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.

They are generally run on electric engines drawing power from on-board batteries or nuclear powered with a small reactor to the rear of the vehicle, but vehicles running on petrol also exist. The super mutant army is also said to have used some "steam-powered trucks". There are numerous wrecked vehicles in the Fallout world, but functioning vehicles are now extremely rare.

Background
The Resource Wars were fought mainly for resources, leading up to the climax of the Great War. The last resources remaining were probably depleted in the war itself. Without resources, many vehicles couldn't be driven anymore, though some managed to cannibalize and salvage their way through. After the war, a lot of human knowledge was lost. People forgot how to tend to the high tech pre-War vehicles with their complicated electrical, oil or nuclear motors. Most books were damaged beyond all legibility by the war and many computers were destroyed due to years of neglect, and with them the documentation for these pre-War vehicles was lost. This combined with the lack of large scale primary and secondary industry meant most vehicle production/repair was largely impossible.

This does not mean that there are no old vehicles that have been kept functional or that someone out in the wastes could not have invented and adapted their own vehicles, but such instances are extremely rare outside of technologically advanced groups. (i.e. groups that have overcome the struggle for basic survival and can put resources towards researching old/new technologies) The current theoretical ratio of working cars is 1 for every 200 people.

By the 2240s, the New California Republic had managed to create a mechanized vehicle division. That being said, most cars one could find in the wasteland would be simple farming vehicles, such as taxis, buses, tractors, snowplows, and the odd construction vehicle. Most in the New California region would be glad to get their hands on them or create an infrastructure that accommodates such transport methods. 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."''

By 2281, the NCR had managed to rebuild a small amount of the infrastructure around the New Vegas area, specifically in train usage, as well as expanding its militarized divisions, though its not unheard of for an average citizen to own a vehicle.

Behind the scenes
A nuclear-powered car was designed in the 1950s, called the Ford Nucleon, but never made it into the prototype phase.