Dead State - Design Update - No Cars Go

Brian Mitsoda explains how you will be able to use cars to travel around in and what it will take to get them going in the Dead State:

Getting a car is not as easy as you'd think. Sure, there are cars everywhere, but from a story standpoint, there's a good reason you can't jump in the first car you see. Many cars will have been involved in accidents while trying to escape the cities and are completely unusable. Other cars will have been abandoned with doors opened or headlights on, rendering the battery useless. Some cars will just be too small or fragile to be practical for scavenging purposes. In effect, this means there only a few cars that you're going to find in the game that will be suitable to drive back to the shelter.

Now, you might think that just finding a car is enough, but there's more to it. Before the car can be used on the area map, it's going to need to be transformed into a machine that can withstand the driving conditions of the zombie apocalypse. This is going to require a garage upgrade at your shelter and someone with the Mechanical skill to make these modifications. Once the car is ready for off-road action, the garage can be used to further modify the car (like better fuel efficiency), provided you have the parts and skill to make new additions. Sometimes the car may need routine maintenance to keep it functional, so having someone with the know-how is pretty important.

Cars are obviously much faster than traveling on foot, but at the expense of fuel. Fuel is also used to power the school's generator and in the construction of multiple items (like explosives). Without proper rationing, a fuel shortage could leave the shelter powerless, which could impact Morale. Fuel is also heavy and requires special canisters, so bringing back a lot at once is difficult. The shelter has fuel storage, so you can hold as much fuel in reserve as you can bring back.