Order a Model S or Model X in the UK and you’ll receive a left-hand drive car and a bonus grabbing stick.

  • Shialac@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Tesla is such a joke of a company lmao, cant understand why there are still people fanboying over it

    • Funwayguy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That basically sums up everything that comes out of the emerald baby’s fanciful brain farts. A walking joke that has gone on so long that the sad manchild has to do ever more expensive corporate stunts mixed with decade-old cringe humour to stay relevant. After all the shit he’s pulled lately, I’m not even surprised any more.

  • someguy3
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    1 year ago

    Um is it legal to have the wrong side drive vehicle? In the US you have only have right side drive if it’s a certain age, ie a collectible.

    Btw the article doesn’t say they think it’s a good idea, it’s more of a joke.

    • Robocopsicle@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I could be wrong, but I don’t think the 25-year import rule in the US has anything to do with what side drive the car is. It was a law passed in the 80s to shut down gray market imported cars. Importers would buy cars from countries where they sold for much cheaper than the US and then resell them for way less than official dealerships.

      The law would’ve been targeting left-hand-drive vehicles, so the right-hand-drive stuff is just a byproduct of it. I mean, the US government had all of its postal service trucks built to be right hand drive.

      • XeroxCool@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The issue was also heavily lobbied by Mercedes. It wasn’t about profit loss, it was about people importing base and utilitarian Mercedes vehicles. Think cloth seat sedans and offroad unimogs. Mercedes fought this imports in order to uphold their prestige as a luxury manufactuer. They refused to import those things

      • Zanz@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The dot safety rule is 15 years. Assuming the emissions are the same you could import a right hand at 15 years. You can however order right hand drive cars like jeeps, commercial vans, and other cars used for deliveries.

      • someguy3
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        1 year ago

        Oh I don’t know, but it’s a good effect. But postal vehicles have a specific need for that.

    • SomeoneElse@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s legal. Before brexit it wasn’t uncommon to see French vehicles on British roads - most of Europe drive on the right after all.

      • omgnvq@feddit.nl
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        1 year ago

        Even after Brexit you are of course allowed to travel to the UK with a European car. This is still not uncommon lol

        • SomeoneElse@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          For sure. I just meant that as we’re part of Europe, had open borders, and are connected to the continent by the Eurostar, is wasn’t at all uncommon to see European cars/number plates on British roads, and the vast majority were right hand drive. I’ve never seen an American number plate however, just as I imagine an American wouldn’t be used to seeing a British or French number plate on a Renault Clio in America, regardless of whether it was LHD or RHD.

  • jk47@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s not just things like reaching for ticket machines, anyone who’s taken their car to a country on the other side of the road knows how disconcerting it is to drive. Oncoming traffic is now in the far side of your vehicle which just makes it less comfortable to drive. You get used to it of course, but it’s never the same as driving on the correct side. No RHD is an absolute deal breaker for many UK drivers in sure

  • 🇰 🔵 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Hold up… Why are they not making them with the proper configuration though? I used to work at Tesla’s Fremont plant and part of what I did required slightly different work depending on if the current thing on the line was supposed to be left or right-hand drive.

    • Kanzar@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Just not making them at all anymore. The few countries that are RHD aren’t big enough markets for them to bother making the S and X for them anymore. We here in AUS are stuck with just the 3 and Y now, and any existing S and X models.

      • It just doesn’t make sense not to make them when it literally was the same process to make a RHD as a LHD vehicle. It doesn’t cost extra money or use extra parts. It’s just “oh this part goes on this side instead of this side.”

        If they stopped making them entirely, it’s more than likely out of spite than any other reason.

        • Kanzar@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I dunno, there’s retooling a factory as well as team training for QC, and surely some parts would differ as it would be mirrored.

  • dangt88@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    Wow. I wonder if anyone will actually accept that. I guess other markets with right-hand-drive like Japan, Hong Kong will get the same deal.

    • MolvanianDentist@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      They’ve stopped selling the Model X and S entirely in Australia, rather than providing the option of LHD vehicles like in the UK. Though if I was hypothetically in the market for these vehicles, I’d rather not buy one than have inconveniences that a grab stick is meant to help with…

  • mystic@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Tesla has plans to start production in India soon. I wonder how they’ll cope up in India which also predominantly has left hand drive.

    • pixelpusher220@readit.buzz
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      1 year ago

      The long tail of global colonialism ;-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-_and_right-hand_traffic

      Also, while not entirely accurate, an even older history, ahem, driving, the modern world http://www.astrodigital.org/space/stshorse.html

      Without India I suspect Driving on the Left would be relegated to history books by simple economics.

      Though with EVs a lot of the production costs of doing both could be eliminated.

        • pixelpusher220@readit.buzz
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          1 year ago

          Yes that’s true. Most of the Left Hand drive world is former British colonial. Except for the population size of India, the vast majority of the world drives on the Right. If a company wants to produce vehicles, do you incur the expense of an entirely separate build process for a small minority of the population? Some might but most would pick the majority and build for that.

        • jonne@infosec.pub
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          1 year ago

          And doesn’t make cars any more. If it became increasingly prohibitive to source LHD vehicles, I’m sure they’d decide to switch around.

  • BaldDude@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Well … at least it’s … well it’s something

    i guess thats better than nothing … apart from the negative press they are getting.

    Well at least it’s cheaper than keeping an LHD option!