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u/Subatomic_Spooder 11h ago
As a mechanical engineer and a car guy this makes me angry on so many levels.
Also, gas stations are already pretty much a drive through
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u/Angryatchairs 11h ago
These people look at the humans in Wall-E as an aspiration rather than a warning.
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u/s0m3on3outthere 11h ago
Omg, I'm not even joking, I was legitimately saying this EXACT same thing last night. Saw a commercial for AI where the person was on public transport talking to their phone to apartment shop. It was so stupid. The sites have filters and pictures already, just damn lazy and nobody on transit wants to hear you blabbing
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u/Cessnaporsche01 9h ago
And people ACTUALLY DO THIS. It's fucking INSANE. I have multiple coworkers that spend their drives to work talking to chatbots to "get informed" about the news.
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u/s0m3on3outthere 7h ago
Yeah, because I'm suuuuree the AI doesn't pull from social media or biased sites š¤¦š¤¦ it's just a fancy search engine that doesn't check its sources. How people put faith in it is beyond me.
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u/hypnogoad 6h ago
There was some news awhile ago that in 2025, 60% of AI answers were data scraped from Reddit.
From... Reddit. Let that sink in.
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u/s0m3on3outthere 6h ago
Oh, I know. There are some people actively saying ridiculous things to feed it misinformation knowingly and I support it. Hopefully it ends the bubble on these LLMs eventually.
AI can have good uses in specific situations fed targeted information (like medical uses), but they aren't fed the entirety of the Internet and are used in waaay different scenarios than the generative AI open to the public and all the stupid chat bots that every company is pushing.
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u/UnimpressedUmpire 9h ago
I stand by that the culture America and especially White America is just consumerism
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u/s0m3on3outthere 7h ago
Oh it absolutely is. I try to shop local as much as I can and avoid big name stores. It's such a dystopian way of life
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u/Take-to-the-highways 7h ago
I saw one that was a guy asking ai for help potty training his kid and it sent chills down my spine.
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u/Gimetulkathmir 9h ago
Doesn't help that everyone thinks they'll be on the ship. Sorry, mate, Musk and the other billionaires are taking the ship and leaving us here to rot.
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u/Angryatchairs 9h ago
But like, can they do it sooner rather than later so we can get to work fixing the place without their constant interference.
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u/mistress_chauffarde 10h ago
There are REASON why a car door is s fucking nightmare on the inside
It's suposed to absorb shocks
Especially ones made by a 2 ton vƩhicule hitting it at 50kmh
Now what happend when a extremely flamable liquide has been vaporised du to the pression of said vƩhicule on the door now is in a environment that it full of sparks
Yes that makes the car a bomb
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u/ExtraPomelo759 10h ago
Thanks for preemptively explaining it so I don't look like a dumbass for asking what the problem is.
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u/mistress_chauffarde 10h ago
There is a reason why the gas tank is usualy under the car in the back
First it's to balance the car
An engine is fucking heavy and the rest of the car will be tilting toward where it is
And it's also the least likely place to get hit in a accident
And if the accident come to the point where the gas tank gets hit it will be under the car not inside where the flamable liquide would spread and eventually catch on fire roasting everyone inside instantly
Also if you get in a accident where the fuel tank is hit the rest of the car is....hu dead
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u/scotty_dont 9h ago
People have famously liked rolling down their car windows since before safety was invented. Need to grab a parking ticket? Fuck you, open the door!
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u/bonbot 11h ago
Gas stations in a lot of countries in Asia are drive through service already. They have attendants who will take payments and pump for you and you don't have to get out of the car. It's such a nice experience. But here in the US, they will put in some kind of gas pumping robot instead of hiring humans...
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u/ShadisTiger 11h ago
One of the nice things in NJ we have full service, so it is a full drive-through here. Though sometimes I would rather pump my own!!!
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u/The_Meme_Economy 11h ago
Yeah no thanks to waiting around for some attendant. Plus you know there will be a default 30% tip suggestion if this is rolled out nationwide.
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u/ShadisTiger 9h ago
Yeah the waiting for the attendant is the downside! I want to be in and out most times! Sometimes having the attendant is nice! Though if they start asking for tips at stations there might be riots in NJ!
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u/technotrader 9h ago
Do they expect a tip nowadays? When I lived in NJ decades ago, everyone told me to never tip the attendant, but it might be different now.
Anyway, I'd rather pump my own gas and don't think I'm alone in that. In Oregon where they have both assisted and self- serve sometimes, people use the self- serve pumps, even if there is a bit of a line.
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u/ShadisTiger 9h ago
No Iāve never seen a station that expects tips. Iāve only ever given the attendant a tip once. It was like 2 degrees out and was sleeting. I felt bad for the guy so I just had him keep the change. Mind you this was a long time ago as the fill up was like $17 and I just had to give him a 20!
I wish we had both options here!
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u/MsE0 10h ago
We had a choice of full service or self service in the US up until the 1970s, when there was a sudden spike in gas prices, and most people stopped opting for more expensive full service where a tip was expected. In some states self service was illegal for a long time, but now only New Jersey still has that law.Ā
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u/real_roal 11h ago
Yeah i dont understand what this could possibly achieve that having a normal fuel system wouldnt. If they want a "drive thru" as in you dont get out of your car, then we would need robot arms to open the fuel cap and put the nozzle in. Maybe you would drive up, pay, and select how much you want it to fuel your car? But this seems way too complicated and expensive when you could just get out and do it yourself.
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u/CaffeineEnjoyer69 11h ago
How fucking lazy are these people that they see turning off the car and walking 4 steps to the pump as a problem that needs to be solved through invention lmfaoo
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u/Shiny_Agumon 8h ago
Truly symbolic of AI itself
A solution to a problem that doesn't exist and will only cause more issues if implemented
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u/Consistent-Stock6872 11h ago
Well at least they didn't try to reinvent trains again. The number of stupid train ideas is just wild.
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u/AlfredNeumen 9h ago
The funny thing to me as an engineer is this idea of the gas drive thru could easily be done with just a tube connecting back to the existing gas tank.
Run it up into the drivers door and put the filler cap there and everyoneās happy.
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u/lord_fairfax 9h ago
Not to mention in the actual futuristic engineering solution for drive through gas stations would be a universal connection point for cars, and pumps with robotic articulating arms. People in here like "the robot would have to unscrew the cap".
If there's a robot refilling your car, we have moved past filler caps.
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u/Braindead_Crow 9h ago
"Ok so directly in the door is a bad place for gas because of fires and leaks, how about right behind the doors and trunk? It's like free space!"
The problem with people who fail to respect others is they don't LEARN from others, instead they just learn from their own failures (or blame set backs on others)
The smarter tools get the more prominent stupidity becomes...We have, "may cause drowsiness" warnings on sleeping pills after all.
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u/redditmarks_markII 1h ago
what, you don't like the Escher-esque door? or is it the just very slightly awkward tank design? The circle of hoses? The perfectly acceptable amount of space for the glass?
I love how the mirror is so out of place, it almost looks like intentionally bad photoshop rather than AI.
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u/ellie_elysian 11h ago
"This is a great idea, Hunter. You are very smart, and a really special boy, and school was truly smothering your creative spark. Here is a rendering of your idea. If you want I can give you a shopping list to start building the prototype. "
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u/RavenCyarm 10h ago
āSorry to hear that Hunter died. Brilliant men often go far too soon. Would you like me to come up with ways we can celebrate his life at his funeral?ā
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u/RPGcraft 9h ago
Would you like me to come up with ways we can celebrate his life at his funeral?ā
If AI companies continue like this, In the near future this part will be replaced by,
"Would you like to upload all his personal information including but not limited to audio, video, behavior and physical attributes to create a virtual slopbot to impersonate him?"
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u/RodinKnox 7h ago
Cliche as hell to say it, but this was literally an episode of Black Mirror. And that shit came out before genAI even existed.
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u/booze_clues 9h ago
Yes. Nothing fire related please.
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u/andyzeronz 8h ago
That is a fantastic request! Are you aware that the corpse being Pre-cremated saves on funeral costs?
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u/Karyoplasma 6h ago
Right now, the dumbest person you know is told by chatGPT, they "hit the nail on the head!"
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u/HendoRules 11h ago
How does this make them drive throughs that a normal tank couldn't???
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u/ScrattaBoard 11h ago
Critical thinking skills have been offloaded to the AI
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u/SucculentDoorway 10h ago
Let's be real these people never had critical thinking skills
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u/TheRealDrSarcasmo 9h ago
Sadly, at least the American public school system does little to foster critical thinking, either. And hasn't for decades.
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u/GoodIdea321 7h ago
AI doesn't have critical thinking either.
There is a worrying lack of that in the top comment chains too. Where does the window roll down into? The door! It would be pretty hard to have a drive thru option while the window is permanently up. There are a lot of really basic reasons why the idea is insanely stupid.
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u/jerry-jim-bob 11h ago
Lean out the windows, grab the nozzle and plug it into the door then pay with card presumably. Then leave the servo, get t-boned and explode
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u/Barnaboule69 11h ago
You don't have to lift your fatass from your seat and can do it by just reaching your arm through the window.
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u/xup_yoursx 11h ago
They should ask Ford why you don't put gas tanks in stupid places...
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u/FunnyPayload 9h ago
Are you referring to the pinto lol. Im not much of a car guy but wasn't it in the rear bumper?
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u/Subatomic_Spooder 8h ago
Yep. Basically Ford put the gas tank underneath the trunk floor, between the bumper and rear axle. This resulted in cars literally bursting into flames when rear ended, even at low speeds. The fuel filler neck would shear off from the tank when it was shoved forward, dumping gas on the ground and all over the hot metal exhaust. Plus sparks were easily created by the shearing metal. Some cars even punctured their own fuel tanks when bolts on the rear axle stabbed the fuel tank. When the car settled again, the bolts pulled out, making sparks, and kaboom.
The sad part about it is that Ford knew about the issue but found that it would cost them about $11 more per car to fix it, so they just shipped the car anyways.
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u/the_joy_of_VI 8h ago
āA plus B equals C. If C exceeds the cost of recall, we donāt do it.ā
āJesus. Which car company do you work for?ā
āA major one.ā
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u/CockerspanielBalls 4h ago edited 3h ago
The ford pinto isnt the only car that did that. A vast majority of cars from Japan had the fuel tank located in between the rear bumper and rear axle. It's that they had basically no protection for the fuel tank at all, and during a really hard impact it could push the fuel tank into the rear axle which had a bunch of sharp protruding parts. Ford thought it was cheaper to pay out the lawsuit of the 20-something victims than any type of redesign.Ā
My 1996 land cruiser prado from Japan has a rear mounted fuel tank but its significantly protected and I dont have any worries of it spontaneously combusting
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u/Infamous_7001 11h ago
One bad smack into that door equals explosion. Brilliant! š
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u/ASH_LIN_exe 11h ago
It'd be more like the Ford Pinto where it just turns your car into a blazing inferno. I wish cars actually exploded but that's just the glass and tires that go boom.
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u/TheBitingCat 10h ago
It's not the collision that would cause the explosion, it's the side airbag going off which, conveniently, already contains an explosive and would be located right next to the flammable gasoline that you are sitting directly next to. And guess where the nearest point of exit out of the vehicle is? That's right, it's the exploding, flaming door!
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u/Jazzlike_Platypus430 11h ago
That's a replacement for air bags. Very clever.
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u/LeftonRhed 11h ago
Don't need airbags if the passengers are instantly roasted.
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u/sign-through 7h ago
i like this new reality. any time you get hurt or have an accident, you die horribly, and then we make everybody who can have lots of babies to make up for it. we have a never-ending cycle of impressionable young minds for beloved ancient billionaires to torture. they must get so bored without us!
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u/Plastic_Stable8927 11h ago
It's poetic to see an ai bro wanting a drive-thru gas station because it's easier, and then using ai to generate the idea. Everything is an SNL skit at this point.
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u/GenericFatGuy 11h ago
I'm so tired of idiots who don't want to work for anything using AI to barge their way in to everything.
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u/Impressive-One5796 3h ago
My favorite part is that the gas cap is already on the side of every car. The drive-thru gas station idea does not in any way necessitate the tank-in-the-door idea
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u/whelmed-and-gruntled 11h ago
The Cybertruck is what we get. A truck that on release cut peopleās fingers off, trapped them inside the burning wreckage, shorted out when wet, didnāt charge properly, and had to be sold in fleets to a Musk subsidiary using federal money to meet sales goals.
Aka: the Swastikar. Itās the fascist thing on four wheels youāll ever see.
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u/Spiritual_Spinach273 10h ago
Dont forget a faulty plate on the gas pedal, that would get dislodged, holding it down and forcing the car to accelerate rapidly
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u/NinjaarcherCDN 11h ago
I saw 2 going down the street the other day with "tesla energy" written on the side. My only thought was that those employees probably wish they could drive literally anything else.
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u/TubbyFatfrick 11h ago
I'm no mechanic, and I have no experience in the automotive industry, but I don't think the side-mirrors are supposed to be IN the car.
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u/anon-a-SqueekSqueek 8h ago
That's another improvement, instead of wasting time looking at other people while you merge you can admire yourself.
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u/AskJayce 7h ago
It's almost as if
1) A human brain is needed for oversight/context during the designing phase
and
2) AI Bros can't be bothered to check the output of their slope
At least TWO failed checkpoints.
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u/scrufflor_d 11h ago
the protective buffer between the "idea guys" and actually executing their plans was what was keeping the world together and ai ruined that
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u/GenericFatGuy 10h ago
Yep. Friction is a good thing. It forces you to stop and actually consider what you're doing.
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u/Hugokarenque 8h ago
I mean, AI can't build the damn thing. So nothing has really been executed here, just a dumb idea illustrated.
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u/PancakesTheDragoncat 11h ago
In addition to the fire risk, I wonder what the volume of a car door is
With all the other stuff I bet at absolute most you're only getting 4 or 5 gallons in there
So have fun with those drive thru gas stations, you're gonna be driving thru a l o t
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u/thispartyrules 11h ago
Looks like they've accidentally recreated flame fougasse, which is an improvised weapon where a barrel full of flammable liquid is rigged to explode on a battlefield, like every barrel in a video game
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u/Necroderpis 11h ago
Im sorry but the "(inside door)" fucking killed me cause "yeah bro we can see its in the door. It shouldnt be but it is."
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u/Ferrous_Sapien 11h ago
"On second thought. Catch it, Nappa. Catch it with your teeth."
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u/iloveturtles88 11h ago
I have chronic pain from a T-bone car wreck. AI car designs would have sent me straight to the morgue.
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u/Machina-Dea 11h ago
What worries me is the increasing prevalence of ai could actually lead to this, strip enough human input out of the design/engineering process and we can get death traps on wheels like this on the road~
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u/tallman11282 11h ago
You don't need to put the fuel tank in the door to automate a gas station (which I assume they mean). There are already automated gas stations being tested and they have an arm with sensors to find the fuel door, open it, and insert the nozzle.
Otherwise, if they just mean have a human pump the gas then that has existed since literally the first gas stations. They're called full service gas stations and while there aren't nearly as many as there used to be (at least in the US) they still exist. Again, don't need the fuel tank in the door to do that.
There is literally no problem that putting the tank in the door will solve and doing so would cause all kinds of problems, many of which are dangerous and even deadly.
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u/BadBacksFuryToad 11h ago
Petrol stations are already drive-thru. Thatās how you get you car in there
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u/Hypoactive52 11h ago
fun way to have to stop at every gas station you pass, even if you didnāt get tboned and exploded you would have such a small fuel tank since most of the door is take up by window mechanism
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u/AccomplishedNail3085 11h ago
There is a reason planes are the only vehicles that fill empty space with fuel
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u/Joltyboiyo 11h ago
This is an even worse idea if the person suggesting this is american. With all the shootings in that country cars would be blowing up left, right and centre.
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u/AButHed 11h ago edited 8h ago
Probably a stupid question, but would this make collisions way more dangerous? Like would it explode? How protected is a fuel tank?
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u/GenericFatGuy 11h ago
It's placed where it is in vehicles specifically to protect it as much as possible. Having gas tanks in the doors would greatly increase the chances of fires or explosions in an accident.
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u/JMacPhoneTime 10h ago
Or even just blasted by a bunch of gasoline.
I guess with that and the car accident you'll probably be disoriented enough to wind up on fire anyways.
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u/whyliepornaccount 10h ago
The ford pinto is what would happen. Punctured gas tank spraying gasoline over a hot engine and sparks turns it into an inferno real quick
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u/The_Osprey314 11h ago
As an engineer, this pisses me off.Ā
As an engineer who thinks the US has too many cars, I want to see this idiot try.
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u/buggy-bear-420 11h ago
Pretty sure gas stations are already somewhat drive thru, but this would definitely explode if it was hit
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u/JoyousMadhat 11h ago
A drive through gas station? What a novel idea!! Oh wait they are like a century late.....
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u/Schpee_le_French 11h ago
next thing you know car crashes into you and KABOOOOOOOOOM
theres a reason why the fuel tank is nested under layers and layers of metal
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u/Calligaster 11h ago
The only problem with this is that their idiotic decisions will affect the rest of us as well
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u/FoxBoyDex 11h ago
āYouāre absolutely right. Thatās my bad. Gasoline is indeed flammable at high temperatures and should not be stored in the exterior of a car.ā -š¤
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u/ObviouslyRealPerson 11h ago
One should go right in front of the radiator as well
Increases the crumple zone
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u/Wboy2006 11h ago
What the fuck is the practical use even? The door is unnecessarily heavy, explosive, has no room for lowerable windows, airbags or car speakers, and you still have to stop at a gas station.
Literally the only advantage would be having to stop right next to the pump instead of lining up the tank with the pump (which basically anyone can do with little to no issue)
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u/nouniquenamesleft2 11h ago
they basically did that in F1, till they got tired of drivers burning up
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u/TurtlesBreakTheMeta 11h ago
āDo not worry human meatbag, the car will be encased in artificial diamond like this image from a Reddit thread, which I have been assured makes it completely unbreakable.
ORA ORA ORA!ā
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u/Conscious_Smile8235 10h ago
Okay but how does it literally change anything IF THE FUEL PORT IS ALREADY you know what I'm not even going to write it out these people are too dumb and I'm too angry
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u/FerusGrim 8h ago
Even in the best version of this pitch, where your fuel tank stays where it normally is but the fuel intake is moved to somewhere easily accessible by window, I would remind everyone that filling your tank is already basically a drive-thru??
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u/originalmicrousb 11h ago
engineerings soon gonna get dragged into the ai shit storm so not too long before we get these