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Contemporary car design is so ugly. Every car looks like an old man who got too much plastic surgery with angry anime eyes. The forms are neither geometric and pure, nor are they taken from nature— it’s just a pointless collision of ‘swooshes’, like the Nike logo, and ‘swerves’ that gesture at aerodynamics without being functional or beautiful to behold. The colors are aggressively frumpy— the textures plastic, so that even when brand new they do not shine.
@futurebird With onboard bonus: surveillance!
@futurebird
The new USPS vans are designed to be practical for the drivers and safe for people outside the vans.
Honestly IMO this is approaching what the pretty much all vans/trucks/buses etc should look like up front.
Might hurt the feelings of some snowflake machistas, but their feelings aren't as important as not killing people.
@Gurre @futurebird oh my god it has a fivehead
@Gurre @futurebird Kinda offtopic, but looking at that image I was suddenly struck by the realisation: is the reason Americans have those roadside postboxes so that the postman can deliver the post without leaving their vehicle, as pictured? As a European this had never occurred to me, and it simultaneously makes sense whilst also being a deeply sad reflection on American car-centric suburbia.
@caesar @futurebird
Fairly common in rural Sweden too iirc. Some villages with houses on one or two side-roads have all the mailboxes in one location, so the postman can get the whole village done with one stop :)
@Gurre @futurebird In rural areas it definitely makes sense, and I see the same in Portugal out in the countryside (but more like in your photo, where the driver will probably still have to get out of their vehicle). But I've never seen it in urban or suburban areas. In the countries I've spent time in postmen in urban and suburban areas would tend to be on foot or on a bike, and walk up to the door of each house to deliver the post.
@Gurre @caesar @futurebird The US Post Office seems to be requiring, or at least significantly encouraging, the use of standardized, multiple recipient, delivery points. It makes mail delivery much more efficient and perhaps more secure.
@karlauerbach @Gurre @caesar @futurebird Agreed. Our your mail carrier reads the address wrong, which happens on our street far too often. Part of the probelm is that the same 4 numbers are used in 4 addresses...so 1234 gets read as 1324.
@julescelt01 @karlauerbach @Gurre @caesar @futurebird
Yes often same house # & different streets. Carriers have to pay attention.
@Gurre @caesar @futurebird
In Finland it is similar to Sweden with the mailboxes. For over 10 years, the postal service had been using cars with right-sided steering, so that the mailman/woman doesn't need to leave the car - in winter that is rather nice for them.
@caesar @Gurre @futurebird my understanding is that they're so that the postman doesn't have to go onto the recipient's property to deliver their post. And given how far back from the pavement so much of American suburbia is, it no doubt saves a lot of time too, with not having to go back and forth, back and forth, between the pavement and everyone's front door.
@caesar @Gurre @futurebird I'm not saying we aren't car obsessed and that we need more urban infrastructure (because we are and we do), but the idea of making a postal worker walk my neighborhood when it's 110f/44c seems cruel and unusual.
@VampiresAndRobots @Gurre @futurebird that's fair. And I can honestly see the sense in it, it must save a lot of time, but it's just something I'd never thought about before. (I'd also worry about the post getting stolen, but that's another topic...)
@VampiresAndRobots @caesar @Gurre @futurebird Ok, this is not meant to be taken seriously, but saying making someone walk seems cruel sounds very (US-)American.
@caesar @Gurre @futurebird Most suburban developments in the U.S. don't have mail boxes at each house. Instead there is a lot that contains boxes where the carriers deposit the mail for all th residents. Of course, the residents all drive there since the developer couldn't be bothered to install expensive sidewalks.
@StumpyTheMutt @Gurre @futurebird oh no! 
But also, yes, the lack of 'sidewalks' ('pavements' for us) was the other thing that stood out to me from that image. Totally bizarre to me. It's as if it never occurred to the developers that someone might even walk down the street to visit their neighbours.
@StumpyTheMutt @caesar @Gurre @futurebird
Here in Canada too.
_Usually_ they're right at one of the main entrances of a subdevelopment, so its not too bad you can stop by there on your way to/from work when you're already in your car. But yeah, far too many people drive their cars to get the mail.
@caesar @Gurre @futurebird
We have those mailboxes in Canada too. The mail can also be delivered without leaving the vehicle.
But, as far as I know, they are only in rural areas where houses can be hundreds of meters apart.
Cul-de-sac suburbs (most common) have been putting single, multi-unit postboxes at the entry road, to sort of split the difference… still accessible from the postal delivery vehicle. It’s not very safe to be on the shoulder in these places, which is cause and reinforcer of the sad. @caesar @Gurre @futurebird
@caesar @Gurre @futurebird Depends on where you live. Apartment buildings, will have them all in one location, at the end of some dirt roads you'll have a whole row of boxes like those pictured. It's more to do with how spread out some parts of the country are then with cars (before cars we had the pony express).
@caesar @Gurre @futurebird they did drive-by drops in some neighborhoods I’ve lived in, but in my current one (much older, and mailboxes were not part of the original builder’s plan so everyone has different, our letter carriers park on the street, walk down one side, back up the other, then move to the next section.
It’s nice, I get to talk to them on occasion.
Somewhere out there is a man's ego screaming into the void.
@chu @futurebird
It's like an anti-cybertruck :)
All practicality, no poor imitation of a half-baked memory of a madmax/tron aesthetic.
@Gurre@mastodon.nu @futurebird@sauropods.win heck even look at most modern cargo vans with their sloped hoods vs US pickup trucks. Not as good as that postal van but still way better visibility because they're not trying target some appeal to masculinity
@Gurre This is ugly for a good reason and therefore I like it.
@futurebird
Agreed. Kinda ugly, but for reasons and the result has character and is a bit quirky. Not boring.
Like your original toot says, so many same-y sleekish big blobs (and machismo-affirming gigatrucks) these days.
Walking, or driving a little car, among new expensive behemoths, I keep noticing that Isuzu delivery trucks are huge and flat-fronted but much less frightening. Because the drivers are visible and have visibility? Because they’re designed for something other than aggression? Maybe they require a commercial license and are actually driven better?
@clew @Gurre @futurebird
Do you have an example picture? All the ones turning up in an image search for me look like a generic lorry.
The Isuzu freight vans? If you call them lorries they might be generic where you are — they should be! — maybe we ahould be posting pictures of the frightening vehicles we’re comparing them to. @InsertUser @Gurre @futurebird
@clew
Yeah I'm getting pictures like:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nippon_Rent-A-Car_Isuzu_Elf_NJR85A.jpg
(from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isuzu_Elf )
Which I guess is blunter than the alternate Mercedes sprinter, but about the same as Merc articulated ones.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_Sprinter
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sainsburys_lorry_refrigerated_trailer.jpg
@InsertUser @clew @Gurre @futurebird The direct comparison would be something like these two.
I was comparing them to trucks like this, because there are so many on the roads and they’re so frightening when they draw close
Finding the image i discovered that these used to be work trucks but are now luxury commuter vehicles. There is some really dumb stuff in the US tax code that reinforces really dumb aggressive psychology in the US driving psyche.
If you aren’t in the US… don’t let this happen to you! It’s hard to unwind.
@Gurre @futurebird Form follows function. What a delightful change of pace!
@Gurre @futurebird
I saw a post where someone likened the new USPS trucks to the cars in Dragonball and I fucking love it! <3
> machistas
now i'm wondering how much of that need for the oversized grill is the desire not to show one's face and body
dysphoria hoodie truck
Bullshit, look at this thing with a new set of eyes.
@Gurre @futurebird but is it electric, because *that* would make it the perfect car.
This design makes me want to drive it. It looks so easy to get in and out of and you can see everything.
@Gurre @futurebird
My hubby who's a mail carrier. Says those will be hell turning in neighborhoods with small streets. Not to mention they have no where to charge them at present time. He says he hopes to be retired before they show up where he works.
Why would they be harder to turn than a larger truck?
@Gurre @futurebird I prefer the design of the Rivian vans for Amazon. Same concept, but much better execution.
@drahardja @futurebird
Less personality, looks far more like any other van. But still heading in the right direction.
These kinds of front ought to be mandated by law. Good direct sight lines, front designed with safety in mind (instead of actively designed to appeal to men with anger issues).
@futurebird@sauropods.win I very much don't care about cars, but the whole angry-looking front grille thing needs to end. And if we could stop painting them 50 shades of grey, all the better.
Remember when cars had friendly faces? The only modern one I can think of is the Honda-E.
“Depraved indifference” grills.
@futurebird an accurate depiction of the fundamental ugliness of widespread car use and its horrid effects on society.
@futurebird a YouTuber I watch calls CUVs (you know, essentially station wagons but made to look like SUVs; like, an SUV that will get stuck in the snow) "blob cars". They're ridiculously common around here and now it's all I can think of when I see one. They're so shapeless, and tall for literally no reason but ppl wanting to be high up.
I don’t get it at all. I can understand the allure of a powerful and functional but ugly car. Or an elegant but not as functional but user-centered urban car. But we have neither. No grace, no style, no power. Like Ax body spray but as design. Only a 13 year old boy would see anything of value in the design language (cool shapes??) and even he will regret it.
@futurebird@sauropods.win @nev@bananachips.club The allure for manufacturers is that they're cheap. The allure for customers is that it's the only thing on the market and you can't buy anything else.
@futurebird @nev I've been calling these types of vehicles "bigass SUVs" and "bigass pickups" for years and I shake my head at the fact that they're so common. Another reason why they're common is that they fall under the "Light Truck" category in the CAFE standards instead of "Passenger Car" so they have less stringent standards on what they can emit. That and the car companies make more profit off of them than they do smaller cars.
"Axe body spray as design" is 
cybertruck
@futurebird @nev We have a 2004 Honda Element. It looks like the mutant offspring of a minivan and a pickup as envisioned by a mad scientist. Even at 22mpg, it is unbelievably functional.
It is the transformer of cars. We fit a twin mattress in the back when I couldn't sit long enough to get to the doctor. It's uncarpeted, so evacuating two carsick dogs in a hurricane wasn't a disaster.
It maneuvers like a small car. And I don't know how we'll replace it.
@nev @futurebird
They all copied the Outback.
@futurebird Cars are definitely going through an ugly phase right now. Subaru RUINED the new WRX.
@HumToTable@sfba.social @futurebird@sauropods.win related I kinda liked the sporty slightly angular civic and the recent gen blobified it
@futurebird very much so. I'm constantly disappointed with modern vehicle aesthetics. "Angry anime eyes" has tickled me. Thanks.
@futurebird the jeeps with the angry headlights are particularly pathetic.
@futurebird imagine how deeply insecure you have to be to look at this and think "yeah, this will make me look like a badass"
@rateexportpilot This has the eyes but the old jeep design is so much less offensive than what we have now.