Cybertrucks and Bumpstocks and 3D printed guns 1

[truckandbus]

The press release for the Tesla cybertruck, where the claim is the body panels are impervious to a 9 mm round, got me questioning the role of the engineer in designing something because they can versus designing something because they should.

I'm not anti-gun by any means but I envision a psycho mowing down a bunch of people with a bump stock equipped printed gun and then taking off in their bulletproof Tesla.

I know a determined, disturbed person will find a way to hurt people but does it have to be so easy?

 

[ACtrafficengr]

A more valid ethical concern is will the truck have crumple zones, and what will happen to the occupants of other vehicles it crashes into? I'd be surprised if the prototype comes anywhere close to meeting EU standards for pedestrian injury reduction.

Speaking of ethics, the US lacks such standards because the Big 3 oppose them. Now that's corporate ethics for ya. We'll keep buyers of our products safe, but screw everyone else.

My glass has a v/c ratio of 0.5

Maybe the tyranny of Murphy is the penalty for hubris. -

http://xkcd.com/319/

 

[truckandbus]

I did a bit of reading over the holidays about the careers of some of the early (ancient) engineers and while mainly civil engineers there were usually periods of time in their careers when they acted as military engineers either building fortifications or weapons. I can understand designing 'things that hurt people or protect you while you hurt people' in terms of a military campaign but if we consider the role of the engineer is to maintain and improve quality of life are we working against that with bulletproof trucks, printed guns and bumpstocks?

 

[CWB1]

A more valid ethical concern is will the truck have crumple zones, and what will happen to the occupants of other vehicles it crashes into? I'd be surprised if the prototype comes anywhere close to meeting EU standards for pedestrian injury reduction.

Speaking of ethics, the US lacks such standards because the Big 3 oppose them.

The Cybertruck prototype isn't road legal stateside for a number of reasons including crash and pedestrian safety. The US isn't lacking any such standards btw, and much like emissions the EU's safety standards are based on their US predecessors.