they look so silly (in a cute way)
this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2024
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Considering what they are currently using, i'm sure anything designed after 1985 would have received rave reviews from carriers.
At least Elon didn't get this job. Imagine what he'd have people come up with instead!
Delayed roll-outs and breaking ota updates?
Can’t wait for the inevitable safety issues and flips and other bullshit accompanied when the government can’t just buy market products for basic tasks and has to engage with special vendors instead. Just drive fucking consumer vans around.
The Dutch postal service has deployed a ton of ID.Buzz Volkswagen vans. They're super cute, very recognizable and are off the shelves (with some custom frames inside most likely).
But most postal delivery is done by bike, which is not feasible in the United States (either large distances or unfit roads, or both).
Initially 10% were supposed to be electric (despite 95% of postal routes being within the electric NGDV's range).
The EPA and a couple senators got mad and it was increased to 20% electric allocation.
Then CA, NY and DC cities got mad and filed lawsuits, allocation was increased to 50% electric.
Inflation reduction act threw in an extra $3bn and fleet is projected to be 75% electric as of Dec 2022.
Sounds like a lot of work but happy it worked out in the end
Oh, 75% electric now?
I just remember when they were first announced and basically none of them were electric, despite most postal routes being low speed, short distance, and frequent stops. Sounded absolutely stupid and reeked of industry kickbacks and bullshit.
The German postal service designed it's own delivery truck in 2014 because they were no viable electric delivery trucks available. With a range of just 100km and 48kW because that was enough for most routes.
Looks like the same 4 year old that designed the Cybertruck. Kind of like something you'd see in a cartoon.
LOL. Got downvoted for saying this ridiculous vehicle looks like a cartoon. I'll never understand people. LOL.
Meh it's designed for function, not looks. Giant bumpers for safety, height for carrying capacity, and large windshield for visibility.
To me, the Cybertruck feels like it was made by a deeply insecure teenager, crying out for help with how needlessly edgy it is, while the new postal service trucks feel like they hired a children's illustrator to make them cute.
I guess. I just think they both look like a child designed them.
I get that, I just see them as different types of childish: one is edgy and mediocre, the other is adorable and anthropomorphic. "How bad is it that they're childish" is very different between those two
I think the problem is, it's difficult to divorce the Cybertruck from Elon for the comparison. It makes it difficult to believe a 4 year old conceived of a Nazi urban tank AND a comically disproportionate postal vehicle.
I can guarantee you that this was not designed by Elon Musk.
OMG. It looks just like it.
I love the design of the new mail trucks. They're unique and charming, like something from an animated movie. I think kids are going to love them.
And the shape is better for driver visibility and pedestrian safety
Kids are going to love it because they can finally draw the correct hoodline without changing anything about their bad art skills. Lowering the education standard yet again! I bet the next gen will come with a 2 foot lift to match the kids' terribly engineered suspensions too!
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/647/622/a37.jpg
What's wrong with "off-the-shelf" electric vans?
I'm talking from the european point of view.
The inspector general of the postal service actually compared this next generation vehicle project with what foreign post offices do, in this report.
One of the big differences is that the US Postal Service wants to keep the vehicles in service for 18-20 years (while purchasing them over 12 years), instead of replacing them every 3-9 years as the European counterparts do. They think that the cost of ownership will be lower with custom vehicles on a maintenance plan and parts supply chain specific to them, rather than relying on commercial manufacturers regularly turning over their assembly lines. And maybe the volume (160,000 vehicle fleet) is sufficient to actually pull that off, economically.
The first thing that comes to mind is that if they're custom they can put the driver seat on the right side, which makes stopping at mail boxes much easier. I don't know of any non-import vehicles that are street legal in the US outside the USPS. It makes sense at this scale as well. A quick search shows that one line of cars, the Nissan Altima, sold just shy of 60,000 vehicles in a year. I don't know if that's a good benchmark for sales needed to make designing a vehicle worthwhile, but there are already 60-80,000 new USPS trucks ordered, and at that point since the designers would be working with one organization instead of trying to market to thousands of consumers it's probably easy enough to build a custom car for that organization's needs.
For rural deliveries, you need right side driver vehicles so the carrier can place mail into the mailboxes along the road. In the US, the standard is left side driver, so almost no vehicle company in the US has right side off the shelf.
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