Absolutely correct, and dead [1] opposite of what the Mini does.
[1] Let’s hope not.
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Agreed that it’s confusing - but can’t help but feel it’s antiquated US turn signal law at work here. Everywhere else in the world the Union Flag is only used for braking and there’s a separate amber bulb for the turn signal - there’s a few videos on YouTube showing this at work.
Felt I had to signup to explain this, and also to point out it’s the Union Flag, not the Union Jack.
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I saw one of these when I was out walking at dusk, after a split second of thought I realized which direction it was turning, and then I thought, what a stupid and dangerous design, especially for pedestrians parsing a sea of car lights and indicators in the dark.
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They ARE on the correct sides. They just have a design that looks like an arrow pointing to the other side.
You have entirely misunderstood what is going on here.
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You have to wonder… How did that make it to production?
The idea is sound (and somewhat fun) But if they’d just put the lefthand pointing arrow on the left side and vice versa there’d be no issue…
How does such an obvious issue make its way to production with NO-ONE raising the obvious problem?
Edit: if you put both arrows on each side, ie. both sides point left if you signal left you’ve again fixed the problem.
It’s as if they’ve tried to create confusion 
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Technically, your statement isn’t necessarily correct:
https://publications.wri.org/citiessafer/#5.2
and
http://realscandinavia.com/this-day-in-history-swedish-traffic-switches-sides-september-3-1967/
For about two years after Dagen H the number of traffic accidents dropped, perhaps partly as a result of increased caution on the part of drivers still getting used to the new rules.
This brake light design is maybe not the way to do it though.
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Obligatory Technology Connections:
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Customers don’t need to figure out what the turn signals are, they are inside the car and can’t see them in use.
It is the other people on earth that need to figure out what the flashing lights pointing the wrong way mean.
Ah well, who am I kidding, BMW drivers don’t use the signals anyway.
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Edsel made the same mistake on their station wagon in 1958. Their excuse was that they had to use Mercury sheet metal, but modify it just enough to be different from a Mercury.
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With regard to the turn indicator light pattern, there should be no trouble at all for a driver to understand, when seeing the full rear of the car, which direction is being indicated.
Mini has not heard any concerns from customers regarding the rear turn indicators, and has in fact received positive feedback about the taillight design.
That’s some straight-up gas-lighting right there. The guy who wrote the book “The Corporation” is right. Corporations (and the soulless assholes who enable them) are sociopaths.
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Exactly. This is what I love about the mustang turn signal mods which blink the 3 lights in series, as it just hammers home the intent.
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Um, but… it’s a Ford.
And, those union Jack accessories on a BMW are the stupidest
thing ever.
Not the MOST stupid thing I guess.
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Right!?! It’s only BMW SUV drivers who, like all SUV drivers, fail to use turn signals.
Heck, BMW M-car drivers use turn signals so much, they use them when they’re going straight!
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I sort of feel like you’re either being sarcastic or have missed what the designers were actually trying to accomplish here. The problem here is if they have the arrow on the correct side its indicating in, it no longer forms a Union Jack flag with the arrow on the opposite side.
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Possibly crossed wires?
But article video: lefthand indicator blinking a righthand arrow…
Lefthand blinking light = lefthand turn signal for 99+% of cars
Most drivers are going to process the arrow as an afterthought if at all.
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Since this is not a flag but a stylised depiction of a flag we do not know whether the original flag it depicts was a jack or not.
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Logic brought to you by the folks who add “This is not a test” to emergency warning system tests.
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Except that almost no one calls it the Union Flag, outside of certain formal and official contexts.
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The fact that this design choice could possibly be so misconstrued is the very essence of the problem.
UX rule number 1: you are not other people. To put a fine point on it, if there are other people on the road getting confused by it, you should be concerned too. Your safety depends on theirs.
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In Sacramento this issue would never come up because apparently me and two other people are the only ones who actually use a turn signal.
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