I have no pithy observations on this one, other than to say — god in heaven that’s a big truck.

How big? It’s 224 tons, 24 feet high, and can carry 624 tons. For a sense of scale, note the size of the construction worker standing next to it. It costs $3 million and worldwide demand is only 75 a year. The New Scientist interviewed Francis Bartley, team leader for the company that makes this thing:

What’s it like to drive?

It’s like driving a house. After you’ve been around a lot, it’s not as exciting as if suddenly someone said: “Would you like to drive one?” You’d go crazy in that case! It’s not hard to drive, basically like driving an automatic shift car.

Isn’t it so big you could roll over a car without noticing?
That’s basically true. The first time I was in it at a mine, the driver started to drive away and actually ran into the back of a service truck. It seems we mashed it down to the ground. I saw someone yelling, but we didn’t feel a thing.

(Thanks to the J-Walk Blog for this one!)