But I'd imagine most people don't consider the survivability of pedestrians in a collision when they buy a car, since people generally overestimate their driving ability and underestimate their likelihood of ending up in an accident.
So harsher penalties might not improve car designs much.
I think some people do consider it (although possibly from the wrong angle and not very deeply) otherwise you wouldn't see stuff like massively lifted trucks, who's purpose is to look "aggressive" and "scary" to make the person inside feel better about themself.
I think the noise and the image are designed to impress other drivers safely cocooned within their own vehicles. You don't even need to modify the stock vehicles to get this effect. When I have no protective shell around me, even standard passenger cars seem to be aggressive and hostile.
Can confirm I got just a 2" body lift on my truck and it feels... Empowering. I want to go higher now so I'll be buying a 2" lifted suspension kit, nothing crazy like the 4" my friend is going for (his truck looks amazing with it). Unfortunately it won't fit in my shed then so I need to build a carport before I do that.
If harsher penalties were adopted only in the case of killing or injuring someone, perhaps not, but if we made fines for all moving violations proportional to vehicle weight, people might suddenly be more thoughtful.
It is arguably weird that no-one has successfully taken this approach; _in general_, if you make a thing, and then knowingly make a less safe version of a thing, and it kills someone due to your changes, then, well, you'll want a good lawyer. But cars do seem to be treated as something of a special case; all the responsibility is on the operator, even as the product is made knowingly more dangerous to bystanders.
Doesn't matter how they estimate their chances. What matters is that if the penalty is significantly higher - then insurance will go up and there will be incentive to buy cars safer for pedestrians.
Insurance won't get you out of jail or pay your fine for you. But your point is valid for civil damages, like getting sued by the family of the pedestrian you just killed with your truck.
I wonder how much of an effect those hypothetical lawsuits have on downstream insurance premiums — anecdotally, it hasn't stopped the F-150 being the most popular car in North America.
But I'd imagine most people don't consider the survivability of pedestrians in a collision when they buy a car, since people generally overestimate their driving ability and underestimate their likelihood of ending up in an accident.
So harsher penalties might not improve car designs much.