• Rhaedas@fedia.io
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    19 days ago

    There’s diagrams that show the visual impairments such trucks have. They are worse than semi trucks and even an Abrams tank.

    https://i.redd.it/kftiwovba73b1.jpg

    • b000rg@midwest.social
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      19 days ago

      I don’t get how these people even feel comfortable driving something where you can’t see the road that’s in front of you for 10+ meters out. I just wouldn’t feel safe, there could be any kind of obstruction you can’t see on the road from 10m away but will still fuck up your day and/or life.

      • GladiusB@lemmy.world
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        18 days ago

        As a truck driver I get it. It’s nice to see more. The tradeoff isn’t worth it and not why they do it. I would bet my paycheck they never take it off road either. Which would be the only good reason to raise something that much. Truckers have a good reason to. They have giant engine and transmissions that need to last for the industrial work involved.

        • Noxy@pawb.social
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          17 days ago

          but you don’t actually see more, that’s kinda the whole point here?

          maybe you see over other cars but you lose sight closer to you

          • GladiusB@lemmy.world
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            16 days ago

            You see more further down the road. Which you need when it takes 4 to 8 times longer to stop depending on conditions.

            • Noxy@pawb.social
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              16 days ago

              Can you elaborate? I don’t quite follow.

              4-8x longer to stop because of cold snowy or icy weather? Or because of increased weight of such large vehicles?

              And why does seeing farther matter for stopping distance, when the rule of thumb is to maintain X car lengths or Y seconds between your car and the car in front of you? Not even a fully loaded semi needs the entire length of what their higher viewing angle grants them

              • GladiusB@lemmy.world
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                16 days ago

                4 if it’s good weather. 8 times in bad. Your reaction time in a bigger vehicle is different because of the weight. So both your guesses apply.

                Maintaining distance does help, however it’s not a perfect matrix. People cut in front of big vehicles constantly expecting the same distance and it just doesn’t help. The added view helps. An entire industry is based on it and backed by all sorts of reasons.

                What they haul plays a role as well. Liquids and gases slosh funny and higher speeds.

                • Noxy@pawb.social
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                  16 days ago

                  I’d be interested to see some studies that support the idea that increased ride height in a vehicle results in fewer accidents (or fatalities or injuries, however you’d measure it) specifically because of the change in viewing angle

                  I’m extremely skeptical, especially since taller vehicles are becoming more common, wouldn’t that alone diminish this effect?

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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        18 days ago

        It’s simple uneducated hubris. Nothing bad could ever happen to them because they are a Good American.

      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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        18 days ago

        If they thought about things and came to good conclusions afterwards, they probably wouldn’t be driving this kind of car to begin with. The people who are driving it are probably not good thinkers.

        • aeiou_ckr@lemmy.world
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          18 days ago

          I have one of these out of necessity. I don’t understand getting one as a daily driver for someone to go to their office job and pick up groceries.

      • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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        19 days ago

        Agreed, but some people drive that way. It’s their road, get out of the way. I had a 1996 Dodge dually long ago for pulling a trailer, and its visibility wasn’t very bad, except for around the damn side columns. I got into the habit of leaning forward and back as I would turn so that I had some idea of what was being blocked. At one point we had considered upgrading to the big trucks like the F-450/F550, and I got into one to see what it was like. I could see EVERYTHING. I was like, holy shit, this is luxury.

        • b000rg@midwest.social
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          18 days ago

          Side columns like that should be illegal. I was driving my stepdad’s '21 Silverado 1500 crew cab a few weeks ago and was totally blown away when I almost pulled out in front of someone coming from the right in a big ass truck.

        • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          18 days ago

          This attitude is really prevalent here. As in you don’t really need to see the road, just the car in front.

          People scream blue bloody murder about bikes on the road.

      • naeap@sopuli.xyz
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        18 days ago

        Looking at those dumbfucks driving their emotional support vehicle in the city, they don’t seem to be comfortable

        They are driving slow and can’t stay in their lane, as they can’t judge the distances correctly

      • aeiou_ckr@lemmy.world
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        18 days ago

        I have a Chevy 2500 to tow my RV (needed for the weight and it’s my home) and I hate not being able to see shit. I would gladly replace it with a cab over if they brought them to the states. The truck only gets used to move the RV from site to site and I have small single cylinder motorcycles to get around because fuck parking that thing anywhere.

    • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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      18 days ago

      If that’s supposed to be understood by Americans, they probably should have put the units in football field-school busses.

    • tibi@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      Above a certain height, trucks should be mandated to have the engine behind, like eurotrucks.