Even the Tesla Cybertruck's Brake Lights Don't Make Sense | Hacker News Reader

Even the Tesla Cybertruck's Brake Lights Don't Make Sense

thedrive.com

23 pointsEA-316720 comments

This is my favorite bad lighting decision: https://www.carscoops.com/2021/09/left-no-the-other-left-min...

Turn signals that point the opposite direction of your intent.

I knew what it was gonna be before I clicked! It’s such a bad design it almost has to be a troll

Red turning signals on many cars here in the U.S. don't make much sense either. Turn signals that animate in the wrong direction? Halves of the U.K. flags pointing to wrong side used as turn signals on Minis?

This is just another example of idiotic design. Nothing will change unless it's regulated. Good luck with that!

/rant

Hah, from what I remember the problem with the Minis was that regulation forced their hand. Other countries don't have that issue. See the hn discussion on that topic [0].

[0] "Congratulations, Mini, you made the stupidest turn signals ever"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28661282

I saw one of those Minis in real life for the first time the other day. My jaw still hasn't recovered fully from hitting the floor. What in the world were those people thinking?

This is one example of many more to come. Given what we have seen on X.com, I suspect Musk had a lot of input on the design of the Cybertruck, much of it spur of the moment with out much research. I wish all the version 1 beta owners much luck.

Good luck with that in Europe.

It's already illegal in CA, and I can't imagine laws in other states being significantly different. (let's ignore the idiocy of allowing red indicator lights in the US)

California vehicle code (VEH 25251.5.7(a)) has an interesting inclusion of strobing yellow center light proportional to brake force.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio....

What I think is absurd is red, yellow, and/or blue flashing lights except for emergency vehicles on or conveying to an emergency. Throughout the South US, maintenance vehicles flash zillions of lights creating visual distractions and flasher fatigue.

It is already over 8000lbs, which is 3,6 tones so most people with B driving license can't drive it because it has limit on 3,5 tones vehicles

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/24/business/tesla-cybertruck...

https://www.fleeteurope.com/en/new-energies/europe/features/....

> Since 2018, a temporary derogation by the European Commission has allowed EU Member States to give a dispensation to drivers with a B licence that allows them to drive a vehicle of up to 4.25 tonnes, so long as it is powered by batteries or hydrogen fuel cells.

Why stop at 4.25 tonnes ? Sky is the limit. /s

It will be fun when parking places and roads will start to collapse.

That’s a feature not a bug. In Seattle cars are a lot cheaper off they weigh 6k lb or more as they are tax exempt

CHP should just pull them over for faulty lighting, as this seems a direct violation of CA vehicle codes:

Section 24602: (f) All stoplamps shall be plainly visible and understandable from a distance of 300 feet... (g) Stoplamps shall be activated upon application of the service (foot) brake and the hand control head for air, vacuum, or electric brakes.

Turning off a light is not activating it.

This is so egregious I'm going to assume that this one is actually just has faulty constructing as that seems more plausible.

The full width red bar is not a stoplamp. The three (brighter) lights that activate on braking are stoplamps. No violation of code.

You have a full width red light, that you turn off when braking, in the vague hope the small red lights in the corner show up more. Which they don't: I had to watch the video multiple times to actually understand the behaviour.

So they fail the first part of the CA vehicle code that requires that the stop lights be understandable.

But if you watch the video you see another violation: CA requires three stop lights for the overwhelming majority of cars, but while watching this video you can see only one stop light is shown, which is a third of the legal requirements for a modern car, and half the requirements from one 50 years old. You might try to say "well the other light is currently a signal" but the law does not say you can have a union of the correct set of lights. You must have all of them. So if you lose a stop light when the indicator is on your car is not compliant.

But again, this is all dumb detail though, the CA vehicle code says - before other specific regulation - that the stop lights must be configured in a clear and understandable way, and this is clearly stupid and not understandable without knowing the exact idiocy of the truck.

If you were up close to that in a low car it may make the window break light hard to see. How high is the cybertruck?

Who is this truck for? A lot of pickup fanatics are anti EV. The tech bros who want this thing has no practical use. It is a flaunt mobile, it symbolizes everything I don’t like about Elon Musk.

Idc what distinguished European artist designed that thing, it is uuugly.

I passionately wanted one when it was unveiled. I have a really low reservation number.

But I no longer have any intent to buy it. It's exactly like you said. Originally thought it was clever and cool, turns out it's a psychopaths delusional fantasy. Nothing about it makes any sense. And now he's talking about production hell when its design was flaunted as evading all of that.

I am highly skeptical it was ever intended for production but was supposed to be a publicity stunt and then they'd unveil their "backup" design -- but you can't do that when everyone actually gushed over it

I'm planning to spite cancel when he officially jacks up the price.

It will be fun to show off if you get the first order but after the first year of production it will be the the new pt cruiser

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