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] 155 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Wow, what a dumb design. It actually looks less like it's braking with the brake lights on.

It's also got the whole brake light and turn signal are the same light thing I hate too. Just keep them separate lights with a yellow light for the turn signal.

[–] [email protected] 78 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I don't get how that's legal in some parts of the world.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (4 children)

American manufacturing don't want to have to change anything in their production lines so most American cars have only a red taillight that flashes the same bulk for brakes and turn signal.

It is lazy and unsafe but it would probably cost a few pennies to have an orange turn signal light so it is more profit not to do it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Meanwhile every nice car out there has a $1000 LED for branding. It has little to do with cost and more to do with manufacturers using lights for style and branding. Folks are very happy to spend more on nice looking LEDs.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thankfully it's changing a bit. I've noticed that newer Ford and Dodge full sized pickups use amber turn signals. I assume that these vehicles don't sell very well in places that require amber turn signals (Europe).

Meanwhile, VW, Audi, BMW, Land Rover, and Mercedes all modify their amber European turn signals to red to sell in the US. For some reason, they go out of their way to make 2 parts instead of 1 for many of their models.

I think it's a styling thing rather than a cost thing now. Back when taillights in the US were a single bulb on each side, cost was a driving factor. Now with complex LED taillights, I think it's something else keeping amber out of our indicators.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago

Mixed brake and turn signals are not legal in several EU countries.

It's been an issue with imported Jeep Wrangler US models, which run afoul not only of not having separate brake and turn lights but also not meeting spec about minimum surface of brake lights.

Some people were skirting around the regulations by registering them as off-road vehicles but those have to meet specific criteria (such as not being used primarily as a cool ride in the middle of an urban area...)

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Specially in say foggy conditions and little bit distance. At which point you won't clearly maybe differentiate individual elements and more like that's the rear and "block of light in middle, left and right". At which point it all little blending one might infact be under impression "the light intensity lowered at the rear, huh, not braking then, did they have they parking break dragging they released or something.... ohhhjj shuiiiiiit no it is braking hard".

My two cents from here north of Europe and land of snow, rain, fog and occasional white out conditions.

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[–] [email protected] 88 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Someone actually bought this n64 piece of shit?

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago (1 children)

N64 had more polygons than that. This thing is more like a virtualboy game, and it gives you a migraine when you look at it just like virtualboy.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

A now ex-colleague pre-ordered straight away. It came up during a lunch discussion where he was convinced Teslas (which he owned) were at a more advanced self-driving class (3 or 4 versus the actual 2).

Some people really drank the Musk Coolaid and that was back before he went full-on alt-right troll.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It totally reminds me of playing Deathtrack on my 1989 PC. Especially Preying Menace's car... Preying Menace's car

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It should come with an expansion pack to get rid of the sharp edges

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[–] [email protected] 76 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Still can't believe this made it to production

Homer Simpson ass lookin car

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Homer Simpson at least had the intent of making a car that would meet the needs of his imagined consumer. I don't know who the hell this truck was designed for.

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 1 year ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That looks like a shitty future car mock-up for a late 80’s future/action movie. Like Robocop or an Arnold movie 🤣 Only Elon would fund something this unappealing.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Much like naming a company "X"

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

Maybe he's hoping people will start calling him the X-man.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It looks like something RIGHT out of Robocop, which is funny because the stupid fucking cars was actually a point of satire in that movie.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 year ago (5 children)

everything about this truck is ugly, and fucked up. Just scrap it and start over.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I'm convinced that Elon himself drew a shitty sketch for the truck on a napkin and said "make it exactly how I drew it!" and they did unfortunately.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'm convinced it's worse than that. I think he originally drew this thing when he was six years old and is so impressed with himself that he thought it was pure genius then and now.

It was also at that time that he became obsessed with the letter X because he loved pirates and treasure maps.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It looks like an uglier version of the Aztec, and that's really saying something

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago (9 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 (8 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?

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[–] [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...

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There's a video in the article and... oof, that's good to know in case I end up behind one. It's definitely a bit confusing and likely won't alert distracted drivers because the red light is always present. (Not that drivers should be distracted on the road, but it happens often.)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

We'll turn off the lights off to show just the brake lights! Brilliant!

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It must "look like the future"...

I guess, if you are stuck thinking the 80's are the future.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

The Huyndai N vision 74 looks like the future, and it looks amazing.

The Cybertruck just looks like a bad Playstation 1 game model.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

I mean, it also looks like "80's future" aesthetics but unlike the cybertruck, it does looks amazing

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If you take the wing and ground effects off, it looks like a 30 year old Toyota Supra.

I don't know if I'd call that "futuristic".

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

The future as imagined in the 80's

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

This is what happens when you think you're smarter than decades of lessons in vehicle safety design. Elon Musk is truly a dumb person's idea of a smart person.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You'd have to be a moron to buy one of these things at this point.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (6 children)

honestly, if you even buy an Elonmobile these days, it's kind of embarrassing... people will make fun of you behind your back now because of it and weird Elon bros will approach you. I had so many middle aged Elon bros come up to me and peddle crypto to me while I was charging, it's crazy. you really really have to be a super moron Elon fan to buy one today

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (3 children)

They say they have a million preorders…

I ordered a Tesla S way back in the day when it was a 6 month wait. I had to put down a $2000 deposit. But I got it all back when I cancelled the order a few months later.

So I have to wonder what those million preorders actually mean. Because boy howdy people are going to have some fucking buyer’s remorse once these eyesores start shipping.

They make the Pontiac Aztec look good. And that’s saying something!

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That is insane. The "brake lights" are effectively just the regular tail lights turning OFF and being replaced with smaller less bright lights. That is stupid.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=U0YW7x9U5TQ

Honestly all of Technology Connections' videos on brake lights, but this is the newest. Also, I would give y'all a Piped link but you should have an auto redirect setup anyway (and there is that lovely bot).

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://piped.video/watch?v=U0YW7x9U5TQ

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Hey, I found the driver!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

I legit didn't think this thing was real.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not the biggest fan of modern car desing in the first place, but these unibrow head- and tail lights are definitely among what I take the most issue with. I'm not sure if I've seen one car on which they look good. Not that it really concerns me as someone driving only +10 year old vehicles but if by some miracle I aquired one of these the first thing I would to is to lift the tailgate and hood and cut the wires to these lights only leaving the ones in the corners.

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