6/20/2026 at 11:33:19 PM
by speckx
6/23/2026 at 4:19:12 PM
> A Montana police officer spotted the giant banana rolling through Billings on Wednesday afternoon and did what countless law enforcement officers have done before him.Boys in the blue in Montana,
Pulled over a giant banana.
Drawn by the appeel of the yellow four wheeler,
They spun jokes deadpan and deadpanner.
by kazinator
6/20/2026 at 11:38:55 PM
Discussion yesterday (168 points, 92 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48601420by gnabgib
6/23/2026 at 5:00:33 AM
I missed that, which is a pity as it's a fruitful story and I must have slipped up as it looks quite a-peeling. Certainly I clicked on this story as it stood out from the bunch.by chris_wot
6/23/2026 at 2:55:54 PM
These cops using their authority to stop him is a bit of a slippery slope. If he's too tired to humour this monkey business, he can't just peel off.by nicbou
6/23/2026 at 11:11:58 AM
What's a fruitful story for you can get berry triggering for a botanist.by actionfromafar
6/23/2026 at 2:38:25 PM
There's always money in the banana carby imzadi
6/23/2026 at 3:04:45 PM
Captain America turns head I understood that referenceby dnpls
6/24/2026 at 12:18:45 AM
(Banana car explodes in flames)by theandrewbailey
6/23/2026 at 4:46:36 PM
He should keep a log book for his police encounters, categorized by ticket with every cop putting their name and number into it so he can show the cops how often they waste everybody's time...by TomK32
6/23/2026 at 5:07:21 PM
Do you think that would change their mind? An officer who thinks it is okay to pull over the banana car just to take a look at it probably would not blame any other officer for doing it.by kube-system
6/24/2026 at 4:08:26 AM
I don't know why cops think it's ok to randomly pull over cars just to look at them. They cause a ton of legal liability for their cities and departments by doing it, luckily most people with cool or interesting cars don't seem to mind too much.by Suppafly
6/24/2026 at 4:14:53 AM
I drive a non-sporty sedan from early 2000s. It isn't a "cool" car by any means, although due to various reasons, I drive around typically at 1 AM.Over the 5 years I've been driving. I've been pulled over maybe 30 times. In Australia they always collect a sample of your breath, ask where your heading, sometimes a drug test.
I've never been pulled over for any driving infringement. It has always been because 1AM is "suspicious".
It is a waste of my time and their time. We have neighbors who just moved in and every item was stolen in the house on the week of their move in. They called the police and not a single police officer showed up at the house. None of their items were ever recovered. It's hard to have respect for police when they try their hardest to not do anything which requires an ounce of thinking or investigating.
by HDBaseT
6/24/2026 at 6:05:35 AM
Stopping a driver at 1AM gives the cops a better chance at "solving a crime".by TomK32
6/23/2026 at 3:42:32 PM
Super cool article, love how the driver got bored of car shows and wanted to do something different. Article doesn't appear to mention any of the engine or chassis specifics?!Reminds me of Dumb and Dumber when the cops say they're following a "1985 Sheepdog, sir"
by dieselgate
6/24/2026 at 11:59:47 AM
https://bigbananacar.com/big-banana-car_about/by shmeeed
6/23/2026 at 4:42:11 PM
Said it was on a pickup truck frame.by avgDev
6/23/2026 at 4:42:54 PM
Have any of you seen the Weiner mobile?That thing is so cool and I've seen it in the wild a few times.
by avgDev
6/23/2026 at 2:07:36 PM
That's a good looking car. I wish there were more of these on the roads.by dwa3592
6/23/2026 at 4:52:17 PM
The giant banana was spotted in West Seattle yesterday! https://westseattleblog.com/2026/06/seen-in-west-seattle-the...by aaronbrethorst
6/23/2026 at 3:26:45 PM
I saw this very banana car while I was having brunch Sunday morning in Ballard Seattle!by verst
6/23/2026 at 4:48:56 PM
Same! There were a few other art cars parked by the locks, so I would guess it was some kind of meetup.by eks-reigh
6/24/2026 at 9:10:55 AM
Just want to say I’ve ridden in this car. It’s a hootby willf
6/23/2026 at 7:44:48 AM
There are many of these “art cars” out there. See https://lesblank.com/films/automorphosis-by-harrod-blank/by ljsocal
6/23/2026 at 4:38:00 PM
How does this work with registration? Like what would they put for make and model for the car? I imagine there has to be a way to add custom cars to it.by exegete
6/23/2026 at 4:44:39 PM
Typically these types of vehicles are highly modified from some other vehicle, and they are registered as that original vehicle. It sounds like this one is built on a truck chassis:> The truck beneath the banana has now traveled more than 250,000 miles.
It is also possible to register a vehicle built from scratch, but this typically requires a lot more paperwork to do.
by kube-system
6/23/2026 at 3:05:47 PM
Are you driving a banana, or are you happy to see me?by NoSalt
6/23/2026 at 11:03:25 AM
So many comments in the previous thread and no one mentions the banana car from Bloodhound Gang - Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo video.by inglor_cz
6/23/2026 at 2:24:58 PM
I wondered if it was the same but he says he built this car in 2008 which would have been three years after that video.by miah_
6/23/2026 at 3:35:24 PM
I'm glad the owner takes it lightly, but isn't this actually an abuse of power? If I can't pull someone over because I want a photo with their car... cops shouldn't be able to either, right?by micromacrofoot
6/24/2026 at 11:22:29 AM
They're also allowed to lie to people they pull over. Even if they're on body cam saying it, they'll just say they said it "to ease tension", or some garbage.by kgwxd
6/23/2026 at 7:51:25 PM
Was just reading the title and thinking it's a new and upgraded image gen model from Google.. Anyone else?by soleveloper
6/24/2026 at 6:40:21 AM
this is what we need more of in our worldby ne11nn
6/23/2026 at 2:31:56 PM
> Often officers simply wanted photographs. Other times they invented reasons to start a conversation.Who knew that abuse of privilege could be fun! But then I think it's only natural that the LEOs of a banana republic would feel a magnetic attraction to a giant banana.
by classified
6/23/2026 at 2:37:10 PM
He's calling the adventure "The World Needs More Whimsy Grand Tour." Sometimes it's ok to have fun. Nobody drives a big banana thinking they're not going to attract attention. It's part of the fun and whimsy.by eagerpace
6/23/2026 at 2:47:22 PM
You have a point, but stopping a car as a police officer is a much less consensual interaction than having a quick chat at a red light. It's a very forceful way to have a friendly conversation.by nicbou
6/23/2026 at 2:59:27 PM
squints have you met any police?by lazide
6/23/2026 at 3:39:47 PM
Yeah have you? They carry guns and are prone to violence in the US at rates disproportionate to the rest of the population, and that's just against their own loved ones.> Two studies have found that at least 40% of police officer families experience domestic violence, (1, 2) in contrast to 10% of families in the general population.(3) A third study of older and more experienced officers found a rate of 24% (4), indicating that domestic violence is 24 times more common among police families than American families in general.
https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2017R1/Downloads/Comm...
by skinfaxi
6/23/2026 at 6:02:14 PM
Duh? Maybe re-read my comment?by lazide
6/23/2026 at 6:22:31 PM
It doesn't say anything, it's literally a question.by classified
6/23/2026 at 6:36:54 PM
Amazingby lazide
6/23/2026 at 6:55:55 PM
This is a good moment to pay attention to the Hacker News guidelines. This is not a place for this sort of comments.by nicbou
6/23/2026 at 7:04:38 PM
Don’t threaten me with a good time. I keep asking dang to ban me; no luck so far.Looks like you’ve wasted about the same amount of time here as I have!
by lazide
6/23/2026 at 3:00:07 PM
Cops pulling someone over is never "fun and whimsy".by gacgacgac
6/23/2026 at 7:06:30 PM
I had a car that was pulled over dozens of times so the cops could take pics with it. Most of the time it was cool. Two times pissed me off: one time a cop had just pulled me over on the highway for a pic, okay cool, I pull back onto the highway and went maybe a mile before I was pulled over a second time by his buddy.Other time I was just rolling into LA for a comic con, it was 3am and I'd been driving for about 14 hours. I was minutes from my hotel and of course here come the cops. I had to make a big detour to find somewhere safe to stop. The next day someone said "Oh, I think my buddy stopped you last night!" so I had him call his cop friend and was able to safely cuss him out from a distance :)
On the other hand I had one awesome experience with the cops in Oxnard when we put my car on the train tracks and accidentally set off the barriers and caused an enormous tailback in each direction at the railroad crossing. I thought the cops would be mad, but they were hilarious and promised to figure out the traffic snafu for us.
https://imgur.com/a/pBcLKqz (we didn't realize the barriers automatically detect stuff on the tracks)
Then an hour later when I was driving the car down the tracks again another cop walked up on me all mad and told me he was writing me a ticket for driving on the tracks, but when I read the ticket he'd written it out to Marty McFly and had a great laugh about it. Here's a pic of him booking Marty haha
by qingcharles
6/24/2026 at 5:37:15 AM
I can neither confirm nor deny any first-hand experience with connecting the two sides of the tracks with jumper cables in order to trigger the signal.by aidenn0
6/24/2026 at 6:34:25 AM
We assumed it was some sort of electrical connection between the two through the wheels of the car. Is that how the trains activate it?by qingcharles
6/24/2026 at 2:25:32 PM
That's how it worked 30 years ago at least. There have been upgrades to the signaling system since then, but detecting a circuit being closed is so simple and reliable that it would be odd to do away with it.by aidenn0
6/24/2026 at 5:12:40 PM
It definitely surprised us that it worked with the car. At least we know it was accurate in the third BTTF movie when he rolls through the crossing ;)by qingcharles
6/23/2026 at 7:18:57 PM
That's an awesome story! deserves to be more than a hacker news comment with imgur linksby fragmede
6/23/2026 at 7:42:42 PM
Here's where the barriers came down and we panicked a little bit as we couldn't figure out how to get them back up :)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBo1DvKzRJ4
The city actually gave us permission for this and promised us there "probably" wasn't any trains using the track that day.
This was actually the first time we'd ever tried to fit the train wheels, we didn't realise they wouldn't fit over the brakes, so we had to do some disassembly to make them fit :p
by qingcharles
6/24/2026 at 1:18:49 PM
I second the grandparent and would like to add that your name has stood out to me in quite a few stories you've told on HN. This is without a doubt one of the funnier and light-hearted ones, but I enjoy them all, and many had me thinking.It's nice to have a face to go with it now. You sound like a guy one could have a few beers with and never get bored. Keep it up!
by shmeeed
6/23/2026 at 3:04:24 PM
Not saying I enjoy it. Not saying that I’d drive a giant banana either. But if I saw a police car, pull over a giant banana, I would think it was hilarious. That’s the definition of whimsy.by eagerpace
6/23/2026 at 4:03:46 PM
Being pulled over is a command under threat of violence, by an agent of the state empowered to use deadly force, who is mostly insulated from the consequences of poor judgement or abuses of power. Being pulled over by cops cannot be whimsical.by delecti
6/23/2026 at 4:59:37 PM
Thankfully, not everyone thinks like you do. I have zero problems with police and never have. I trust you’ve heard of different opinions?by hluska
6/23/2026 at 5:31:59 PM
We can hold differing opinions about whether state sanctioned threats of deadly force are whimsical, but that is unarguably what being pulled over is.by delecti
6/23/2026 at 6:25:33 PM
The use of deadly force on unarmed civilians is a fact in the US, not an opinion.by classified
6/23/2026 at 6:07:09 PM
Please tell me which "differing opinion" excuses rampant theft through Civil Asset Forfeiture which cops don't seem to have a problem with?by mrguyorama
6/23/2026 at 3:48:04 PM
Whimsy should be consensual and not involve the threat of violence.by wat10000
6/23/2026 at 8:19:54 AM
[flagged]by netsharc
6/23/2026 at 11:58:46 AM
She's obviously following the publication's style guidelines. Look at other articles. There's absolutely no need to attack people in a discussion about an article about a fricken banana car.by InsideOutSanta
6/23/2026 at 12:01:07 PM
Response dangerously lacks whimsyby autogn0me
6/23/2026 at 1:38:29 PM
Most of the whimsy vitamins are between the skin and the banana.by dapperdrake
6/23/2026 at 1:48:46 PM
Newspapers are invariably written to a grade school reading level for accessibility.by kube-system
6/23/2026 at 5:00:57 PM
Wow has HN ever taken a turn. What would have once been a conversation about the vehicle has turned into non stop police hatred. Good job - you’ve all become parrots!It’s especially funny because the owner of the vehicle has zero problems and none of you have evidence of abuse of power but oh no, you’ve all made up your minds and ACAB.
It’s embarrassing you have all decided to stop thinking.
by hluska
6/23/2026 at 6:35:34 PM
There is evidence of abuse in the literal title.by InsideOutSanta
6/23/2026 at 8:57:08 PM
If the article is to be believed he was pulled over multiple times just so they could take a photo or make a joke. That’s abuse of power even if the victim is fine with it.by lovich
6/23/2026 at 1:04:52 PM
So 100s of cops have done their jobs?by 2OEH8eoCRo0
6/23/2026 at 1:18:45 PM
> "For the first eight or nine years I was the most pulled-over man in America," he said. "It was constant."> Often officers simply wanted photographs.
> Other times they invented reasons to start a conversation.
> His favorite stop happened in a small mountain town in West Virginia.
> A traffic light turned red. Braithwaite stopped. The light turned green and he made a leisurely turn through the intersection.
> A few moments later, flashing lights appeared behind him.
> A police officer marched up to the banana and delivered the news.
> "'The reason I pulled you over, that light back there, you peeled out.'"
Their job is to take advantage of their authority to have fun at the expense of the time of citizens?
by saghm
6/23/2026 at 1:55:31 PM
I'll happily live in a world where this is the extent of police authority abuse.by williamdclt
6/23/2026 at 2:35:26 PM
If you tolerate small abuses, and let people get accustomed to abusing their power in small meaningless ways, the abuses will only grow.by teraflop
6/23/2026 at 4:27:17 PM
> ... the abuses will only grow.SCOTUS made race-based Kavanaugh Stops legal. Stipping a banana on wheels is a much lower bar
by overfeed
6/23/2026 at 3:00:08 PM
I can assure you, pulling over the banana stand is not the road to death camps. The death camps are.by lazide
6/23/2026 at 3:38:57 PM
Roads don’t start at their end.And it didn’t start there in Germany, either banana cars or death camps.
by zmgsabst
6/23/2026 at 9:11:28 PM
Eh, most roads start where other roads end or meet. The wheel turns, regardless.by lazide
6/23/2026 at 3:49:14 PM
Maybe not death camps, but it is inextricably tied to real abuses. I don't see how you ban "driving while black" stops without also banning these.by wat10000
6/23/2026 at 6:03:05 PM
You also can’t ban these without making it impossible to stop 99% of real issues either.A giant banana car is the definition of unusual behavior, after all.
by lazide
6/23/2026 at 6:09:58 PM
"Unusual" behavior should not be justification for any police interaction.Society doesn't benefit from policing "Weird".
by mrguyorama
6/23/2026 at 6:36:29 PM
Society (broadly) disagrees, and even trivial examples would have you agreeing with them if you thought it through.If a cop saw someone hiding in your bushes at 2am - stop and check it out, or nah?
by lazide
6/23/2026 at 7:26:09 PM
Society broadly agrees, enough that it's illegal in the US to stop someone just for "unusual behavior." You have to have an actual concrete reason to suspect someone of a crime. Not that police always follow the law on this.by wat10000
6/23/2026 at 9:06:42 PM
Not really, in the way you are using it.Only in specific edge cases and definitions, which I’m guessing you don’t know. And calling it ‘illegal’ is a stretch in 95% of them. Generally worst case any evidence gathered would just be inadmissible.
After all, even if not a legal stop/detention, that doesn’t mean they committed a crime by doing it.
But tell me, do you think any of these officers would have struggled to come up with probable cause to detain the driver of a giant banana car on a public roadway? Or any other ‘suspicious’ or ‘weird’ vehicle?
Because I can think of at least 3 California vehicle codes off the top of my head that would likely apply, including CVC 26708, 24008.5, and 5201. And I’m not a cop.
And all you need is an articulable and reasonable suspicion to detain.
Stopping someone to chat (aka they can leave without penalty) is a much lower bar, though I doubt they did that.
And you never answered my question.
by lazide
6/23/2026 at 9:27:45 PM
You've now completely shifted from "unusual behavior is sufficient justification to detain someone and this is necessary for 99% of real traffic stops" to "the police can usually come up with probable cause if they want."Which I completely agree with. But that's a very different statement.
If a cop saw someone hiding in my bushes at 2AM, that strikes me as reason to think that the person is trespassing if not worse, and would thus justify a further look. It would not be done solely on the basis of "unusual behavior."
by wat10000
6/23/2026 at 9:50:56 PM
Shifted? Not at all. Merely articulated the specific mechanisms.As you note - my original point stands, and is correct.
It’s difficult to come up with ‘weird’ or ‘suspicious’ behavior that isn’t going to be reasonable suspicion of something, and that is by design.
Or we could just go to disturbing the peace or loitering eh?
by lazide
6/24/2026 at 12:27:51 AM
It's trivial. Playing the bagpipes while riding a unicycle. Very weird and unusual but not reasonable suspicion of anything.I'm happy to come up with a dozen more if you lack imagination.
Similarly, there's plenty of non-weird, non-unusual behavior that legally justifies a traffic stop, such as exceeding the speed limit or rolling through a stop sign.
by wat10000
6/24/2026 at 12:55:01 AM
Have you ever tried it in public, except in perhaps a college town or another handful of special places or circumstances?Because you’d definitely get threatened with disturbing the peace, entertaining without a license, or be evaluated for public intoxication or drug use anywhere else.
People generally get speeding or traffic tickets when they stick out.
You have this weird overconfident naïveté about how the world actually works. Let me guess, 20 something white male, college educated, lives in SF or NYC? Loving parents who are still together?
How many did I get?
by lazide
6/24/2026 at 11:29:35 AM
You got one (college educated). Congrats.I specifically mentioned that police don’t necessarily follow the law here. So I don’t know where you get the idea that I’m naive about how the world works. Police might hassle you, but that doesn’t mean it’s legal for them to do so.
by wat10000
6/24/2026 at 7:07:20 PM
It’s not against the law, the way you’re using the term.by lazide
6/24/2026 at 7:37:25 PM
Meaning it only leads to suppression of evidence and not punishment for the perpetrators? Or that they'll have to come up with some probable cause to make it legal, but they can do that more or less at will? Or something else?by wat10000
6/23/2026 at 4:58:40 PM
The problem isn't the severity of the infraction, it's the lack of respect for the rule of law, and an institutionalized acceptance of that practice.The prioritization of a respect for authority over a respect for the rule of law is notoriously problematic in small town america in very real ways.
by kube-system
6/23/2026 at 1:58:11 PM
If only.by tomalbrc
6/23/2026 at 2:18:49 PM
Sounds like a fun way to make a lot of friends in law enforcement :)by pak9rabid
6/23/2026 at 3:21:41 PM
Right, there's definitely not a bunch of pressure from the fact that they can throw you in jail for basically anything and probably get away with shooting you if they really wanted that would get in the way of a real meaningful relationship...by saghm
6/23/2026 at 1:47:41 PM
More like 100s of cops have abused their authority to harass a middle aged artist.At even just 10 minutes a stop, that is over 30 hours of this poor man's life he has spent staring at the berries and cherries just because some entitled cop thought he deserved a photo op.
by 4chandaily
6/23/2026 at 2:04:47 PM
> harass a middle aged artistThis man is driving a homemade banana car across the continent specifically because he wants the attention it garners. It's the whole point.
by petcat
6/23/2026 at 2:34:01 PM
Wanting to attract attention and wanting to be constantly interrupted by law enforcement are not the same thing. This is the "well if she didn't want to be raped, she shouldn't have worn that skirt!" argument, and it doesn't look any better here.by 4chandaily
6/23/2026 at 2:37:46 PM
He said that he enjoys it. Why not just let him have fun in his banana car if he wants to? HN commenters seem to be the only people upset about this. He specifically said that he enjoys the banter and photo-ops with the police.by petcat
6/23/2026 at 3:00:35 PM
Because no one is allowed to have fun, obviously.by lazide
6/23/2026 at 2:36:54 PM
[dead]by cindyllm
6/23/2026 at 2:27:25 PM
Yea, he should be driving the state sponsored crossover suv like the rest of the country.by rozap
6/23/2026 at 2:12:12 PM
Yeah, the attention of armed people with the authority to order him around. See how ridiculous that sounds?by Arodex
6/23/2026 at 2:16:28 PM
I would advise you not drive a homemade fruit car around your town if you are this terrified of the attention it will bring. He clearly said in the article that he enjoys the encounters. He is doing this on purpose.by petcat
6/23/2026 at 2:53:54 PM
I got a lot of attention on a trip of mine. People would walk up to me at gas stations to ask about mt my trip and it was super cool.However we interacted as equals and I was free to refuse the conversation or end it when I wanted. I was free to set boundaries.
I would not feel the same if stopped by cops.
by nicbou
6/23/2026 at 2:35:54 PM
Him enjoying the attention doesn't make the actions of the police right or just. He enjoys the attention, they are abusing their authority, Both things are true.by 4chandaily
6/23/2026 at 2:44:12 PM
> they are abusing their authorityIt's perfectly reasonable to question whether that vehicle is street legal when it passes by on the road. It would be my first thought. It looks like it's mounted on a boat trailer chassis, and the windshield appears to have questionable effectiveness at high speeds. Pulling him over to ask about it seems like they are doing their jobs. Especially when I am also a driver on the same road.
by petcat
6/23/2026 at 3:50:40 PM
Is it legally reasonable? Does the local law make "that looks funny, might not be street legal" a primary traffic offense?by wat10000
6/23/2026 at 5:13:58 PM
Attracting attention does not vindicate others in violating that person's rights.by kube-system
6/23/2026 at 2:28:07 PM
You seem to have misunderstood the reason this country was founded in the first place.by sixothree
6/23/2026 at 3:10:33 PM
The police are human too and often bored on shift. The world needs more whimsy!I understand your perspective, but viewing police as solely as a potential threat is not spreading whimsy.
by aardvark92
6/23/2026 at 3:43:07 PM
> but viewing police as solely as a potential threat is not spreading whimsy.What a privileged point of view. For a lot of people police are indeed nothing but a potential threat.
by loloquwowndueo
6/23/2026 at 1:42:08 PM
The police can only stop a driver if they believe they have committed a primary traffic offense.by kube-system
6/23/2026 at 2:09:17 PM
That's not true at all. The police can stop a vehicle for any suspicion of unlawful activity. For instance, to question a driver about the street-legal-ness of their homemade banana car. You can, however, refuse questioning and refuse any inspection of the interior of the vehicle and just ask them to cite you for what they pulled you over for.by petcat
6/23/2026 at 2:14:08 PM
They are required to have reasonable suspicion that the banana car is unlawful in some way. (e.g. missing required equipment, etc) Simply wanting to question the driver or get a picture for funsies is not quite enough.by kube-system
6/23/2026 at 5:25:07 PM
It’s a goddamn banana car. This guy’s banana car is apparently legal, well constructed, and registered properly, but yes, the presence of a hand made banana car is reasonable suspicion that the car may not be up to snuff, road legal, or safe to operate around others.by roughly
6/23/2026 at 5:48:59 PM
That's a common misconception about what "reasonable suspicion" means."Reasonable suspicion of a crime" is an objective legal standard that doesn't mean the same thing as "they look suspicious" or the situation itself is "suspicious" -- it means that the officer thinks that a specific articulable crime has, is, or is about to occur. They don't have to be 100% sure, and they don't even have to be correct about what the law even is, but they do have to believe a law was broken.
Being unusual by itself does not legally qualify for reasonable suspicion of a crime or infraction, because being unusual isn't a crime.
Now, the officer could be interested in the car because it is a banana, and want to stop it to take a picture of it, but they have to have suspicion of some specific violation first.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whren_v._United_States
For example:
1. "Hey that banana car looks weird" > "it doesn't look like it has turn signals" > [pulls them over] > "hey do you have turn signals", "yes", "ok my bad have a nice day" = legal, because not having turn signals is an equipment violation.
2. "Hey that banana car looks weird" > [pulls them over] > "hey is this thing legal?" = illegal, because looking weird is not a crime
by kube-system
6/23/2026 at 7:19:17 PM
Interesting, I see the distinction. That said, I’m genuinely curious here (and, I’m not defending police overreach - you can browse my comments if you’re worried I’ve got any love for authoritarians) - let’s take as a given that we’ve got a societal interest in automobiles meeting safety standards, and let’s take as a given that we’ve nominated the police as the body designated to ensure that vehicles being operated on the road meet these safety standards (or at least, we’ve designated them as the on-the-ground eyes for seeking out vehicles that don’t). Let’s also assume that some of those safety standards are not immediately visible from the outside - eg, it’s difficult to tell at a glance if the frame of the banana car is a well-constructed piece of welded steel or a shopping cart.A cop sees what is clearly a hand-made banana car driving past them in the other direction on the road. What do you feel like are the appropriate actions for that cop to take in those circumstances, with just the facts available to them at hand?
I’m not arguing that the cops we have do not regularly and aggressively abuse their power and violate the social contract, but I’m struggling to see how we would want a cop to behave in an ideal world in this circumstance that isn’t “pull over the banana car and make sure it’s safe.” From the sound of it, they’re not ticketing the banana car, they obviously haven’t impounded it, and knock wood, they haven’t shot the driver yet, but what would your expectation be for them in that situation?
by roughly
6/23/2026 at 7:56:15 PM
> let’s take as a given that we’ve got a societal interest in automobiles meeting safety standards, and let’s take as a given that we’ve nominated the police as the body designated to ensure that vehicles being operated on the road meet these safety standardsBroadly, I agree. But there are two very distinct groups of laws that you're groping together here:
Firstly, there's federal law, which is primarily responsible for what we think a modern safe vehicle is: crash testing, airbags, backup cameras, tire pressure monitoring, antilock brakes, stability control, etc. These laws primarily apply only to new vehicle manufacturers, enter enforced against those manufactured by the federal government.
Second, there's state law. Basically, all traffic laws are under state purview, and enforcement. The safety equipment required under state law is generally extremely basic. In most states you can qualify with as little as: DOT rated tires with tread, at least two mirrors, turn signals, seat belt, headlights, tail lights, horn, a front windshield, and a functioning wiper. These are the laws that traffic police enforce.
> Let’s also assume that some of those safety standards are not immediately visible from the outside - eg, it’s difficult to tell at a glance if the frame of the banana car is a well-constructed piece of welded steel or a shopping cart.
Because state vehicle safety law is generally very basic, it usually is possible to tell from the outside whether equipment requirements are met.
Also, shopping carts are made out of welded steel. And besides, it is entirely legal to use wood in the construction of a vehicle. State law typically does not prescribe the types of materials used beyond some extreme generalities in their performance (e.g. visibility through windows, structures physically attached as opposed to being loose). Generally, state law only cares about operational safety, they don't really regulate design safety. Horrible unsafe designs that would fail a crash test are only federally illegal for manufacturers to make and sell to people.
But let's entertain your scenario for a second. Let's say that there is something about a vehicle that fails safety standards that isn't visible... legally you there's no way to pull the vehicle over for a reason that you don't know of... because you have to know of a reason to justify the stop to begin with -- you'd have to find some other reason.
Ideally, the way you'd enforces vehicle safety for these kinds of scenarios, and the way that the rest of the world handles it -- is to require vehicles to be inspected. But only 15 states have chosen to require periodic passenger vehicle inspections.
> A cop sees what is clearly a hand-made banana car driving past them in the other direction on the road. What do you feel like are the appropriate actions for that cop to take in those circumstances, with just the facts available to them at hand?
They should do everything that their state law enables them to do, including:
* visually confirming the existence of required equipment: lamps, windscreen, signals, road tires, etc.
* confirming the display of any credentials required by their state: inspections stickers (if applicable), registration stickers (if applicable), license plate (believe it or not... if applicable), etc.
... and if they don't meet these requirements, or they break other rules of traffic operation, initiate a stop and investigate further.
by kube-system
6/23/2026 at 8:31:15 PM
That all makes sense, I appreciate the engagement. I should've figured that the state-level vs federal-level gaps where where all the dragons would live here, and I don't live in a rural area, but I've spent enough time in them that I should've guessed how narrow those state-level standards actually wind up being. I get the reason for all of that, but as someone who lives in a city with many other cars around on a regular basis, I do get nervous about their ability to interoperate safely with the rest of us.by roughly
6/23/2026 at 9:43:32 PM
I agree with the concern 100%. I've lived all over the US from some of the poorest rural areas to some of the richest urban areas, and it is wild to see the cultural differences in how people view transportation. And I think there's a lot of distorted opinions everywhere.Some tend to think cars are a highly regulated option for transportation on professionally engineered roads that people can choose if they want. Others think that cars are synonymous with a basic right of transportation on the untamed highway, and they can do whatever they want as long as they have a plate on it.
But there's multiple realities in this country. Unfortunately, a new car that meets the latest safety standards is essentially reserved for the upper middle class. The lower middle class is driving used cars that met safety standards of a decade ago, with worn parts that may or may not get inspected before they fail. And the working poor are either struggling to afford rent in a city with public transport, or they're struggling to keep a 15-25 year old car functional, let alone compliant or safe.
by kube-system
6/23/2026 at 10:41:05 PM
Yeah, and in urban areas in particular, that exacerbates the “DWB” problem that feeds into all the other problems that make being poor so goddamn expensive.by roughly
6/23/2026 at 3:32:06 PM
IANAL, and would like to believe that what you say is true, but I think in most jurisdictions "reasonable suspicion" that the vehicle was not street legal would float as justification for a stop.by wyclif
6/23/2026 at 4:40:10 PM
There is no "street legal" statute, so it would have to be for something specific like an improperly displayed license plate, that one example in the article alludes to.But other examples in the article like "Often officers simply wanted photographs." would not be a legal reason.
Now, in practice, this is a very easy standard to meet, because even if an officer wants to pull someone over arbitrarily, they can simply follow someone until they make a very minor infraction like crossing a line improperly, exceeding the speed limit by 1mph, rolling a stop, or failing to signal... but they still have to do it.
by kube-system
6/23/2026 at 2:05:30 PM
No? Not even close. If the police "smell weed" they can stop you. If the police believe you have active warrants they can stop you. If the police believe you have committed a criminal act of any kind, they may stop youby sidewndr46
6/23/2026 at 2:10:56 PM
I'm speaking about a traffic stop specifically, I am aware other crimes exist.by kube-system
6/23/2026 at 2:15:39 PM
your statement was "The police can only stop a driver". This is completely false. It is based off the belief of the officer, not fact or reality.by sidewndr46
6/23/2026 at 2:25:11 PM
> It is based off the belief of the officer, not fact or reality.A belief that they have violated some law. They cannot do it for these reasons, from the article:
> Often officers simply wanted photographs.
> Other times they invented reasons to start a conversation.
by kube-system