Vehicle

Vehicles are devices that are designed or used to transport people or cargo from one point to another. Vehicles span a variety of categories, including cars, trucks, airplanes, and trains.

Background
Before the war, vehicles used fuel sources such as steam, batteries, fusion, and petrol. After the invention of the Microfusion cell, many nuclear-powered vehicles appeared on the market. Pre-atomic diesel/gasoline vehicles were also present, and corporations such as Red Rocket took the opportunity to appeal to those that still drove these vehicles by offering both diesel and gas.

Characteristics
After the war, aircraft known as vertibirds were used by various post-War factions including the Enclave, New California Republic, and Brotherhood of Steel. An airship called the Prydwen was built and utilized by the Brotherhood as well, which served as a docking station for vertibirds. In 2281, the NCR utilized locomotives in the New Vegas area for transporting construction materials.

A wide variety of wrecked vehicles can be found throughout the wastelands, and these vehicles are utilized for building materials and fortifications. A few functional automobiles exist around New California especially military trucks. In Appalachia, in the immediate aftermath of the War vehicles were still used by survivors, with a raider gang that was based in the Abandoned Bog Town using trucks during their raids, and more recently members of the Free Radicals have attempted to repair pre-War vehicles, but only automated vehicles such as cargobots and Vertibots are seen to be operational.

Behind the scenes
According to Fallout Bible 5, the theoretical ratio of working cars is 1 for every 200 people. In Fallout Bible 6, vehicles exist in New California, despite not being seen in-game.Fallout Bible 6: "6. Last update, you said there were 1/200 cars/people ration in the NCR. If there were so many working cars in NCR, where were they? They're there. It's game logic. You don't see them for the same reason NCR is only three maps, only has 1 councilor/senator, and only about 40-50 people in its city limits. That's why the Chop Shop in Reno exists, why the bum outside of NCR offers to watch a car for you before you show up in one, and a reason that NCR built a garage in Shady Sands. ''So to explain "game logic" in this instance, there's nothing precious about building a car of your own if you can steal one – or if somebody else in town has one. Or in the words of one designer (me), "there's no good reason why a PC would want to undertake a fucking huge Fed Ex quest to rebuild one if they can jack one from the locals." The last part is especially true considering town-wide mass murder is possible in both Fallout 1 and 2.'' ''And before you get the image of tanks and jeeps flying around everywhere with heavy machine guns mounted on the back, most of that junk is old tractors and crap like taxis, old buses, snowplows, and even old construction equipment. It's possible that mysterious old steam-truck mentioned in the bowels of the F1 data archive is still lumbering around somewhere. The caravan houses of the Hub, in particular, around the time in Fallout 2, have been looking to further its trade influence, and new vehicles (and types of transport, such as trains, boats, or barges) have been eagerly sought after for carrying large amounts of trade goods vast distances. Good ol' human greed will move mountains. Or at least rebuild things that can. Once they learn of the Enclave's presence in the North, they are likely to have huge bounties promised for Vertibird plans - or better, a working Vertibird."''