I'm slightly surprised that a left hand drive car can be homologation and sold as a "UK Market" car. I thought only single vehicle imports and very specialist vehicles such as road sweepers could be left hand drive. As well as the steering wheel being on the wrong side, there will need to be other adjustments (headlamps, speedometer etc.) for UK use.

Given how unpleasant it is to drive a car where the steering wheel is on the wrong side for the road, I can't imagine many will sell here any more. Its not just the UK affected through - about a third of the world's population live in countries which drive on the left, so it's a fair number of possible customers they are excluding.

Why doesn't Tesla make the steering & pedals configurable?

Considering things are now fly-by-wire technology, it should be simple enough to design so that you can take steering and pedals out and move fit to other side with simple screw driver.

The dashboard aka giant iPad already on the middle so nothing to change there.

PS: Model 3 & Y will be still available as RHD.

It's a typical blinkered view by the US car industry - GM's failure to consider RHD when developing the Insignia meant that the high performance versions weren't available in UK & Australia - their engineers "forgot" and put the turbo where the RHD steering column needed to go.

Why doesn't Tesla make the steering & pedals configurable?

Considering things are now fly-by-wire technology, it should be simple enough to design so that you can take steering and pedals out and move fit to other side with simple screw driver.

The dashboard aka giant iPad already on the middle so nothing to change there.

I remember reading about the Variopilot feature available in some Mercedes Unimog models. It enables the owner to change it from LHD to RHD and vice versa, very quickly!. And that was back in the early-mid 2000's.

Steering and brakes tend to be physical controls and need space in the right places. Other items - information screens and many other switches can be drive by wire.

A key goal (I assume) is to minimise space used for mechanical and electrical systems and maximise the space available to occupants. This saves weight and cost. Having a design which allows simple L/RHD conversion consumes volume.

Other components usually in the dash area and may need moving to swap from L to RHD:

• heater matrix and related motors and vents
• wiper motor
• glove box
• windscreen washer bottle and motor
• ECU's

The loads from the steering column may mean that fundamental structural changes need to be made to swap the steering gear to the other side. Location and design of the motor may be impacted.

The killer figure is that ~80-85% of global sales are LHD. India (RHD country) has a large population but relatively low car ownership.

I have little time for Elon Musk who seems an egotistical and arrogant individual, But if he wants to optimise design for LHD and eliminate REHD sales that is his choice.

Most of these ideas have been patented by Volvo

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-8834541/Volvo-patents-sliding-steering-wheel-moves-dashboard.html

Most of these ideas have been patented by Volvo

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-8834541/Volvo-patents-sliding-steering-wheel-moves-dashboard.html

I'm awaiting the EVs that can be 'driven' like you can a 'car racing game' on a console or mobile phone by moving said item like a steering wheel and the movement sensors knowing/ guessing what that means. That would certainly be 'interesting' being a passenger...lots of accidents I suppose!

Saab did try out joysticks instead of steering wheels on a couple of prototypes. They were in mounted in the centre console rather than where the steering wheel would have been.

That would be very weird methinks!

I'm a bit surprised that Tesla is ceasing production of RHD Model S and X. I know the smaller Model 3 and Y are much more popular here and so the market for the bigger cars is small, but they've already been making RHD versions of the bigger cars for years.

Of course, the RHD market globally is not just the UK and Ireland, but includes Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan and India. Maybe the pull-out is just temporary.

Re. drive-by-wire. Wasn't it the case here, under C and U regulations, that all motor vehicles designed for road use had to have a mechanical steering linkage of some sort, as with power-assisted steering, that would still work if the assistance failed? This meant that electric or hydraulic joystick type controls were not allowed.

Edited by Sofa Spud on 16/05/2023 at 09:54