Or you do the math and realize that with a modern, safe automobile, your chance of dying in an accident with a pickup is so small that upgrading your own vehicle to a pickup is a rounding error.

To be clear, I agree that humans being humans, we do love to get into escalating arms races.

I've seen at least 3 reports in my area where a head-on collision with an impaired driver (in the truck) usually ended up killing or seriously injuring the passengers in this 'modern, safe automobile'. Some examples:

* https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/drunk-driver-who-kill...

* https://www.kxan.com/traffic/two-children-killed-in-cedar-pa...

* https://www.kxan.com/top-stories/two-from-austin-dead-after-...

* https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/married-only-minutes-texas-n...

Or you keep driving a sensible car because you don't want to give in to the stupid and prefer to spend your money elsewhere.

It is an arms race and it is the right time for the industry to use the growing fear and demand for security in the global population to make some extra $$$ (just seen from a purely economical point of view of course).

I agree that it is probably inevitable but there is also people who don't join the race and that is lifting my hopes.