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When the United States Postal Service unveiled its futuristic new mail truck, it had to hope for a positive response. After all, there hasn’t been a new USPS truck since 1994, and the designers have been working on the upgrade for six long years.
But the images of the new delivery vehicle, delicately placed in advertising shots on leafy backgrounds evoking the idyll of the American suburbs, above all generated emotion. Hilarity.
Politico transport reporter Sam Mintz took the initiative to create a Twitter survey asking if the truck was sleek and cool, or an ugly duckling. The result was a clear 60% in favor of the latter.
The good news is that the new model, which will be manufactured by the defense contractor with the aptly ugly-duckling name Oshkosh, will have a host of safety features when it hits the roads in 2023. Unlike the old rickety machines that are currently slamming across the United States. which have no air conditioning, dangerous blind spots for drivers and can spontaneously catch fire, the new fleet will be equipped with airbags, automatic braking and 360-degree cameras to prevent accidents.
They will be gasoline or electric.
The bad news is, it’s arguably the least appealing car since the Fiat Multipla, which doesn’t look so much like an ugly duckling as it does a heavyweight boxer after a particularly bloody fight in the ring.
The late night TV hosts spent a day in the field with the new USPS trucks. Jimmy Kimmel called the design “mundane and yet vaguely disturbing”. The cruelest take was from James Corden, who compared the truck to Justin Timberlake’s face – a pretty brutal affront to both sides.
To be fair, some people have jumped in defense of the Ugly Duckling. Actor Kelli Maroney mentionned: “It’s adorable and I love it.”
Perhaps a resolution of these polarized reactions will be possible by the time the vehicle goes into service in two years. One Twitter user showed how America could fall in love with its new national delivery icon:
Their catch: “FALSE BINARY. It looks like a duck and that’s what makes it cool !!!!!!!!! “
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