Fallout season 2’s golf-cart scene reignites debate over drivable cars in games
In Fallout season 2 episode 7 on Prime Video, a brief scene of Hank MacClean and his daughter Lucy taking a golf cart prompted renewed discussion about whether future Fallout games should include drivable vehicles, Polygon reported on Jan. 28, 2026. In the episode, Hank — who has been using the cart to fetch mice for experiments in the vaults — handles the vehicle easily, while Lucy nearly drives into a wall, a moment the article says highlights the characters’ different upbringings.
The piece notes that fully drivable cars have largely been absent from Fallout games: the Highwayman in Fallout 2 is limited to fast travel and Fallout Tactics included a few drivable jeeps and tanks. Polygon says Bethesda and Obsidian have cited technical limits of past engines and in-universe lore — fuel shortages and the danger of nuclear-powered vehicles being shot and blown up by raiders — as reasons vehicles weren’t implemented.
Polygon acknowledges fans’ argument that vehicles would harm Fallout’s exploratory feel and the symbolism of lost prewar technology, but the writer disagrees. The article points out vehicles already exist in the setting (NCR trucks, the New Vegas monorail, the boat in Fallout 4’s Far Harbor, and the Nuka-World monorail) and suggests design approaches — rebuilding a vehicle like the Highwayman, searching for fuel, crafting protections, or requiring a stat like Intelligence to operate — that could make drivable vehicles earned and flavorful.
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