History Main / InVehicleInvulnerability

** If you delay driving away for a second or two after entering a car, Nico does an in-car animation of putting on a seatbelt. If you let him do this, [[TruthInTelevision he won't be thrown from the vehicle in a crash]]; if you take off too fast, he skips this part, and he's free to ragdoll over the hood in a head-on. Likewise, if you delay after mounting a bike, he'll pull a helmet from Hammerspace, which lessens the damage taken when he's thrown from a bike.

** As demonstrated by Richard Hammond in ''TopGear'', though, it's insanely easy to injure yourself due to exhaustion and the incredible G-force from acceleration and turning.

* [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in ''MassEffect'' where your vehicle is a military-grade APC which is effortlessly capable of surviving everything from 400 foot drops off mountains to orbital re-entry and is equipped with InertialDampening to soften the blow for the passengers.

* ''GrandTheftAuto'' in its earlier incarnations, unless you were on a motorcycle. In ''GrandTheftAutoIV'' this gets averted with cars as well, you can get thrown from the car if you crash hard enough and enemies can shoot you through the windows.

* ''RedFaction''. Even if you are one shot away from death, the moment you get into a vehicle, it takes all the damage which comes your way. Don't be inside a vehicle that is taken to zero hit points though: it will explode and hurt or kill you.

* ''SteelBattalion'' will not have the pilot injured from concussion no matter how many times the VT gets shaken, slammed, and/or knocked down. However, pilots can still die in their VTs if they asphyxiate from keeping them shut down too long.

* While the player character and named crew members cannot be hurt outside of cutscenes, RedShirt crew in ''InfiniteSpace'' can die by the hundreds when their ship is shot up. And somehow you're able to hire hundreds more at any starport. On the other hand, they may just be incapacitated and treated in the sick bay since your fleet recovers crew as it flies.

* In ''WorldOfWarcraft'', players in vehicles (not mounts, typically -- it has to be something with its own health bar) are usually invulnerable from being targeted by enemy attacks. There are some quest-based exceptions where the player is actually fighting enemies on the vehicle, but all [=PvP=] vehicles work this way.

<<|VideoGameTropes|>>

* [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in the {{OperationFlashpoint}} series, in which occupants of vehicles are vulnerable to damage from collisions, bullets and explosions alike. This leads to events such occupants of vehicles such as military trucks being shot through the canvas, tanks being disabled after one hit because the shell penetrated and killed the crew, and even helicopter pilots being shot through the windshield of their aircraft.

* Justified in any ''FormulaOne'' game. In RealLife F1 it's probably difficult to seriously injure yourself if you were trying on most modern circuits.

* Likewise, cars in JustCause 2 seem to be made of Swiss Cheese for all the protection it does you (read, almost none). That is, until you get to an APC-grade vehicles. Then again, why bother driving a vehicle when your primary means of getaway involves [[CrazyAwesome infinitely respawning parachutes and a grappling hook?]]
* ''Flatout'' tries to be an aversion, although it's more to see your driver fly like a rag doll.

* Justified in ''MassEffect'' where your vehicle is a military-grade APC which is effortlessly capable of surviving everything from 400 foot drops off mountains to orbital re-entry and is equipped with InertialDampening to soften the blow for the passengers.

* ''Dick Tracy'' on the NES is an unusual example: if bullets or other cars touch Tracy's car while he's inside, he takes damage. When he's out of the car, it still intercepts bullets but neither it nor Tracy suffers lasting damage. Essentially the car is an extension of Tracy's body when he's inside of it.

* Most, but not all vehicles in WorldOfWarcraft make anyone riding in them invulnerable, although they still take damage from debuffs active on them while they entered. This is particularly odd with the Demolisher, as both the driver and his two passengers are completely exposed (and the passengers can even use their normal attacks and spells). The few vehicles that avert this trope are not used in PvP and monsters will generally only attack the vehicle, which does the damage.

** The early CommandAndConquer games, when an infantry who piloted the vehicle would come out when the vehicle is destroyed, although if there was an overkill, the pilot would also die.
* In ''{{BattlefieldSeries}}'' games, this holds true if your model is not visible from the outside, as with tanks or ships. However, if your character can be seen, either through the hatch on a tank or in an exposed driving position, you are vulnerable to being headshot by snipers (or anyone else, if they get close enough). Helicopter pilots in ''Battlefield 2'' are immune to ordinary small arms, thanks to their armored canopies, but the unlockable .50 anti-materiel sniper rifle can punch right through.

* Averted in VideoGames/TheGetaway. It's entirely possible to be shot and killed from inside the car, though collisions don't seem to do the player character any harm unless it catches fire.
* Fully averted in Driver 3 (Driv3r, according to the official title). Crashing into things damages you. It's entirely possible to kill yourself by crashing into a wall. Or, if you've been shot a couple of times before getting into the car, just by backing into another car trying to get out of a parking space.
* Averted in the {{OperationFlashpoint}} series, in which occupants of vehicles are vulnerable to damage from collisions, bullets and explosions alike. This leads to events such occupants of vehicles such as military trucks being shot through the canvas, tanks being disabled after one hit because the shell penetrated and killed the crew, and even helicopter pilots being shot through the windshield of their aircraft.

* Averting this tropes paves the [[AttackItsWeakPoint way]] to defeat the final boss of both the NES ''BionicCommando'' and ''Rearmed''.
* Averted HARD in recent combat flight sims such as ''{{Il-2Sturmovik}}'', where pilots can and will be wounded if not outright killed, and an ace's kill count will most likely have a significant portion of that consist of pilot kills. In WWI-era sims like Red Baron 3D and Rise of Flight, the typical advice is to "aim for meat or metal"-the pilot and engine, respectively, as hits in other areas would likely just punch through cloth and do relatively little damage.

* Averted in Steve Jackson Games' ''Car Wars'', in which the driver (and passengers, if any) are treated as one of several items which may take weapon damage if a shot gets through the car's armor.

** If you delay driving away for a second or two after entering a car, Nico does an in-car animation of putting on a seatbelt. If you let him do this, he won't be thrown from the vehicle in a crash; if you take off too fast, he skips this part, and he's free to ragdoll over the hood in a head-on. Likewise, if you delay after mounting a bike, he'll pull a helmet from Hammerspace, which lessens the damage taken when he's thrown from a bike.

* Some ''LegendOfZelda'' games have this when Link is on his horse, Epona. SoYeah.

* Averted in the {{OperationFlashpoint}} series, where if you have a habit of running into things while driving, everyone in the vehicle will start to whine about how they're dying and go to Condition Red (Which turns their squad picture red and makes them whine about dying even more).

* '''Crash-proof:''' Where vehicle collision does noting to driver, as long as the vehicle remains intact.
* '''Projectile/environmental-proof:''' Where the vehicle absorbs the whole damage done by bullets/environmental hazards etc. and no damage to driver as long as it remains intact.

* ''GrandTheftAuto'' in its earlier incarnations, unless you were on a motorcycle. In ''GrandTheftAutoIV'' this gets averted with cars as well, you can get thrown from the car if you crash hard enough.

** ''IV'' further averts this trope by letting you get hit by potshots through the window. It ''is'' possible to get "wasted" in your "safe" car if your health is low enough.

* Justified in MassEffect where your vehicle is a military-grade APC which is effortlessly capable of surviving everything from 400 foot drops off mountains to orbital re-entry.
** Although it doesn't justify people inside surviving those impacts.
*** Yes it does! Codex illustrates the idea that a Mass Effect is used to dampen every shock into the thing to no more than a slight nudge.

* ''Night Driver'', released in 1976, brought that kind of invulnerability into first-person perspective.

'''Crash-proof:''' Where vehicle collision does noting to driver, as long as the vehicle remains intact.
'''Projectile/environmental-proof:''' Where the vehicle absorbs the whole damage done by bullets/environmental hazards etc. and no damage to driver as long as it remains intact.