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Comment by cevn | Hacker News Reader

Yea the Tesla brakes work exactly how you would want. As soon as you start decelerating, even w/ regen, the lights kick in. Not sure how Hyundai messed it up after having an example..

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Hyundai/Kia will do the minimum necessary to comply with the local laws.

Interesting, would seem more efficient to comply with as many laws as possible that don't clash and have one configuration, only tweaking for local oddities.

I have a complaint about Tesla on this one. In Europe they ship vastly better tail lights with a different color for turn signals. As I understand, the superior signals are acceptable, though not preferred, by US standards. But Tesla makes a separate, different, worse part to use in the US, rather than giving us the good stuff also and reducing their manufacturing variation.

As an European I always wondered about why in the US they have red turn signals. It seems...odd, so to speak?

Suburban and Americans aren't so good at living with the level of aggression that city driving requires, and so prefer having clearly delineated left turn time to something perceived as fighting in traffic.

It’s cheaper (or was) - early cars had one red light on each side and could blink it for a turn signal, but it was also the brake.

Later a second light was added for the taillight but they did it in the same bulb.

Thanks for the explanation! It still seems odd to me that it hasn't been regulated somehow, having 2 different colors for 2 different actions is safer.

It's a pattern for Hyundai/Kia. The whole thing with "no anti-theft immobilizers" is only where it's not mandated.

Their business is shaving pennies, hence why they didn't install immobilizers in states that didn't require them, in order to save a few bucks per car.

My 2020 Bolt does the right thing also. I only wish the lights would stay on while I'm stopped at a light but that's minor.

Do you not hold the brake when you are stopped? I know electric cars don't have to creep like an automatic ICE, but I drive stick and still hold the brake at a stop because not randomly drifting forward or backward is safer and it also is important in the rare case of getting rear ended

I don't know about GM, but in a Tesla, if you have 1-pedal driving enabled, then it automatically holds the brake. And the brake lights stay on.

> I know electric cars don't have to creep like an automatic ICE

They don't have to, but funny enough, it's an option in a Tesla. My wife uses it simply because it's what she's used to.

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