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Comment by kwhitefoot | Hacker News Reader

Why should they stop delivering? Just sell the LHD version. I am currently on holiday in the UK with my LHD Model S. It is not a problem to drive it here. Back home in Norway I drove a RHD drive Volvo 245 Estate for twelve years without any problem at all.

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Except all infrastructure is designed for it? Getting a ticket at the entry of a parking garage is a royal pain if you're on the wrong side of the car.

Also: safety!

> Getting a ticket at the entry of a parking garage is a royal pain

Not in Norway any more, pretty much all of them use number plate recognition.

> Not in Norway any more, pretty much all of them use number plate recognition.

Also on the way in? In Austria you still need to request a ticket on the way in, but it uses number place recognition on the way out. But also you need to pay with the ticket or on the pole on the way out with contactless, which again would be on the wrong side.

Yes on the way in and on the way out. They mostly give three hours free parking so if you are there for less than that you don't have to do anything. If you exceed that you go to a ticket machine, type in your registration number and pay for the extra time before you leave. In fact my favourite one will just send you the bill in the post if you forget, but they will charge small admin fee for that (not a fine). If you remember when you get home you can pay online.

Meh, I drove a LHD car in the UK for 5 years and it really wasn't an issue at all. In car parks you just unclip your seatbelt and reach out, unless you drive some monster truck it's really not a big deal(and I used to park in a multistorey carpark every day so had the routine well practiced).

I'm not saying this is something for everyone, but it's definitely not a deal-breaker.

Also, safety? In what sense? Because of overtaking? It's really not a huge deal - you just don't overtake unless you're absolutely sure you can see what you're doing. Same as in an RHD car.

Parking garages in general are a nightmare in the UK. Last time I was over there I joked that you designed them for horses, because even a smallish rental SUV felt like a F-350 in there

I had a colleague running a rhd Mazda Miata in an lhd country. He would just use some waste pickup tool/pliers to extend his arm and present his parking card at the garage entry or to pay the highway tolls with his credit card.

It is more annoying when you are following a slow truck on a small road and you would like to be able to overtake but can't see it easily. But most people these days aren't comfortable enough to overtake and are willing to wait indefinitely. It seems like shifting down a floor the accelerator pedal is a lost art and it doesn't help that with hybrid cars all cars become automatic. Having driven my mother in law honda automatic SUV, I could just wait a few seconds before the auto gearbox actually decide to shift down.

So not super practical but no big deal either.

The Autocar article [0] says they are going to sell the LHD model in the UK

[0]: https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/tesla-cancels-ri...

They’re unsellable because you probably can’t register them.

For example, you can’t in the state of Victoria: https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/-/media/files/documents/safe...

Because it is fine for a bit, but long term having a LHD vehicle in a RHD country (and vice-versa) is annoying and causes issues. I speak from experience having moved to a LHD country from a RHD country with a RHD vehicle.

I'd assume there are regulations in place that prevent that (outside of small-scale imports, collection cars etc). Otherwise lots of manufacturers would just sell LHD everywhere to make everything much simpler for them.

Nope. There is no such rule, at least not in the UK. There are several manufacturers of exotic cars that only sell LHD versions here because RHD version isn't worth developing. For example Polestar 1 can only be ordered as LHD in the UK, or perhaps more famously, the Bugatti Chiron.

It's only a question of whether your clients want your car so much that they will put up with having the steering wheel on the "wrong" side. Volkswagen can't just start selling an LHD golf here simply because your regular buyer wouldn't buy one, not because the regulations forbid it.

I think UK has different rules because it is physically close to LHD markets, and motorists frequently travel to/from them with their vehicles.

Whereas, in Australia, LHD vehicles are only street legal if they are either (a) historic (> 25 or 30 years old, depending on the state), or (b) you can demonstrate a genuine business need for some kind of highly specialised vehicle which is available only in LHD. There is far less demand for allowing LHD vehicles than in the UK, so the authorities can get away with being more stringent.

Well yes, that makes sense - I know some people who spend a lot of time per year in France/Spain and they actually have UK-registered LHD vehicles because it's more convenient that way.

Either way, about Australia - I came across this article about the Chiron and indeed, it sounds like Bugatti cannot sell it there because it wouldn't be compliant with the rules(but some people have imported them anyway as "special interest vehicles").

https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-advice/bugatti-chiron-price....

About the Bugatti Chiron, per my understanding of Australian law - you can legally import a brand-new one-but you can’t legally drive it on public roads. Well, put it away for 25-30 years, then suddenly it becomes old enough to be street legal. You can drive it on a private road (which legally means a road closed to the public). You can drive it on a racetrack. You can move it around on the back of a truck. You can even get a short-term permit to drive it on the public roads, but only to move it to a new permanent storage location, or to take it to the mechanics. If you are wealthy enough to afford one, you are wealthy enough to deal with all these complexities of owning one in Australia.

The article mentions exception for businesses which have a business need for a vehicle that is only available as LHD - I'm sure an argument can be made that exotic car rental company can only get an LHD Chiron because no RHD version is made, ergo, it should be legal to register for business use. I'd love to know how this was actually done.

I doubt that would work. The bureaucrats who approve the applications would realise it was politically sensitive, and ask their politician bosses, who would say “no”. Australian culture tends to look down on special perks for super-rich people, to a greater extent than British or American culture does (“tall poppy syndrome” maybe), and if what you are talking about happened, the media and opposition politicians would make a lot of noise about it. You’d be more likely to get away with it with an exotic car that was less obscenely expensive.

Some kind of special vehicle for mining/construction/etc, that’s practical, no matter how expensive it may be, nobody is going to view it as a rich person’s toy, so no political gain from condemning its approval.

LHD vehicle is totally allowed here in Japan, minor of people prefer it because it feels like a imported car (especially exotic or US car lovers). Though most buyers prefer RHD (and LHD is deal breaker) because it's reasonable and sane.

How many do you think they would sell? Compared to the confusion of customers reaching the UK website and still finding LHD vehicles.

agreed, they could also teach local shops how to mod and switch the vehicle around.

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