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A comment on Vehicles with higher, more vertical front ends pose greater risk to pedestrians. Parent comment

Re:Vehicles with higher, more vertical front ends pose great... by judge2020 on Tuesday November 14, 2023 @02:48PM (#38268600)
We ended up with this because SUVs and Trucks had reduced fuel efficiency requirements. When we have fuel efficiency requirements (mandated by aerodynamics[0,1]), SUVs bring their fronts down and curve them, improving pedestrian safety since more of the force comes from the hood instead of from hitting the ground.

0: https://airshaper.com/validation/tesla-model-y-wind-tunnel-t...

1: https://www.kia.com/us/en/ev6/gallery.exterior

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Re:Vehicles with higher, more vertical front ends pose great... by NewJazz on Tuesday November 14, 2023 @03:33PM (#38269311)
We ended up with confusing fuel efficiency requirements because we failed to tax fuel appropriately. I mean for gosh sakes, fuel taxes only pay for a portion of road costs! We spend additional subsidies on top of that.
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Re:Vehicles with higher, more vertical front ends pose great... by nickff on Tuesday November 14, 2023 @03:03PM (#38268853)
Higher hood-lines are often used to provide crumple zones pedestrian impacts, as required in some jurisdictions.
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Re:Vehicles with higher, more vertical front ends pose great... by Sohcahtoa82 on Tuesday November 14, 2023 @03:38PM (#38269381)
This makes absolutely no sense at all and flies in the face of all the statistics pointed out in the article.

Lower hood-lines save lives. You don't need a tall crumple zone.

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Re:Vehicles with higher, more vertical front ends pose great... by nickff on Tuesday November 14, 2023 @05:07PM (#38270500)
I agree, but those rules require a crumple zone under the hood (basically between the hood line and top of engine). I didn’t write the rules, and I don’t enforce them.
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Re:Vehicles with higher, more vertical front ends pose great... by xbar on Tuesday November 14, 2023 @03:33PM (#38269313)
Ridiculous. No jurisdiction requires > 40 inches (100cm) hoodlines.
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Re:Vehicles with higher, more vertical front ends pose great... by kube-system on Tuesday November 14, 2023 @03:26PM (#38269222)
On some global-market cars that had previously very low hoods, yes. But it's not why US market SUVs have high hoods.
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Re:Vehicles with higher, more vertical front ends pose great... by seadan83 on Tuesday November 14, 2023 @03:45PM (#38269480)
Crumple zone and soft tissue do not really seem to go together. When a car hits a person, the person _is_ the crumple zone.
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