Is a parachute a vehicle?

No.

My intuition is to say that a parachute is not a vehicle. I'm sure most people would agree with me here. However, if we go in and look a little deeper at the question, it seems like this question is a little more loaded than one may have first thought.

First of all: we must have a clear cut definition of a vehicle to know if a parachute counts.

I have been thinking for a while about this and I have come up with a few requirements for something to be considered a vehicle.

a healthy person looking at you from their vehicle

To be a vehicle, something must

• be able to get a person or cargo from a clearly defined Point A to a clearly defined Point B
• be at least partially human controlled
• a self-driving car can still be human controlled, so it is still a vehicle
• reduce the necessity of a basic unaided human movement
• a basic unaided human movement is something like walking, running, swimming, or climbing. Something that a human can do with nothing but their own bodies

From here, it is possible to make some deductions as to what does not count as a vehicle.

• Any sort of unmoving object (cannot get anything from Point A to Point B)
• A bottle in a stream (a human cannot control where the bottle goes)
• Moon shoes (you can walk and jump without them)
• Pogo sticks (you can jump without them)
• Stilts (you can walk without them)
• Shoes (you can walk without them)

Now that we have a strong definition of a vehicle, we can see if a parachute stacks up.

Does a parachute get a person from Point A to Point B?

• not inherently, although you can still aim yourself with a parachute better than you could without one, so I'll say it does

Is a parachute at least partly human controlled?

• a human cannot control a parachute if it is attached to cargo, but if the parachute is holding a human, the human does have a bit of control over when to release the parachute and where they direct their fall

Does a parachute reduce the necessity of a basic unaided human movement?

• a human being is capable of falling with nothing but their own body, so a parachute is not necessary to get from Point A to Point B. This does not mean that you will survive, but a parachute is more similar to a harness when mountain climbing than a car when driving.

AH! LOOK OUT! YOU'RE ABOUT TO FLY INTO THE SUN!

Is a parachute a vehicle? No. Does this matter? Not really. A man-made object doesn't fall into a completely arbitrary man-made category of other man-made objects.

Peace
- Kini