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The Reason Why Are Trucks Getting Bigger

(toddofmischief.blogspot.com)
173 points yasp | 1 comments | 11 Aug 22 13:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.204s | source
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bambax ◴[11 Aug 22 13:49 UTC] No.32425510[source]▶
An idea for a regulation would be to measure the ratio of maximum weight of living things that a vehicle can transport / weight of vehicle when empty, and make this ratio grow progressively bigger.

The ratio is probably around 0.1 today on average (just an intuition, I don't have the actual numbers), and ideally it should be close to 1, or maybe over 1.

For an ebike for example, it's around 3.

Moving 2-5 tons of metal to transport just one human being is positively insane.

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robin_reala ◴[11 Aug 22 13:52 UTC] No.32425562[source]▶
My car can happily seat 4 adults (so let’s say 250kg) and weighs a touch over 1000kg, so the ratio is 0.25. 0.1 would mean that a car that seats just 4 adults weighs 2.5 tonnes, which seems extreme?
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1. bambax ◴[11 Aug 22 14:06 UTC] No.32425801[source]▶
Yeah you're right, maybe closer to .15 or .2; the F-150 weights between 2 and 2.5 metric tons depending on configuration, and seats only 5.

The Yukon SUV that Arnold Schwarzenegger drives weights over 2.7 metric tons (6k pounds).

The Tesla truck is announced to pass the 8,500 pounds mark, or around 3.8 metric tons (!!)