Another Tesla fire, this time while supercharging

[zapta]

Exactly. Inspections cost $10/yr in my state.

If time and inconvenience are free and the enforcement doesn't cause you to fix stuff with insignificant safety return, than, maybe it's just $10, but then, if it's not justified, why to force free people to waste $10 in the first place?

Back to square 1, it needs to have a significant return.

[CatalinaWOW]

You know, I don't know if there is a fundamental advantage to driving on one side of the road or the other.  It is too bad that the whole world didn't pick the same answer.  Same thing is true about mains voltages and frequencies.  At least in the latter case there are some arguments to support one answer or the other, but unfortunately, the best answer locally isn't necessarily the best answer elsewhere.  I am personally sure that any one of the choices in the world would have been "good enough" the world over.

At this point there is too much capital investment in the choices made to make world normalization practical for either of these systems, so people will be arguing about and lamenting these things for a long, long time.

[gore]

You know, I don't know if there is a fundamental advantage to driving on one side of the road or the other.

Not sure about driving, but with right side driver's seat at least you get to step out of the vehicle on a sidewalk instead of a highway. 

[Brumby]

Not sure about driving, but with right side driver's seat at least you get to step out of the vehicle on a sidewalk instead of a highway. 

If you're serious about that statement, you should think on it a bit longer...

[gore]

If you're serious about that statement

Not really. I know there are good reasons behind certain driving conventions. How you exit the vehicle is hardly the main concern.

[suicidaleggroll]

If you're serious about that statement

Not really. I know there are good reasons behind certain driving conventions. How you exit the vehicle is hardly the main concern.

There is no difference in how you exit the vehicle, whether you drive on the left side of the car and the right side of the road or the right side of the car and the left side of the road.

[zapta]

If you're serious about that statement

Not really. I know there are good reasons behind certain driving conventions. How you exit the vehicle is hardly the main concern.

There is no difference in how you exit the vehicle, whether you drive on the left side of the car and the right side of the road or the right side of the car and the left side of the road.

The driver uses a different hand to open the door.

[Brumby]

My point was, in the normal situation of a driver getting out of the driver's door will ALWAYS be stepping out into traffic.

Assumptions:
1. Not parking on the 'opposite' side on a one-way street.
2. Not driving a vehicle with the driver position on the opposite side to the norm (eg an unconverted import)

[CatalinaWOW]

Or to say it another way:  There is a good reason for putting the driver nearer the center of the road, whichever side of the road is driven on.  It gives better judgement on clearances for the more critical near head on approach to opposing traffic.  So assuming the car is parked so that it enters traffic from the side it will be driving on, the driver will always get out into traffic.

But it still seems to be almost a coin flip which side to drive on.  Driving on the left gives the right eye dominant majority a couple of inches (a few centimeters) more advantage in judging those near head on approaches, but the angles are small enough that that difference is a near wash.  You might be able to squeeze a small advantage for driving on the right side based on cable routing for the throttle pedal, but again it is a near wash.  Driving on the right gives the one person who will always be entering a vehicle the opportunity to use the more common dominant right side to open that oh so heavy door.  Sounds like a wash to me.

Lets move on to driverless cars that are sufficiently networked to not car which side of the road they are on. 

[Rick Law]

As I understand (from some TV documentary), that English driver sit on the right hand side is from horse days.  The right hand is the dominant hand so the jousting lance or the sword are therefore on the right.  Now you can attack or guard against the potential enemy coming the other way.

This part is not from the documentary.  If that is true, we could assume that we Americans are more polite or more friendly to our fellow Americans.  We put our weapon-holding hand on the other side, so we are signaling the on-coming guy that: see, we are friendly - like [from the documentary] firing off all the cannons before coming into port to show that the cannons are empty and we come in peace; which of course morphed into 21-gun-salutes or however many the other guy deserves.

Credit:   I think the TV documentary I was referring to was "Mail Call" by R. Lee Ermey.  The U.S. Marine who also star as the Marine drill sergeant in the movie "Full Metal Jacket".

[coppice]

As I understand (from some TV documentary), that English driver sit on the right hand side is from horse days.  The right hand is the dominant hand so the jousting lance or the sword are therefore on the right.  Now you can attack or guard against the potential enemy coming the other way.

I wonder where that idea came from? The strong need to drive on a particular side of the road came in the 18th and 19th century, with the increasing horse drawn carriage traffic on the streets of the affluent parts of cities. There was also a growing problem of carriage drivers hitting pedestrians with their whips. The safer option was to have the whip used near the middle of the road, rather than near the kerb. With the majority of people being right handed, this lead to regulations requiring carriages drive on the left hand side, especially for the purposes of passing. What puzzles me is why other countries which had similar levels of wealthy people, and therefore carriage issues, didn't come to the same regulations.

[discomike]

To add some curiosity to the side-of-road discussion I can add that in Sweden we used to drive on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the left hand side as well - so you could step out of the car onto the sidewalk =).

In 1967 we switched to driving on the right side (which luckily didn't require us to rebuild the cars other then adjusting headlights), a few years prior to that there was a national vote where 89% voted to keep driving on the left hand side - but the government decided against it anyways (which i guess was good).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagen_H

It seems that most of the countries that are still driving on the left side today are islands where they didn't have much road traffic from neighboring countries..

[Brumby]

Yep.  Australia is an island.  (almost as big as mainland USA)

[janoc]

I wonder where that idea came from? The strong need to drive on a particular side of the road came in the 18th and 19th century, with the increasing horse drawn carriage traffic on the streets of the affluent parts of cities. There was also a growing problem of carriage drivers hitting pedestrians with their whips. The safer option was to have the whip used near the middle of the road, rather than near the kerb. With the majority of people being right handed, this lead to regulations requiring carriages drive on the left hand side, especially for the purposes of passing. What puzzles me is why other countries which had similar levels of wealthy people, and therefore carriage issues, didn't come to the same regulations.

It has actually evolved over time - e.g. former Czechoslovakia where I am from used to drive on the left until the German occupation in 1939. Then the Germans ordered it changed to drive on the right, the same as in the Reich, and it has remained that way after the war.

Oh and there are apparently also countries where some parts drive on the left and some on the right (e.g. China vs former British colonies Hong Kong and Macau) or US Virgin Islands.

There is some good analysis here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic

[timb]

What I want to know is, say you're driving in a right-lane country, you get to the border of a left-lane country, how do you switch sides?

[MrSlack]

What I want to know is, say you're driving in a right-lane country, you get to the border of a left-lane country, how do you switch sides?

[janoc]

What I want to know is, say you're driving in a right-lane country, you get to the border of a left-lane country, how do you switch sides?

Like this for example: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Lotus-bridge-macau.jpg

When it is from a ferry, it is even simpler:
https://www.google.fr/maps/place/Calais/@51.1241346,1.3312887,412m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x47dc3f75d7f1e363:0xacbed9e08cd279f4!6m1!1e1?hl=en

[Monkeh]

When it is from a ferry, it is even simpler:
https://www.google.fr/maps/place/Calais/@51.1241346,1.3312887,412m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x47dc3f75d7f1e363:0xacbed9e08cd279f4!6m1!1e1?hl=en

Errr, that's entirely one way, coming off two decks.

[Delta]

What I want to know is, say you're driving in a right-lane country, you get to the border of a left-lane country, how do you switch sides?

Did a certain Mr. MJ design that road system? 

[coppice]

What I want to know is, say you're driving in a right-lane country, you get to the border of a left-lane country, how do you switch sides?

Like this for example: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Lotus-bridge-macau.jpg

When it is from a ferry, it is even simpler:
https://www.google.fr/maps/place/Calais/@51.1241346,1.3312887,412m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x47dc3f75d7f1e363:0xacbed9e08cd279f4!6m1!1e1?hl=en

The arrangements at the end of the bridge across Shenzhen Bay, from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, are much simpler. These bridges are elevated dual carriageways. You just need to make one side cross above the other. Those big loops are unnecessary.

Its interesting that Macau traffic is right hand drive. Macau was a Portuguese colony, and they are left hand drive country. China is their only neighbour with direct road links (at least until the new bridge across the Pearl Delta is finished), and they are a left hand drive country. Was Hong Kong such a big influence that Macau chose to drive on the right?

[CatalinaWOW]

What I want to know is, say you're driving in a right-lane country, you get to the border of a left-lane country, how do you switch sides?

Like this for example: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Lotus-bridge-macau.jpg

When it is from a ferry, it is even simpler:
https://www.google.fr/maps/place/Calais/@51.1241346,1.3312887,412m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x47dc3f75d7f1e363:0xacbed9e08cd279f4!6m1!1e1?hl=en

The arrangements at the end of the bridge across Shenzhen Bay, from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, are much simpler. These bridges are elevated dual carriageways. You just need to make one side cross above the other. Those big loops are unnecessary.

Its interesting that Macau traffic is right hand drive. Macau was a Portuguese colony, and they are left hand drive country. China is their only neighbour with direct road links (at least until the new bridge across the Pearl Delta is finished), and they are a left hand drive country. Was Hong Kong such a big influence that Macau chose to drive on the right?

At some point in the political history barriers to crossing borders may have been desired.  I know that railroad gauges have been selected to impede trans border movement.  Just as for a while, China set unique electronics standards as a way to protect their domestic market.  Others have done similar things.

[WN1X]

Fire began at the rear of the vehicle. So not the battery as that vents out the front wheel wells.

And interestingly, the car is not connected to the chargers. You can see it is parked away from them.

[tom66]

It was connected to a set of temporary chargers that Tesla installed to cope with the holiday traffic. The chargers come on a pallet and only require connection to 3ph 400V service (~150kVA) so they are much easier and cheaper to install.

[helius]

I wonder where that idea came from? The strong need to drive on a particular side of the road came in the 18th and 19th century, with the increasing horse drawn carriage traffic on the streets of the affluent parts of cities. There was also a growing problem of carriage drivers hitting pedestrians with their whips. The safer option was to have the whip used near the middle of the road, rather than near the kerb. With the majority of people being right handed, this lead to regulations requiring carriages drive on the left hand side, especially for the purposes of passing. What puzzles me is why other countries which had similar levels of wealthy people, and therefore carriage issues, didn't come to the same regulations.

Because in places where there were more industrial carts, being much heavier than carriages, the teamster had to sit on one of the horses. If you are right-handed, your whip is held in your right hand, and you must sit on the left rear horse in order not to use the whip across your own face. Sitting on the left, you need to drive on the right to see the road.