• Farmington Hills officials are fuming over a glut of unsold Cybertrucks being stored in the city.
  • Tesla has been parking the EVs at a shopping center earmarked for major redevelopment.
  • Officials say the electric vehicles violate zoning codes and are warning the property owner.
      • Nougat
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        6622 days ago

        Ah, they’re parked on private property, which means the property owner needs to have them towed. Which means the city has to notify the property owner (they have) ahead of the city doing the tow order. That it’s a derelict shopping mall means that the property owner likely doesn’t care. There’s also the complication of the city not wanting to piss off a commercial property owner.

        But yeah, the end result should be towing, with daily storage fees racking up until Tesla comes and pays up. Tow lots don’t fuck around.

        • @entwine413@lemm.ee
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          3722 days ago

          The only caveat is that they’re violating zoning codes. That means the city can directly act on it.

          Of course, they likely have to go through the notification process before towing them, but they probably don’t have to have the property owners permission to do so. More likely they’ll warn the property owner a few times, then send them the bill for towing.

          • Nougat
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            1022 days ago

            I imagine the city can tow, after following some kind of notification schedule. But the property owner isn’t going to pay the bill; not their vehicles, why would they give a fuck? Tesla is going to argue that the property owner should pay, since the violation is against the property owner. Tesla might not care, either, they’ve got nothing to do with the vehicles since nobody wants to buy them. If you just leave them in the impound lot, there’s no bill to pay. Since they’re unsold vehicles, there aren’t even titles for the city to put a lien on for the impound fee.

            On the other hand, I know where a bunch of Crybertrucks (I’m leaving it) are, in case anyone has a bunch of extra spray paint they need to use up.

              • Nougat
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                222 days ago

                MTIPGU

                (Make Tesla Insurance Premiums Go Up)

            • @entwine413@lemm.ee
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              21 days ago

              Because the property owner is responsible for the things on their property, especially if they’re violating code. It’s the property owner’s responsibility to have them removed, even if they don’t own them, so if they don’t after being warned and the city hauls them off, they can get stuck with the bill for the tow.

              They won’t have to pay for the storage of the trucks, though. Just the initial tow. Then they can sue whomever dumped them to try to recoup the cost.

              But literally all they have to do is call a towing company who would be more than happy to remove them.

        • @solrize@lemmy.ml
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          422 days ago

          That it’s a derelict shopping mall means that the property owner likely doesn’t care.

          Reasonable guess is that Tesla is paying rent to the mall owner. Is it usual to store unsold cars out in the open for long periods? I know they sit in outdoor new car lots at dealerships, but I figured maybe it usually wasn’t for very long.

  • @Johnnykorn@lemmy.world
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    4121 days ago

    But using the land for vehicle storage is against city code.

    You can park your car in the parking lot, but not that car…

    And dealers do not randomly park cars in parking lots without permission otherwise they would have been towed. The lot owner is getting paid.

    • Sundray
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      3221 days ago

      A lot of municipalities have different rules and definitions for “parking” and “long-term parking.” In a lot of cases long-term parking is strictly prohibited in places where parking is otherwise encouraged. You can’t just leave your vehicle in one place.

      You’ve got to move it, move it.

    • @Dragonstaff@leminal.space
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      21 days ago

      I’m trying to figure out why someone would care. The mall is mostly closed. Yeah, the dealership must have paid the lot owner, so I don’t see the problem.

      It’d be great if the ugly things didn’t exist, but since they do, they have to go somewhere.

  • @pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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    22 days ago

    Some of those trucks ended up stored at a run-down mall in Farmington Hills outside of Detroit in Michigan. Unsurprisingly, local officials are not happy about it.

    Lol, he’s not even trying to hide them anymore. I would like to see pics of these trucks *from afar at the rundown mall. It sounds very dystopian to see, Mad Max like.

    Edit: The pics they show don’t show the mall in the background and how empty it looks.

  • @peoplebeproblems@midwest.social
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    2921 days ago

    Hmmm.

    So EVs are pretty simple machines. I think we can all agree on that. Like I am not a mechanic and I can work on these things (well maybe not the tires).

    But the problem isn’t just that a single component in these things sucks, it’s the whole design. That being said, the motors, controllers, axles, sensors, etc, can’t all be entirely custom. I would be willing to bet there is a fair amount of useful shit we could “borrow” from unsupervised and unwanted cyber trucks to rebuild them into something much much better.

  • LupusBlackfur
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    2622 days ago

    But using the land for vehicle dumpster storage is against city code. 😂

  • @njm1314@lemmy.world
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    2521 days ago

    Well if they’re just abandoning them, then the city should seize them and start selling them for parts. I know most of it is garbage but surely parts of it can go to something more useful.

    • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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      721 days ago

      The article didn’t do their research but certainly implies it’s the landlord making a quick buck on storage fees why waiting for redevelopment to start

  • Optional
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    2422 days ago

    Tesla’s Cybertruck is a big silver sales flop and that’s given the company several problems, including working out what to do with all the electric pickups it can’t sell.

    Yes. That’s how you start a swastidumpster article.

    • @tal@lemmy.today
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      22 days ago

      I suspect that the impoundment lot is far smaller than the disused shopping center parking lot.

      I think they should just let Tesla store them there and ask Tesla for some fee for use of the thing. I really don’t think that having them there is likely very harmful to the area.

      • @ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works
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        1322 days ago

        It’s likely the land owner IS renting the lot to whomever currently owns the Teslas.

        The city however noticed and notified the landowner that it’s not zoned for storage.

        • @Paddzr@lemmy.world
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          422 days ago

          Ah that makes sense.

          Like yes, no one is going to park millions of dollars without having some agreement with someone… Your take is likely what happened.

      • @Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        422 days ago

        If it’s a code violation for the poors it should be a code violation for tesIa. I guarantee if one of us parked a vehicle there for more than a couple days it would be gone.

  • Null User Object
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    722 days ago

    Looking at the video, it’s not just trucks, it’s a whole lot of cars, too. At first I thought that was an active mall and those were cars of shoppers, but then you can tell that they’re all teslas.

  • Wow, that sounds like announcing a really juicy target for certain people. But if those vehicles were to sustain damage, that might mean an insurance payout. So really, there is an insurance company or two out there that we should be short selling and that should be providing security on that lot.

  • @throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works
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    21 days ago

    Someone call a bomb squad. There are a bunch of terrorist bombs disguised as tesla cars in parking lots. I heard it’s complicated to defuse, so I think we should just conduct a controlled detonation on these obvious terrorist cars. 😏