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James May Explains What Happens If You Drive A Car In Germany Without A Licence | The Grand Tour

James May Explains What Happens If You Drive A Car In Germany Without A Licence | The Grand Tour

The Grand Tour
0 HN recommenders · discussed 2023–2026
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About this video

A one-minute Grand Tour clip in which James May explains what happens if you drive a car in Germany without a licence.

Why it appears in the archive

Posted as a joke or 'reminds me of this' reply, not as a recommendation.

AI-generated summary and labels from the source dataset; verify important details against the video. Source & credits.

From the Hacker News discussion

paulcole · 2023-09 · joke

> Also rules like traffic laws certainly aren't "recommendations" The point is that recommendations are exactly what they are. The recommendation is "Drive no faster than 45mph on this road unless you want to risk getting a ticket (or killing someone or whatever)." But who's physically preventing you from driving 60mph? If you were taking your dying relative to the hospital would you drive 45mph? Perhaps a law of physics is involved and you are physically prevented from going over 45mph because of a governor on your engine, but you could pay someone to remove it (or do it yourself). Speedbumps may increase the danger and consequence of going 100mph and that is something of a physical limitation. You can think it's asshole philosophy (and perhaps it is), but you're not seeing the world the way it really is, which I think is heart of the matter. It's like the clip of the guy talking about the German who can't drive because they don't have a license: [VIDEO] It's just a recommendation!

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mft_ · 2025-03 · joke

> I'd expect the original agreements that were put in place--both the ones with the subcontractors as well as the purchase agreements--are quite strict on what you can do with the plane. Trying to reverse engineer software (the policy was that no one gets access to the original source code for the F-35[0], at least back in 2009) is probably a no-go under those agreements. We're talking about Europe being able to protect itself from a potential Russian invasion despite the US bricking their F35s, and your argument is that they'd have to bend or break an agreement? I don't think that's a big hurdle, in that eventuality. (Reminds me a touch of this, though: :) [VIDEO] )

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potato3732842 · 2025-12 · joke

Reminds me of this. [VIDEO] What really ought to bother people more than it does is that within just about any white western nation you can run the same comparison with "decently well off" being the german side and "everyone else" being the english side.

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SyneRyder · 2026-06 · joke

To save others a search, the Top Gear story (it's only 40 seconds): [VIDEO] Aside from that - as for parent poster's story about needing to register a company, perhaps they are living in a particularly onerous jurisdiction. But more generally, many jurisdictions allow you to be a Sole Trader with fairly minimal registration. Filing taxes - well, hopefully you do that already, and adding your Sole Trader income is likely not that much work on top. (Selling overseas and dealing with overseas taxes? There's often companies that will handle all the overseas taxes on your behalf, and they might only take 10% or less of the sale with no upfront cost as payment.) If you're not sure about this stuff, see if your city has a Small Business Development Center where you can ask their advice. This stuff is probably all online, and if not they might have leaflets & books on what you need to know. Places like that will often have open hours with someone from the Tax Office as well where you can ask your questions. Especially, don't put up walls for yourself that weren't already there. This stuff really may not be as complicated as you think.

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