The Reason Why Are Trucks Getting Bigger

I worked for Jaguar Land Rover for a number of years and we couldn’t bring the Defender to the US (I was told) because it lacked a proper airbag on the steering wheel. I’m sure it was slightly more complicated than that, but it makes for great story of regulation gone awry.

I'm not sure how to get from "deemed [some debatable combination of] unsafe and/or illegal to drive on the road" to "regulation gone awry."

Would you say the same thing if it had been made without seatbelts or a driver's side mirror?

Don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying that I don’t think a driver’s side airbag is not worth it, I’m sure it is. But if that’s all it was, surely we would’ve just put a different steering wheel in the American version. The reality is probably more complicated, but it gets stuffed into this little anecdote.

Ah yes, the classic “Of course the company has its customer’s safety in mind” argument everyone agrees with heartily.

> because it lacked a proper airbag on the steering wheel

Coming up with a new steering wheel for the US seems significantly cheaper than redesigning a new vehicle.

Airbag unit itself, module, and the calibration for it. They need to smash a bunch of vehicles to do calibration. It’s not really worth it in the case of vehicles where development was shut down a long time ago.

I've heard that introducing a vehicle into the US market can be an expensive and time consuming process. Some of those foreign vehicles look interesting, though.

Safety features for personal protection shouldn't be the reason why you can or cannot drive a car.