[monooso]

I know nothing about automobile design, but the Smart Fortwo [1] seemed to solve this problem just fine (IIRC they had a very good NCAP safety rating).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Fortwo

[EvanAnderson]

Always a good time to share this video re: crashing a Smart Fortwo: https://youtube.com/watch?v=mnI-LiKCtuE

[rootusrootus]

> IIRC they had a very good NCAP safety rating

3 out of 5, which I think merely qualifies it as "average"