I didn't say there's no crash protection on the Pickman. It's the $1000 cars sold in China that don't have them. Pretty sure that to qualify in the US and Europe, the Kaiyun car need to a minimum level of safety features.

There are loads of these kinds of vehicles in The Netherlands, both petrol and electric. They can be driven by 16-year-olds on both roads and cycle paths. There is no requirement for a driving license either so you see lots of seniors and disabled people use them.

They fill an important gap although I personally believe that electric bikes are a far better match particularly for the 16 year old kids who drive those things around.

Basically I'd feel much safer driving in the UK if Prince Philip was behind the wheel of one of these instead of the mobile tank that he drives ;)

According to this retailer (I think it's a retailer at least) "crash protection" is not really an included feature.

http://www.trackandfieldmotors.com/info.php?car_id=133

ABS, roof bars, traction control, and airbags are all what I would consider crash protection. EDIT: Didn't see the traction control the first time around.

If they're sold as motorbikes they don't need any safety features.

It seems obvious that used versions of these will be cheaper than $10k.

I suppose the advantage is you might not be required to have a drivers license or insurance since the vehicle might be classified like a electric scooter or something. Sort of like driving a golf cart around.

I'm really surprised the Japanese mini-trucks havn't taken off in the USA. They would be great for busy city streets where parking and space could be problematic. They also don't cost very much (used 5k USD).

> I'm really surprised the Japanese mini-trucks havn't taken off in the USA.

There was a small boom for importing them to use as farm trucks, but you can't import them until they are 25 years old if you want to drive them on the road. Most other countries have less restrictive import requirements, so they tend to go to those countries first. Not many left by the time they get to 25 years old.

I often wonder where I can get one of those mini trucks. They are so much more practical than F150s for transporting things around a city.

Honest question but do you need a lot in terms of crash protection if the top speed is 25mph? Theoretically you should only be in a collision at roughly 25mph (assuming you're sticking to roads where the speed limit is 25mph like you should be).

It's certainly better crash protection than a pedestrian, a bicycle, a moped, or a Segway which seems to be the competition.

If you're on a 25mph road, you should assume a 50mph collision with a vehicle headed in the other direction.

Two cars of the same mass hitting each other head on at 25mph is the same as one car hitting a solid (immovable) wall at 25mph.

Regardless, a bicycle moving at 25mph being hit head on by a car moving 25mph is going to be (at best) comparable to this thing getting hit at 25mph.

Maybe _you_ can only go 25mph, the other vehicles have no such restrictions.

Again... same is true for a bicycle. Or a pedestrian. Or a Segway. We can argue physics and legalities but no one has seemed to touch the actual substance of my point, which is "does this thing need to offer better crash protection than its closest competitor, a bike?"

Two cars of the same mass hitting each other head on at 25 mph will be the same as one car hitting that wall at 50 mph. Remember p = mv and m1v1 = m2v2