Pickup Truck 2.0
TLDR: The Hummer EV is huge (cue Billy Fuccillo voice) and a pedestrian hazard. Trucks and SUVs of its size are more dangerous to pedestrians due to where they strike them during accidents and because of missing visibility areas around the vehicles. Despite carriage size being a safety hazard, consumer cars continue to be released in larger sizes that may not fit in garages or parking lots. More regulation is needed to encourage smaller vehicles and pedestrian safety features (in vehicles and municipal infrastructure). Self driving cars are not a solution to the above issues and also need additional regulation.
Full story: Last week, GMC announced its first electric pick-up truck, the Hummer EV. Pre-orders for the premium version of the vehicle, the Edition 1 (which will retail for $112,595), ran out in 10 minutes. Edition 1 will be available in the Fall of 2021. 3 additional models at lower price points will be available starting in 2022, 2023, and 2024 respectively. While the vehicle has been lauded by truck enthusiasts for its environmental friendliness (at least in terms of on the road emissions… producing such a large vehicle certainly comes with environmental costs), I won’t be saying “Truck Yeah” anytime soon (for a variety of reasons). Here are a couple.
Most importantly, pedestrians hit by large vehicles, such as pickup trucks and SUVs, are more likely to die than those hit by a sedan going the same speed. A lot of this is due to vehicle size. The size specs on AutoBlog list it as 18 feet long, and over 7 feet wide, with at least a foot of ground clearance on most models. These dimensions are significantly shorter in length than a full-sized crew cab pickup, but wider than many heavy duty trucks (including EV predecessor H3T).
Second, part of danger from trucks and SUVs is due to a higher front end. Instead of being thrown out of the way or pushed up onto the hood (which is more likely in collisions with smaller vehicles with lower front ends), pedestrians struck by these are often trapped under the vehicle before it runs them over. Furthermore, trucks and SUVs are more likely to strike pedestrians in the torso, rather than a more survivable area such as the leg.
Besides being more deadly to pedestrians due to their front end, trucks and SUVs are also dangerous due to limited visibility around the vehicle, which can lead to frontover accidents. WTHR News in Indianapolis measured these no visibility areas on 22 vehicles using a driver the size of the average US woman (5’4”) and a traffic cone to represent a 1 year old child. Once the driver had set up their seat comfortably, the cone was positioned in front of the center bumper and moved away from the vehicle until the driver could see the top of the cone. For the model that performed the worst, this distance was 10 feet. The Hummer EV is at least 4 inches taller, wider, and longer than this vehicle.
WTHR also ran a demo of this by placing children in front of several parked vehicles used in the initial test. Children continued to be added until the driver could see one in front of the car. For the car with the worst visibility, this required 13 children, and the 13th child was 15 feet away from the vehicle. Half of child non-traffic deaths are from frontovers. Experts recommend requiring a front camera on all vehicles to reduce these accidents, but this is an inadequate solution. The ultimate danger is vehicle size.
In addition to size regulations, another solution is including more in depth analysis of pedestrian hazards into vehicle safety ratings (and regulating car manufacturing accordingly). Unfortunately, due to push back from automakers this information is not currently included in safety calculations from the National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA). Next is incentives for consumers to purchase smaller vehicles, as pickup trucks outsold passenger cars for the first time this year, and SUVs outsold sedans 2:1 last year. Finally, infrastructural changes to roadways that encourage slower driving and fewer pedestrian/car interactions could also reduce the frequency and severity of accidents. However, these infrastructural changes should not come at the expense of accessibility and functionality needs of disabled people who may need cars to travel or at the expense of disabled pedestrians.
Although they are often suggested as a solution to to pedestrian/vehicle accidents, self driving cars (the Edition 1 includes self driving features) are not the answer. There are several notable issues with self-driving cars. For example, poor weather conditions are trying for the sensors on autonomous vehicles. Fog, snow, and rain make these sensors much less accurate. So far, autonomous vehicle testing sites have mostly been concentrated in areas with complex street patterns (such as San Francisco and Pittsburgh), or sensor friendly weather (Scottsdale, Phoenix, Austin). However, some rain testing has been done in Kirkland and Miami.
Also, self driving cars struggle to compensate for human behavior. Intersections and crosswalks are difficult for self driving cars to judge. Is that guy on his phone near the crosswalk in the TJ Maxx parking lot (with his mask around his chin) actually trying to cross or just biding his time? You might signal to him and find out, but self driving cars currently cannot make that kind of calculation.
Self driving cars are often seen as infallible, but they are only infallible as the people who build and maintain them. And these human biases can be deadly. During a testing run in Tempe, Arizona, Uber’s failure to account for pedestrian jaywalking in its self driving algorithm resulted in the death of cyclist Elaine Herzberg. Even worse, a safety feature that may have prevented her death was turned off. This tragic accident also highlights the issues of liability and responsibility for autonomous vehicle crashes.
Despite the claims of societal improvement (environmental soundness, self driving capabilities), that’s not why the EV is coming to the market. Even when accounting for some of its momentarily dazzling features (the 32” water fording clearance comes to mind), the EV is really just a life sized version of Demo Duke. While I have no illusions that the EV will suddenly be the next Corolla, unfortunately what it will do is set an even bigger standard for larger passenger vehicles of all types, from sedans to cross-overs. Even subcompact cars are now the size compact cars used to be. Car sizes are increasing, and it’s not just because of the additional computers and safety features. It’s likely a toxic combination of the two, a larger vehicle requires more computational capacity to run and more safety features to protect drivers, which then requires a larger vehicle. Still, this dangerous cycle can’t continue.
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