Feds target SUV, truck size to save pedestrian lives — ‘one of the last frontiers of vehicle safety’

Well, for one thing, an M1 Abrams main battle tank has better front sightlines than most trucks on the road today.

And it isn't even that much more dangerous to get hit by because of the giant flat-face front impact planes of the trucks. Used to be if you got hit by a car it would roll you up over the hood, now you just die.

I have to imagine that will impact the testing and design at least somewhat.

Edit: fixed the image link

The other thing it mentioned was the “head-to-hood” test. AFAIK car manufacturers are only required to meet the collision safety requirements for collisions involving the same class of vehicle. Vehicles in different classes are not made to impact with each other, making, for instance, a sedan to pickup truck collision much more dangerous for the sedan driver. The only way they can still meet those safety requirements is to make the front of the SUVs and trucks much much smaller and probably lower.

Edit: I was thinking of the AP article about this.

For the first time ever, manufacturers would be required to study the impact of test dummies hit outside of vehicles

But that will reveal a LOT of corroborating information for what we know, which is how dangerous they are. It's a good thing to have more data

I suspect the only "change" that will happen is a large amount of money changing hands so they don't have to bother.

Double the price of petrol. That will make Americans desire small cars again.