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bousozoku

Moderator emeritus
Jun 25, 2002
15,689
1,857
Lard
The best car engineers are positioned in the UK , It may surprise you but the Merceds F1 team is stated in the UK , the engine is being manufactured and designed in the UK , most of the teams reside in the UK (putting Ferrari aside).

So , no , Germany are not leagues ahead , they have very good efficient factories due to the German culture of producing things , but in regards to tech and engineering talent ? not even close , the UK have special masters programs for car engineering , the best programs in the world.
So, if Apple wanted to build cars for US$350,000 and up, the UK and the best car engineers will be able to help?

Vauxhall, Ford don't have the best car engineers, do they?
 

sidewinder3000

macrumors 65816
Jan 29, 2010
1,182
1,283
Chicagoland
I don't mind where Apple decide to build their car, just so long as they remember to put the steering wheel on the correct (right-hand) side for the UK. Apple (and if I'm honest, American companies in general) don't exactly have a great track record for remembering other parts of the world exist or that they do things differently.
I live in the United States, so I have limited direct experience, but is this actually true? Do American car companies send cars to the United Kingdom with the steering wheels on the left side? This seems absurd to me. Every time I’ve been to London, I have seen Fords with the steering wheels on the right side that look like they fit in with every other car on the road.
 
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sidewinder3000

macrumors 65816
Jan 29, 2010
1,182
1,283
Chicagoland
Shipping cars overseas is expensive. Apple is unbelievably good with logistics, and extremely parsimonious. My guess is that they will have manufacturing plants in North America, in Asia, and in Europe, and possibly other population centers down the road. I am also certain that this will be a product that is released in the United States first, because of all the regulatory hurdles and because I am certain that this is not just going to be a car that they sell, but rather a service that will require coordinated infrastructure.
 

cupcakes2000

macrumors 68040
Apr 13, 2010
3,865
5,272
I live in the United States, so I have limited direct experience, but is this actually true? Do American car companies send cars to the United Kingdom with the steering wheels on the left side? This seems absurd to me. Every time I’ve been to London, I have seen Fords with the steering wheels on the right side that look like they fit in with every other car on the road.
No, it’s not true- I think the op was making a point rather than stating a fact. You’re allowed to drive a car with the steering wheel on the wrong side, and you can import a car like that without changing it, but Ford, or any motor company wouldnt be able to sell their cars en masse like that- obviously!!
 

cupcakes2000

macrumors 68040
Apr 13, 2010
3,865
5,272
I can't drive on the right side. :p

On a serious note, the British may have a good point.
I’m British but live in France (thanks brexit ******s).
I can drive any way round car on any way round side of the road. But I get a sore hand from the amount of time I punch the door by accident when going to change gears, when I’m flitting between the two countries regularly! (In a different non covid time obviously)
 

ducknalddon

macrumors 6502
Aug 31, 2018
285
485
So you’re saying that this trade deal wouldn’t have happened if the UK was still in?
Germany, France, Italy, Spain Hungary and Slovakia (just from memory) have fairly substantial auto industries they would want to protect you would think, I’m not sure why the UK would be the deciding factor on this.
Toyota, Nissan and Honda all have big plants in the UK. There was an incentive to veto this deal.
 

danny842003

macrumors 68000
Jun 6, 2017
1,832
2,137
Toyota, Nissan and Honda all have big plants in the UK. There was an incentive to veto this deal.

There was but we all know it wouldn’t have happened. For the same reasons the countries I’ve listed also didn’t veto it.

You can’t blame Brexit for everything although I do understand plenty are having a good go at it.
 

page3

macrumors 6502a
Feb 10, 2003
805
758
Outside the EU
I live in the United States, so I have limited direct experience, but is this actually true? Do American car companies send cars to the United Kingdom with the steering wheels on the left side? This seems absurd to me. Every time I’ve been to London, I have seen Fords with the steering wheels on the right side that look like they fit in with every other car on the road.
No. I was attempting (and failing) to be amusing, which at least confirms my career choice not to be a comedian.

In recent years Apple have in fact been getting better with seeing things from other perspectives and responding - for example on Apple Maps our motorways are now represented in the correct colour and in CarPlay the "dock" is switched to the other (correct for us) side.
 
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bigchrisfgb

macrumors 65816
Jan 24, 2010
1,453
642
This is just too much. Build it in America.
You do realise that if they want to release the car world wide hey will likely have factories across the world to cope with demand and to get around tariffs and shipping costs.
I’m not saying the UK would get an Apple car factory, because of Brexit, but even with Brexit it would be better for them to have a European factory in the UK rather than shipping a car in from the USA.
 

bigchrisfgb

macrumors 65816
Jan 24, 2010
1,453
642
I live in the United States, so I have limited direct experience, but is this actually true? Do American car companies send cars to the United Kingdom with the steering wheels on the left side? This seems absurd to me. Every time I’ve been to London, I have seen Fords with the steering wheels on the right side that look like they fit in with every other car on the road.
No, not at all. It would cost fortunes to change it over again once built. UK cars are built at the factory for RHD mode.
However car manufacturers often don’t change which side the petrol cap is on.

There are companies in the U.K. who import American cars that we can’t get in the U.K. and do a LHD to RHD conversion, this is very costly though and often the reason why we don’t have those cars is because they are too big for our roads and not very economical.
The Ford F-150 is one example.
 
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tongxinshe

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2008
1,064
651
Apple Car or Tesla, they will all be MEANINGLESS after Google Car is released. So, why bother?
 

ducknalddon

macrumors 6502
Aug 31, 2018
285
485
There was but we all know it wouldn’t have happened. For the same reasons the countries I’ve listed also didn’t veto it.

You can’t blame Brexit for everything although I do understand plenty are having a good go at it.
Except we do know the deal had sat on the shelf for years, it only came back to life after Brexit.
 

sidewinder3000

macrumors 65816
Jan 29, 2010
1,182
1,283
Chicagoland
No, it’s not true- I think the op was making a point rather than stating a fact. You’re allowed to drive a car with the steering wheel on the wrong side, and you can import a car like that without changing it, but Ford, or any motor company wouldnt be able to sell their cars en masse like that- obviously!!
Thanks for clearing that up!
 

sidewinder3000

macrumors 65816
Jan 29, 2010
1,182
1,283
Chicagoland
No, not at all. It would cost fortunes to change it over again once built. UK cars are built at the factory for RHD mode.
However car manufacturers often don’t change which side the petrol cap is on.

There are companies in the U.K. who import American cars that we can’t get in the U.K. and do a LHD to RHD conversion, this is very costly though and often the reason why we don’t have those cars is because they are too big for our roads and not very economical.
The Ford F-150 is one example.
I can’t imagine a Ford F-150 driving on some of the tiny roads are experienced in Scotland!
 

bigchrisfgb

macrumors 65816
Jan 24, 2010
1,453
642
I can’t imagine a Ford F-150 driving on some of the tiny roads are experienced in Scotland!
A Ford F-150 driving on our normal roads would be huge, nervermind small towns or country roads.

There was man who lived in the village next to me who had an old American pick up truck, talking a 70’s model at the youngest. It took up both sides of the country road between the villages, and they were smaller back then.
 
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ericwn

macrumors G4
Apr 24, 2016
11,824
10,407
The best car engineers are positioned in the UK , It may surprise you but the Merceds F1 team is stated in the UK , the engine is being manufactured and designed in the UK , most of the teams reside in the UK (putting Ferrari aside).

So , no , Germany are not leagues ahead , they have very good efficient factories due to the German culture of producing things , but in regards to tech and engineering talent ? not even close , the UK have special masters programs for car engineering , the best programs in the world.

Good point the F1 stuff is all based in the UK pretty much but that’s not really representative of the mainstream car industry as it’s a very specific niche.
 
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