Tesla Cybertruck's stiff structure, sharp design raise safety concerns -experts
www.reuters.com
The angular design of Tesla's Cybertruck has safety experts concerned that the electric pickup truck's stiff stainless-steel exoskeleton could hurt pedestrians and cyclists.

Tesla Cybertruck’s stiff structure, sharp design raise safety concerns - experts::The angular design of Tesla’s Cybertruck has safety experts concerned that the electric pickup truck’s stiff stainless-steel exoskeleton could hurt pedestrians and cyclists.

  • QuadratureSurfer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    19·
    1 year ago

    This is a lesson that we already learned a while back.

    We used to make cars that were tough, but then we noticed that people were dying way too easily when they hit a tree or a wall.

    In an indestructible car, all of the forces of a crash are directly applied to the people inside of a car. You might as well have have been riding a motorcyle when you crashed. They would need some advanced harness system that gives a little on impact without letting you hit the steering wheel or center console… there’s not a whole lot of space for that.

    In the cars of today, the car is meant to crumple in a way that absorbs as much of an impact as possible while trying to keep the occupants alive.

    If the cybertruck is too stiff, even a collision at a slow speed will kill or severely injure the occupants.

    • Sjy@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Late reply but to specify, the crumple zones dissipating energy to protect the occupants, but in part the situation you’re describing airbags do a great job at preventing people from hitting the steering wheel / walls.

      A very very advanced harness system might compensate a little for a lack of crumple zones during a very rapid deceleration collision. The issue isn’t so much as stopping someone from but being thrown around in the car, seat belts do that, but nothing can stop one’s internal organs from doing the same thing inside their body. So when a body stops during a rapid deceleration, internal organs still try to move. This movement tears everything, most notably one’s aorta and a torn aorta means death with no possible chance of survival.

      A small tear in one’s aorta and one may survive long enough for emergency services to show up, a bad one and they will have bleed out before a 911 call taker has time to answer a call for help.