Fucking FINALLY.
I’ve been waiting for a small pickup like the old 90s 4-banger Toyota. And this is electric, simple for function, and actually affordable?
Capitalists must be seething. If it doesnt have leather interior, 19 speaker surround sound, and cost 80k, get it out of our country! /s
Don’t get too excited about seething capitalists. Bezos is a major investor.
Article said it caught his interest, which to me means he took notice and will likely try to own it and enshitify it soon, not that he is currently behind it.
He’s one of 16 investors. Source:
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a64564869/2027-slate-truck-revealed/
With all that user upgradability it’s basically free real-estate for enshittification. Surley, the users don’t know what they want.
Bezzzos
Relatively affordable. It is 20k after the federal discounts and kick backs. Meanwhile, the Chinese EV market has been making cars as low as 4k. https://greenspeedx.com/cheap-electric-cars-available-in-china/
I’m not a pro China person (because one time in Ark, a Chinese team kept destroying my thatch base), but they seem to have the things. Apparently Mexico is aiming to compete in the EV market as well.
America used to have the things as well but then there was a civil war and it got banned.
semi-banned, under conditions*
If by “the things” you mean underpaid labor, then yes.
And state subsidies.
Oh, the US has state subsidies too. They just get pocketed by execs.
Even Europe has a tariff for EVs from China due to government subsidies. So it’s probably not 4K, but it’s also probably less than 25
You might ask yourself what it is that allows them to produce and sell a brand new vehicle for $4k, basically the same price as a high-end PC or a couple of high-end smartphones.
I dunno. Isn’t that what we need? Gov subsidy to increase the adoption of ev?
We might hit the Jevons paradox pretty hard though.
Mostly automation and sensible regulations. Also direct to consumer sales with third party dealerships not really existing for new cars. Also generally a lower cost of living allowing for lower wages and thus lower labor costs for the non automated parts.
Why is it that China is the only country on the planet able to sell new vehicles for this cheap? Surely other countries have automation and sensible regulations too.
They genuinely aren’t, Muerza in South Africa and a variety of other local brands across Africa and Asia have cheap cars.
China cuts it down further by completely subsidizing education and opening vocational schools near factories that specialize in what those factory owners need, allowing hyper specialization. When you have an entire neighborhood able to produce all the parts of a car, instead of importing parts from across the world and assembling it like us car manufacturers do, you’re able to massively cut costs.
All manufacturing in china takes this approach of having almost enclaves of specialized knowledge and factories, and is genuinely an engineers wet dream to work in since you can get any part you could possibly want the same day, even if you just designed the part yesterday.
Microraptors
So “chickens” basically?
Chickens that dismount you and knock you out
Yeah, I’m pretty hype for this. It’s got just the basics of what’s needed, and if you want to mod it with upgrades you can.
I only wish there was a way to make it AWD/4WD, and if there was a way for it to tow a little more weight, then it’d be perfect.
As it is now, it’s still a very compelling concept that I might get into as outside of towing, it solves all the things I need a truck for.
Small gas-powered trucks are effectively illegal in the US.
It’s regulation made in response to automakers calling everything a “light truck” to get around fuel economy and emissions standards in the 90s and 2000s.The straw that broke the camel’s back was the PT Cruiser being classified as a truck by Chrysler.
So, starting in model year 2012, vehicle fuel economy standards started being based on vehicle footprint. The side effect was that small, powerful vehicles designed for moving cargo more efficiently or in tighter spaces than large trucks were impacted. It’s why 2011 was the last year model of the old Rangers, S10s, Dakota, etc.
That’s why the new Rangers are larger than the old F150s. They have to make them bigger to meet CAFE standards.
Same issue hit the small cargo vans in 2021/22. As the CAFE standards went up, it became impossible to meet fuel economy standards for the NV200, Ford Transit Connect, and Ram ProMaster City compact cargo vans, so they were all discontinued.
New York City was changing its whole Taxi fleet to NV200s due to their flexibility and accessibility options, and now can’t buy new ones because a Toyota Camry has less-strict fuel economy requirements.
What are the Maverick and Santa Cruz classified as? I think they fit the small or light truck category, if they are categorized as trucks at all.
A Maverick is a light truck in much the same way a 737 is a small plane. Sure there are bigger ones, but it’s a 4 door truck with a 4 foot bed that’s high enough to make loading and unloading harder than it needs to be. It’s twice the weight and almost twice the size of a 70s/80s Toyota Pickup, which is a light truck.
Twice the size how? Like, crew cab versus single cab? Not sure that’s a fair comparison
I own two mavericks, it’s a fair comparison. They only look small because of the size of today’s vehicles… in the 1980’s you’d see most of today’s lifted trucks in a monster truck rally.
Oh yes, that part is obvious. I was more curious where “twice the size” came from, especially if comparing a four-door truck to a two-door single cab which I’d argue isn’t a fair comparison. Although, they don’t make the maverick in a single cab do they?
…park a maverick next to a nineties ranger; the difference is ridiculous…
A Nissan Hardbody is one of the small trucks people keep complaining aren’t made anymore.
Dimensions of the 4 doors variant: length 5.1m, width 1.8m, height 1.7m
Maverick dimensions (biggest model just to prove the point): length 5.1m, width 1.84m, height 1.76m
It’s the same thing with all trucks, compared to the equivalent model (i.e. not comparing a 2 doors with a crew cab like the anti truck crowd loves to do) modern trucks look much bigger but it’s a design and height thing more than anything, their length and width hasn’t increased that much, especially if you compare with cars of the same model over the same period (1985 Civic sedan vs 2025 Civic sedan for example).
If you think a 2nd and 8th gen Toyota Hilux are the same dimensions it might be time to visit an optometrist.
I’m saying the difference isn’t a big as what some people pretend when you’re comparing the same versions.
Short box regular cab vs long box crew cab, that’s what people usually use as a comparison to prove their point even though it makes no sense to do so.
It does make sense, as regular cabs cannot be bought on new trucks. All of them are crew cabs, decreasing their utility and increasing their weight and size.
As far as the general argument. Look at the headlight and start height of a Ford ranger in 2002 vs today.
Hybrids meet CAFE.
But their towing and carrying capacity versus the old Rangers and S-10s is pitiful.
Light trucks, which means less CAFE regulation. Same classification as crossovers (why crossovers are so popular).
That’s not accurate. “Light Truck” also includes a crew cab F150 with an extended bed that requires a Sherpa to enter. The Maverick and an F150 have the same standards, but weighted based on vehicle footprint.
But the Maverick standard model is a hybrid, so it meets CAFE standards.
That’s why the new Rangers are larger than the old F150s.
If you’re comparing a crewcab Ranger to a 2-door F150, sure, but that’s not really a valid comparison.
Comparing equivalent configs tells a different story: every crewcab F150 is taller, longer, and wider than a new crewcab Ranger. The 10th gen and earlier (pre-2004) F150s, which are shorter than 11th gen+ F150s, are still bigger when compared to the Ranger in equivalent configurations.
People can’t seem to figure that out, to them a truck is a truck is a truck even though they’re the vehicles with the most variations in size for a same model built the same year.
Capitalists must be seething
Capitalists funded this, that’s one the benefits of capitalism, if the market is only offering pricey crappy products that people don’t enjoy buying, theres an opening in the market that can be filled with a company selling people exactly what they want and need.
“No touchscreen” is a really great selling point imo
After reading the article and the website, I can’t find anything that explicitly says there is no network connection built into the vehicle.
The instrument panel is a screen, and will be used to display the backup camera video. There is some computer capable of handling video processing and displaying the instrument graphics - so more than just low-level electronics to handle the battery and drive control. It could have built-in GPS, it could have 5G, it could still be collecting and sharing data on driving habits &etc, it could be subsidized by that on the backend. Just because those functions aren’t displayed to the end user doesn’t mean they aren’t in the system.
Everything you describe could be handled by a single ESP 32 module but they probably do have much more computing power than that.
Other articles seem to indicate that it would need you to use your phone to perform updates on the onboard computer.
I guess this doesn’t preclude the possibility of other types of embedded surveillance.
Oh yes I was not commenting on any of that. Data privacy and the reliability of computer hardware and software over time are separate issues.
I was just speaking from the basic-level user experience of operating a vehicle- touch screens are terrible. Pretty much everything you want to do in a car should have 3 requirements:
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Keep your eyes on the road. Controls need to be in consistent locations and have some other way of communicating what they are and what their status is non-visually. Dials, knobs, buttons that lock in-or-out, switches, levers, sliders. Anything close together needs to be differentiated- buttons with different textures, shapes, or resistance for example. This is very difficult and almost antithetical to touchscreens. The strength of the touchscreens is their flexibility- they can have deep menus that re-use a small amount of space efficiently, but the trade-off is that they need the user’s vision to work.
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Non-visual feedback to the user for their activation. Touch screens CAN do this with haptics and sounds. And there are physical inputs where this can be a problem, like regular buttons or knobs with uniform shapes. Levers, sliders, switches, and dials have this as inherent properties
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Response time. Touch screens on vehicles are usually underpowered and seem to take seconds to register an input, then apply it. If the music changes and is suddenly way too loud, it’s annoying to be subjected to that for 5 seconds while navigating the touch screen and waiting for it to work, in contrast to a regular old volume potentiometer that operates basically instantly. Really any music or audio controls can get really annoying with delay, though I’ll admit those are a luxury. Things like the lights are not.
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Not a requirement, but cars should be judged on whether these things FEEL good. Touch screens have improved slightly over time with better materials and haptics, but that only applies to higher-end ones and still isn’t great. Cheap physical inputs can suck too, though they are usually still better than touch screens.
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Hoping it doesn’t have tracking 🤞
If they also make a 4wd version in the future then this would basically be the first new car I’d consider buying.
Edit: I emailed them and they said it doesn’t have any data collection at all.
The vehicle will absolutely collect data, but likely won’t be transmitting or collecting personal data (which is mostly done within vehicle infotainment units). It’ll be stored within the hardware which is much more preferred but I’d still consider that “data collection”.
Most vehicles have an Event Data Recorder (EDR) which records and stores vehicle data in the event of a collision/abnormal operation above a certain threshold. They’re mandated in many countries. You can connect to these systems, some easier than others, and get vehicle data such as vehicle speed, accelerator pedal position, brake activation, changes in velocity, yaw rate, steering wheel angle, steering wheel angle rate of change, ABS/TC activation, number of ignition cycles, odometer readings, etc. Newer vehicles with enhanced safety systems (of which this vehicle doesn’t sound like it’s intended to have) can provide even more data including but not limited to proximity to a target object and camera images.
It’s not data in the sense of personal or tracking data, but it’s still data.
Every smart feature a vehicle *doesn’t *have is a selling point for me. I want my car to be dumb as a boot.
Yep, the more software it has, the less I want it. And I’m saying that as a software engineer.
Nothing made me want to distance myself from technology more than going back to school for computer science.
…well that and all the fascism espoused by tech CEOs.
Well, I want smart boots
I fucking hate the touchscreen in my vehicle.
I dont mind a secondary 8" screen for things like navigation as long as there is no control over functionality of the vehicle on said touch screen.
My 2016 Veloster has a perfect balance
I will buy this immediately if it’s even close to this price point.
no touchscreen
Sounds like a dream. Or public transport. It doesn’t have touchscreen either.
Frugal design. I love it.
You know what… Give me an option for a bigger battery, and ensure that replacement batteries are going to be available for a while, and I’ll definitely look into it.
The article says they will have a 240 mile battery upgrade available at some point, that can be done at some yet undisclosed service center (article assumes a car service chain).
Sweet. Hopefully those batteries will also be manufactured and sold for long enough for me to get at least one first party replacement, before having to deal with third party vendors.
The article mentions an upgradable battery
No stereo is a bit spartan, but definitely a move in the right direction regardless. I want one.
Seems built In speakers will be optional
Standard DIN stereo slot, heat, and AC, and id buy it in a heartbeat.
You don’t even need a stereo. Bluetooth amp and a phone/tablet holder.
Id prefer to at least have the slot for one as an option. I grew up with professional aftermarket sound systems in cars (thanks for the tinnitus, dad) so it just wouldn’t feel right to me.
That and android auto. There’s nice options for head units with screens last i looked.
Same! This is 100% on my radar now.
I’d be surprised if people couldn’t put in a simple and cheap aftermarket deck and a couple speakers, which would only be around a couple hundo. If these things are easy to work on so you can install it yourself, even better.
I had a truck without a working stereo so I just used some Bluetooth speakers
They absolutely are intending to provide aftermarket parts
Hopefully they’ve provided cutouts for speakers and a head unit so that they don’t look like my old squarebody with 6x9’s cut into the doors.
Hell yeah
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I don’t care at all I almost prefer that. I have a Bluetooth headset I wear 90 percent of the time anyways.
You should not be wearing anything in or on your ears while driving.
The rise of headphones that allow you to hear the outside world while wearing them is gunna make that law obsolete
it’s really not though. it’s way easier to just not put on headphones than it is to put on headphones and prove you had them in pass through sound mode
I think they meant open ear style headphones / earbuds, not closed ear ones with pass-through function.
Personally, despite having a pair of those, and they are great, I still prefer using the car’s speakers while driving, but that’s me.
then i’m confused because those aren’t new. those are the oldest designs on the market
You’re right, but those old ones kinda suck. Recently, they figured how to make them sound good. Example: Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, but every major brand has some
You make it seem like someone would put on their headphones just for the ride. They would have them on already before hand. And they would keep them on afterwards.
Especially in a vehicle that doesn’t have a radio
why would we make driving rules surrounding that exactly one vehicle doesn’t have speakers and some headphones have passthrough?
Yes, cause we know for the rest of history this will be the ONLY car that does this. Technology never follows through with removing stuff like other have.
On a side note, how’s your headphone jack doing on your phone?
Make sure you say that to the cop while he writes your ticket
You know whats crazy? I’ve been practicing a lot recently, and I can take off my headphones in less than a minute. I know that’s absolutely insane and kinda unbelievable, but it’s true. Maybe one day it’ll even be so easy it only takes a fraction of a second to take them out.
One can only hope!!
Motorcycle riders wear ear protection for wind noise.
Riders can hear better than people in cars even with earpro though.
completely different scenario. real apples to cats comparison
Understood, it kind of popped in my mind and I missed overall context.
Relax I use aftershocks bone conducting headsets.
I have a stereo in mine. Has BT. I still usually just roll with ear buds. Lol.
Sign me THE FUCK up, have been looking at 90s danger rangers to sate my small truck fix but so many of them have a car-looking front end.
Glad someone has the balls to produce a truck people actually want. Give me power windows, locks, radio, cruise and a cheap radio and I am fine. I guess I throw in 4x4 because I live in Colorado.
I would love to also see an ice or a hybrid version of this truck too. This is exactly want so many people are wanting right now. Very excited to see this EV when it hits the road
they lost me at automatic high beams. we don’t need more cars on the road with LED high beams blinding everybody within two kilometers
I hate to break it to you bud, but pretty much every single vehicle sold in the last 5 years or so are equipped with LED headlights.
and fuck every single one of them
I am physically unable to drive after sundown because those headlights fuck so hard with my light sensitivity. I can’t see anything, it feels like someone slowly stabbing your eyes with a pencil.
Admittedly not the smartest thing to do, but I now keep a reflective umbrella in the car for when my partner is driving and one of those assholes decides to tailgate.
Automatic means they turn on and off automatically so it actually cuts down on the problem you’re describing
That’s the theory and it sounded great in the adverts. But in my experience, “automatic” means on by default and most folks don’t think about them, creating the problem- we’re all blind because the damn things come on too much. To work properly, they’ll have to know where the city limits are, not just trigger at “x” lumens level. And while we’re temporarily blinded, “Fooly Automasted Slef Driving” will probably kill us before that happens…
I’ve never seen the sensors on mine miss, 2022 vehicle though. In fact my brights sometimes turn off for any red light along the road and reflective signs.
That said, the LED headlights without the brights on are bright enough and people constantly think the brights are on when they are not. I always think about the brights and am at the ready to manually disable them.
The headlights themselves are too bright, and there’s no lower lumen off-white options it seems. Just full boar white. It used to be you weren’t allowed to install headlights this bright, but then billionaires paid and lobbied for rules to allow a pass if the vehicles rolled off the lot with them, and 20 years later… here we are. Not even sure the old rule still exists in any form.
that is very inaccurate
they often don’t work until after they’ve already flashbanged you, and they don’t recognize anything but vehicles
They don’t work well enough to justify their legality
No stereo is the only thing I would change
There’s no radio, no Bluetooth, and no speakers of any kind beyond for those required to play basic warning chimes.
Many will consider this a cost-cutting step too far, but the interior was designed for ease of upgrading, with easy mounting space for anything from a simple soundbar to a full sound system.
There’s an integrated phone mount right on the dashboard, but there’s nothing stopping you from bringing something even larger. I expect the low-cost Android tablet and 3D-printing communities to have a field day coming up with in-car media streaming solutions.
framework truck😭
If only that money wouldn’t be partially going into the pockets of Bezos, it would be amazing.
And while easily replacable panels and such are a good thing. Having the mounting screws exposed like that is a horrendus idea. Because I suspect I know what much younger and very drunk people would do, based on the Mercedes hood ornaments I have in a box somewhere.
I don’t really see a downside to this, so why not line Bezos pockets if he is providing¡g a sane alternative?
This is 100% it.
All I want is a modular car system. Everything modular. Dashboard. Body panels. Whatever. I want 3+ cars possible on one frame, and to not need anything more than basic tools to swap parts around.
Gm said they’d build a sled drivetrain that they could just plop bodies on top of but that never happened sadly.
Wonder why? Seems to me like a money printing machine for them, the factory and non- factory repair shops and the aftermarket.
Unless it’s seen as a way to hide your car from illegal activities, which well now that I think about it is probably the reason they didn’t follow through with the idea.
Probably a balance between it would make it cheap for them to produce, but also bring down the barrier to entry for third party manufacturers to compete with them.
You wanna drive a FOSS OmniMech and so do I
I do. I really do.
Perfect except for it being a truck. Why is North America allergic to small cars?
No stereo is fine if it has ports for me to just buy my own car stereo kit and add it afterwards. I don’t see the point of no paint, like don’t you need it to protect the metal from the environment
Please make a 4x4 model I will definitely buy one.
