this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2023
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Even the Tesla Cybertruck's Brake Lights Don't Make Sense::Brake lights shouldn't be confusing, but Tesla's determined to be different with the Cybertruck, for better or worse.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Ok call me crazy but wouldn't the requirements be written in law? I'd expect in many countries it simply wouldn't be able to be sold.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 year ago (2 children)

From the article

The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards regulate taillight design, mandating minimum area, placement, quantity, and visibility according to vehicle category, dimensions, and weight. However, the FMVSS does not appear to prohibit deactivating taillights during braking, so the Cybertruck's taillights as seen here seem to be legal—even if they are perplexing, and potentially dangerous.

I still can barely believe this thing is real, and not something out of a bad 90s movie where video game characters come into the real world.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I was more meaning in a wider sense. A car manufacturer who can't sell their cars outside the US is shooting themselves in the foot.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

Isn’t that kinda his specialty these days?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Manufacturers usually have separate models, a standard one for the whole world and a cut down version to save cost for the US

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It's not "common" at all for US cars to have a lesser model. I can think of 1 popular model off the top of my head.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

No it is pretty common, especially when it comes to safety features.

The EU has stricter requirements especially stuff like lights, and you see European models often fitted with extra lights to comply with the regulations.

Technology connections has an old video on this regarding brake lights and turn signals at least https://youtu.be/O1lZ9n2bxWA?si=h5I-5_BMLoFEoj1k

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

🙄👌👍 having different LEDs is a cut down model. 👍

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It sure is, significant cost savings to only stock one part rather than two. Multiply that by thousands of service centers and millions of vehicles

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not having distinct brake and turning lights is

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I can. Look at that weird VR thing Facebook tried. No one says no to these people the result is they just go with any sci-fi movie they liked.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

As with most laws, first someone has to do something really stupid for others to say “we should probably write this down in the rule book and not allow others to do this.”

Elon and his designers are basically doing things that other car designers aren’t dumb enough to do.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But there are countries all around the world. You can find yourself a loophole in one country but then you can't sell your car in all the countries that loophole doesn't exist

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Let me introduce you to Elon musk...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

But they've been doing the same dumb shit with brake and turn signals for decades and no one has done anything about it. They'll have one set for Europe to comply with local regulations and then design and engineer a whole other set for the US just to have the wrong colors.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes they need to be separate lights and yellow here in NZ. We mostly follow japan's car safety rules so probably the same in many countries

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Yellow? Brake lights are red, reversing lights white (which could be considered yellow).

Edit: I'm seriously confused with the downvotes. I live in NZ, and have never heard of yellow brake lights. The requirement is that they are red. Did I miss something?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Most of the world mandates 3 colors in rear — red for brakes, amber for turn, white for reverse, and often there are additional distinct red lights to differentiate between night lights and night braking.

You're correct about that, OP was talking about the turn signals.

In the US the turn signals in rear can/must be red (depends on state) and can even be the same light serving multiple purposes (turn, brake, night position, night brake).

I'm not really sure how it works if you need to do 3 of those at the same time (brake at night with the turn signal on)...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah that got me very confused. The post is specifically about the brake lights, and they didn't specify they were talking about something else. It's not hard to confuse me, though.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

and turn indicators are yellow/orange

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Sorry, brake red, indicators yellow. In the US a lot of the indicators are red too.