There is no safety benefit at not requiring people to be very sober and very alert while their car is doing all the driving. That’s the line we’ll see pushed. No matter how safe autonomous cars get, they can always claim that having very alert drivers as backup is safer, even by a little bit.

Those same cops are not going to be thrilled about having to find other jobs, nor their superiors will take kindly to reducing the size of their fiefdoms. They will find new crimes that must be policed and fined. And people will grudgingly agree to it, because safety and children.

What do you want to bet there will be great pressure to make sure that the drivers of autonomous cars remain sober?

It may not lower fatalities, but it will increase revenue thru fines.

Sometime soon Jalopnik is going to have to decide if it wants to be a car site of a driving site.

That is a great point. Modern trucks really fail in the fit-in-garageness category. (and what a great name for a category that is!)

Interestingly enough, I saw some printers that print with sand in order to create casting tools.

The problem with printed metal parts isn’t that they are insufficiently strong (they are for many applications) it’s that they are not sufficiently accurate and too expensive for many applications.

why not powered galoshes?

Exactly. A little over a decade ago (when the truck market was still somewhat sane) I really wanted a compact truck. I couldn’t justify it. Fullsizes cost the same, got about the same milage, and were more powerful. Why would I buy a compact?

There is one outside with a trailer behind it. Want me to snap a picture?

They don’t need to be competitive, they need to cost less. It’s less truck after all.

Not to mention everyone with a bmw, corvette or even *gasp* a miata.

The ridgeline will fail because it’s too expensive. Yes, it’s all the truck most people will ever need. But for the same money you can have way more truck than you’ll ever need too. Who is going to pass up on free truck?

If you compare the current trucks to the recently discontinued ridgeline, the current trucks get much better milage.

That is going to be rather subjective. I’m willing to bet that reliability wise, the ridgeline is going to be behind the at least 2 of the large volume traditional trucks. Those manufacturers have been making them a while now, they’ve had plenty of time to work out the various bugs.

You idea of an average person is very lucky. I want to live in your world.

It’s a 1 to 5 ratio. For every sofa of your own you move, you have to move 5 of your friends bed stands. Hey, I don’t make these rules.

Maybe “real” wasn’t the best term. Let’s use “traditional” instead. Todays traditional trucks ride pretty well. Not quiet as good as a sport sedan sure, but suspensions do a good job of controlling body roll. The difference is just not that great, unless you plan to race it (and most people are not planning to race…

That could well be true in your part of the world. Here trucks owners far outnumber dude bros (we have no shortage of bros). Trucks outnumber cars. Truck is the default vehicle to buy. People don’t rationalize buying trucks, they rationalize buying not trucks.