• @BenLeMan
    link
    English
    3810 hours ago

    Looks like if you ever hit a pebble on the road it would probably flip and kill you. Note also the conspicuous absence of a seat belt. Cute little death machine.

    • @werefreeatlast
      link
      English
      22 hours ago

      Yeah but not instantly. It would drag you around the road grinding your meats and bones into a nice pasty consistency.

      • @BenLeMan
        link
        English
        11 hour ago

        I mean, I could see a modern version being made with a rally harness-type restraint system and a windshield frame that doubles as a rollover bar. In this case the biggest danger would be to the driver’s limbs.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          255 minutes ago

          I like it. Why live with potentially life changing injuries, when you can simply have your neck broken by your seatbelt instead.

        • @BenLeMan
          link
          English
          11 hour ago

          NO SHOT. That’s a joke, right?

      • @AngryCommieKender
        link
        English
        14
        edit-2
        5 hours ago

        Volvo filed a patent for some sort of seatbelt in 1889. SAAB became the first car company to make any sort of seatbelt standard in 1958. Volvo became the first car company to install modern 3 point belts as standard equipment in 1959.

        So yes, but actually probably not.

        • AFK BRB Chocolate
          link
          English
          6
          edit-2
          4 hours ago

          So a patent existed prior, but that doesn’t mean they were made. SAAB made them standard 14 years after this car. Do with no other data, I’d say no and no.

          Edit: just realized that reads like I’m being pissy, but that wasn’t the tone my finger was swiping with. Thanks for the data!

          • @AngryCommieKender
            link
            English
            64 hours ago

            Well the key word there is standard. I’m guessing that seatbelts were optional equipment prior to that, because I have seen a '50 SAAB 92 that had a driver’s side lap belt, which I believe was original equipment. I have also seen a '45 Chevy truck that also had a lap belt, but I’m unsure if that was original equipment.

            That’s why I said yes, but probably not.

            • @BeMoreCareful
              link
              English
              23 hours ago

              I think the popular argument against seatbelts was a long the lines of guns cars don’t kill people, reckless drivers kill people. Which, I guess, is the same argument that we use for anything that’s a bad idea for society as a whole, but is lucrative.

      • @BenLeMan
        link
        English
        65 hours ago

        No, that was before Ralph Nader made a whole ruckus about car safety (and rightly so). Still, we’re looking at this from the year 2024 so you can really tell this vehicle doesn’t make sense in our time.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          34 hours ago

          Velomobiles are a modern thing. Speed records are over 80kmh from human power only, but ebike motors can achieve that easily.

          While most are not this “delta trike” format, and instead have 2 wheels in front, the stability is not crazy bad for deltas. Most are weather proof.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          6
          edit-2
          5 hours ago

          I sometimes think about Ralph Nader, and the overall balance sheet of lives he is directly responsible for saving, vs lives that he is (I guess indirectly) responsible for ruining and/or ending due to spoiling the 2000 election.

          Interesting thought experiment. I guess.