Tesla gives UK owners grabbing stick after forcing them to get left-hand-drive
electrek.co
electrek.co
Yeah it might be a ball ache to design a car that supports both driving styles, but all brands with global reach have to deal with it.
The grabbing stick is equivalent to being told "fuck you for living in one of those countries, deal with it." Terrible idea.
Agree the grabbing stick is a joke though.
I wonder how many people commenting here thinks this applies to all Teslas and not just the S and X?
I've driven some really rural narrow roads in my Range Rover and have never encountered a bridge or road I can't use... would be keen to read a source on that bridges thing as it's completely new to me and is failing my sniff test.
However if you stand at the Albert Bridge (which is the one you meant with that width restrictions) you'll see tonnes of LR and RR going through which are wider than that as well as Sprinter vans which are about the same as the X... I can only assume the police take the view that if you fit through the width restriction (which must have some leeway on them as bigger LRs are about 81") they won't bother you...?
2. Teslas are not built in the UK, between the import duties from brexit and the extra strong recession from brexit, I wouldn’t assume it’s a huge market for tesla
3. Same as japan, where teslas are status symbols for people with a lot of money, they sell low-mid thousands a year, which is less than they sell in Norway (a country with 1/20th the population) in a month.
That leaves australia, I’ve no idea what the EV market is over there. Though I would assume range anxiety is pretty major concern, SA, NT, and most of WA (and QLD outside of the coast) seem to have very little coverage on anything but 3-phase in caravan parks.
There is almost never a dearth of people with money. The median income is more telling about the state of a nation.
Don't get me wrong, I'm as remain as the next guy, but it does get a bit hysterical sometimes.
You should've read the article:
> The automaker decided to stop selling Model S and Model X vehicles altogether in some smaller left-hand-drive markets, like Australia, Singapore, and Thailand, and started offering right-hand-drive vehicles in bigger markets, like in the UK.
It's a "bigger market" for them, and not so small they could write it off completely.
That said, I'm more interested in why it's not illegal to intentionally sell brand new cars with the wrong handedness, in any country. There are several manoeuvres that become dangerous when you can't see properly due to being on the wrong side of the car.
And a physical one.
I reckon because cars are a very popular hobby, especially if you're rich and you really want to have a car which is made for another market. I don't think there's anything wrong with that: it's more dangerous, but they make up such a small percentage of cars on the road that it's not worth spending legislative and political capital on.
Just bite the bullet, switch, feel the pain, but then, feel that sweet sweet relieve.
The damn things have fat arses and I hate driving behind them - they fall in to some kind of uncanny valley size wise.
https://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1605256/tesla-model-x-model-...
I guess the limiting factor is more the size of typical parking spaces, garages and so on. But still, there is an undeniable trend of cars getting "fatter" in Europe too. SUVs are currently the best-selling category. Ok, these are more "compact" SUVs rather than the "tank-type" ones, but still bigger (especially higher, which is bad for collisions with pedestrians, most of all children) than other categories.
There is a tunnel from UK to France, would be weird if only British cars would be allowed to use it :P
To pass anybody, you have to take the whole of the car out from behind the car in front of you to see whether it's safe enough to pass, instead of the normal 'just enough across for the driver to see ahead'.
Well, you don't have to. I agree with you that taking the whole car out would be very dangerous.
But in many circumstances, you could take the car in (closer to the side of the road) and look ahead on the other side of the car you want to pass. Of course this requires either a long straight line stretch or a long and mild inside turn. And not much traffic.
Fwiw, I would also not drive a car with the wheel on the wrong side of it can be at all helped.
The Sacoolas fiasco is famous because she was protected by the US government because she's a CIA asset, while they should have put her arse in jail.
With cost-cutting and margin improvement driving everything at Tesla now, it makes sense they’d discontinue the expensive special configurations of the niche models.
There are many other amazing luxury EVs nowadays if you are into flexing.
I suspect that already the fact that you drove on the other side for your whole life must mess with you. I certainly wouldn't dream of trying to drive in the UK, but I am the elusive below-average driver anyway.
I am not even sure why, probably can be filed under the nebulous "cultural pecularities" category, or there are some historic reasons.
Most countries will allow cars from the opposite driving side but you’ll pay for it with your insurance premiums.
I’m also baffled they haven’t switched one plant to make right hand drive cars at least part time yet. I know the list of countries is small, but most of them are fairly wealthy. If they have so much profit margin, it should have been possible to retool a few interior pieces after a decade.
there was a court-case against poland and lithuania, and according to that, the countries could not prove that traffic safety was affected.
but apparently, it is also no problem to import and register these cars in the US. japan or australia also seem to allow right-side cars with a local registration, so not allowing that seems to be the exception rather than the norm.
If they are going to continue writing about cars they really need to clear up the difference between left/right hand drive and driving on the left/right of the road.
As an aside, The Onions video social media nowadays is on fire - they play the serious delivery of stupid stories far too well.
At least if you reserve it and cancel as a consumer, you lose your deposit. Weird if they can do it with no financial consequences but not you.
The title is dishonest, Tesla hasn't forced anyone into a wrong-sided car.
Unless they deliver an LHD instead of an RHD without asking, it's "RHD is discontinued and there is only an LHD."
... but I guess that would have negated the slim savings from throwing out the right hand drive option.
... and I fully expect there will be TikTok/Youtube videos appearing over the next weeks of people trying to do all of the above (and more) with this grabbing stick.
They're a company that mostly makes cars, sure, but they (and investors) clearly view themselves as something else.
For example the EV Hummer so so heavy you can't drive it with a regular license nor can you drive it in many places. The cyber truck will probably also not be approved in Europe.