Vehicles normally don't have "side panels" and it's not just a cost reduction measure.

If you're willing to implement "custom options" then you could make it 4wd yourself, without any help from them, like any other pickup.

We taught kids to use crosswalks, now drivers are mowing them down there because the hoods of their pickups are so high that they cannot see them crossing. This is all stuff you would know if you were paying attention.

Thanks for proving you're not paying attention.

In all but five US states you don't even need a CDL to drive a heavy diesel RV. We have a bus registered as an RV, it weighs 10 tons and has air brakes, I can legally drive it on my basic license.

Ironically, it has much better forward visibility than a modern American pickup truck, including the Japanese pickups made here for sale in the US, as it's transit style (flat front.) I can literally see people crossing in front of me that the driver of an F250 can't. And these days, the most popular school bus appears to be the Blue Bird Vision, which is a conventional type bus but has a short, sloping hood. That also has a better view of pedestrians than a modern American pickup.

It's insanity.

Nothing is more American that slaving and genocide.

Slavery is legal in this country and we're funding a genocide right now.

You are truly the dumbest of fucks.

The air outside is already measurably cleaner, when we're talking about viruses. There's UV out there much of the time.

Don't smoke crack while watching scifi. It makes you say stupid shit.

Found the guy who hasn't actually compared 1970s vehicles to 2020s vehicles. They had lower hoods in both trucks and most cars (as most cars are now crossovers) and also had superior visibility in every other direction as well.

Around 6% of the cars I've owned have had seat height adjustment.

Most seats do not have a height adjustment.

I'd rather have an empty double DIN, then I can put whatever I want in it, including a big screen that sticks out from it.

Agreed about the HVAC. That should always have physical controls.

These are not actually going to be much more customizable than other vehicles. The sole exception is in the infotainment department, where virtually all modern vehicles have some big overwrought thing that you probably don't want because it sucks, or it will in the future — which will affect you if you're the kind of person who keeps a vehicle. But if you are, the auto industry hates you.

A vehicle being "designed" to be customized is really entirely irrelevant because all of the same work has to be done in order to do that customization. There are "upfitter guides" for all of the vehicles you'd commonly expect to customize, especially vans and pickups, which help with that. I've used these to aid in doing solar installs in RV conversions. That is, any pickup you'd buy is already designed to be customized.

In order for there to be a significant aftermarket for parts for a vehicle, those vehicles have to be numerous. Then companies find it worthwhile to make seat install kits and such. Such things aren't generally complicated, so the modularity is really very overblown overall.

I do think the Slate concept has legs, but it's in the low price and ease of repair areas, and not at all in the customization department, which simply doesn't matter.

Was it one of the Mazda-based models? They were built by Ford, but not with Ford technology.

Ford honestly has had the occasional hit, but also oh so many lemons.

Then you're depriving someone of operating costs and/or time, depending on the specific business model. Just making a copy of something without their involvement doesn't do that, period. It might still arguably be wrong, but it's definitely not theft.

All of the Pi engineers are former bcm employees, last I heard some of the pi people were even current employees. There seems to be some motion away from bcm though.

Who knows what kind of bullshit they will bake into the game, but if GTA V is any indication (who knows?) then you will still be able to play the single player game from e.g. a Steam backup* years from now.

* Never use Steam backups. They usually don't fucking work. Just back up the various directories.

That's not only a legal distinction, it's also a real one. If you're not depriving someone of something, you're simply not stealing. Anyone who thinks differently about that is just confused, and what's more, they were deliberately confused for the benefit of the copyright cartel. Thanks for letting us all know how confused you are.