The media discovers that weight can kill, blame Musk

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obviously, the train self-identifies as a tesla

Elon is the Left’s new Trump

NBC News: Elon Musk's Cybertruck Would Be Lethal to Pedestrians, Experts Say

Substituting batteries for internal combustion engines will make them at least 30% heavier and, not surprisingly, a heavier vehicle will push a lighter one backwards and all over the road, but the increased damage that extra weight might cause has up to now been mostly ignored by all the right people because we’re all going to be dead in 12 years anyway unless we go full-battery. Now suddenly that weight discrepancy has been “discovered” by the flying monkeys of the media. Why? Because Musk took Twitter, and now the monkeys have a target:

Pedestrians, already dying at record levels, now face Elon Musk’s Cybertruck

As vehicles get bigger and heavier, they also get deadlier. It’s a trend that has some [that would be Ralph Nader’s left-wing Center for Auto Safety] concerned about Tesla’s new Cybertruck, a 6,800-pound electric behemoth with sports-car acceleration that experts say will be lethal to pedestrians and occupants of lighter vehicles.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk defended the truck in an X post last week. 

“We are highly confident that Cybertruck will be much safer per mile than other trucks, both for occupants and pedestrians,” he wrote. 

Some in the vehicle safety world disagree. 

Michael Brooks, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety — a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization — said the Cybertruck poses a variety of threats to pedestrians. 

… Brooks said the Cybertruck’s extreme acceleration capabilities, combined with its weight, means that drivers will have less time to react to pedestrians, and collisions with them will be deadlier. 

He said the Tesla Cybertruck will be dangerous to occupants of other cars, as well. 

“Just like Elon says —  If you have an argument with another car, you will win — so long as ‘winning’ means inflicting life-threatening damage to other humans on the road,” Brooks said. 

Once past the headline and initial paragraphs singling out Musk, the editors allow some truth to come out: the heavier car in a collision will usually come out better. That’s any car, any truck.

Cybertruck adds to a growing list of trucks on the roads that have eschewed gas-powered engines for battery-powered electricity, with competitors from Ford and Chevrolet to the upstart Rivian introducing models.

“Electrification is taking weight increases to another level that will lead to dangerous outcomes,” it added. The weight of the batteries that power electric cars can add hundreds and sometimes thousands of pounds to vehicles.

As well as being a danger to pedestrians, heavier vehicles will lead to more fatal outcomes in collisions with other vehicles, as the occupants of lighter vehicles will be crushed more easily, the institute said. 

“When you increase the weight and acceleration of any car, you’re increasing the probability of a crash due to the nature of speed, and you’re increasing the lethality of any crash that does happen,” she said. 

Chu said this has led to  a sort of arms race, in which “you have to have the biggest, toughest car — or you die.”

Despite these dangers, the Tesla Cybertruck has not been crash-tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety or by any federal regulator. 

Here’s Nader’s group’s latest attack on Tesla owners — funny how these people are so fixated on feelings of sexual inadequacy.