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The Reason Why Are Trucks Getting Bigger

(toddofmischief.blogspot.com)
173 points yasp | 2 comments | 11 Aug 22 13:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.595s | source
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sircastor ◴[11 Aug 22 13:41 UTC] No.32425388[source]▶
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.
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jefftk ◴[11 Aug 22 13:45 UTC] No.32425451[source]▶
> it makes for great story of regulation gone awry

How so? A driver side airbag sounds like an important safety feature.

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sircastor ◴[11 Aug 22 13:58 UTC] No.32425659[source]▶
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.
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1. SV_BubbleTime ◴[11 Aug 22 14:25 UTC] No.32426118[source]▶
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.
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2. rascul ◴[11 Aug 22 15:13 UTC] No.32426981[source]▶
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.