sure, everything on that list is a horrible deathtrap, but the Pinto was safer than the Toyota Corolla or the Beetle or the Datsun 210, and none of those cars are as burdened with the oppressive fiery deathtrap narrative as the Pinto is. In fact, the Pinto’s overall deaths per million vehicles is better than the average!

https://www.theautopian.com/its-long-past-time-to-stop-making-fun-of-the-ford-pinto/

HUSH!!! DO NOT TELL THE CUCKWAGON OWNERS!!

Reads like clickbait. There's 34K Cybetrucks, so the actual number of fire fatalities is rounded to 5, one of which is the trumptower guy (so 20% is already intentional). Not that these are encouraging numbers, but you can't draw conclusions from an N of 4.

god bless American auto regulations for allowing unique vehicles on the road (and the ability to sue for damages when the idiot driver hits you)

Can we like, mark this as NSFW?

The pinto is a myth

Pintos represented 1.9% of all cars on the road in the 1975–76 period. During that time, the car represented 1.9% of all "fatal accidents accompanied by some fire". This implies the Pinto was average for all cars and slightly above average for its class.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Pinto#Retrospective_safety_analysis

1/6887 is not good odds.

Climate Change Simulator

i knew it!

No. Shit. Sherlock.