“It looks absolutely ridiculous.”

Given from the book I’m guessing he’s a comp sci student and reduntancy is always important in that field.

That’s some very clever engineering. It’s not easy to turn a passenger into a crumple zone. It’s the automotive equivalent of, “In the event of a water landing the passenger next to you can serve as a flotation device."

“accelerating to 2.5G”

"...and silly dick jokes are just the tip of the iceberg.." Just the tip...I see what you did there :P