Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment; it has dissolved its press office.
Let me fill in for them then: “We CoUlDn’T PoSsIbLy pReDiCt ThAt tHiS wAs GoInG tO hApPeN!”
That’s the usual typical Corporate bad faith answer to whenever a serious consequence that everyone could see coming but they kept ignoring finally happens.
MadLad that Elmo is
Failsafe.
Fail Safe.
Fail Open.
Elon is why we need to write safety regulations. He’s the kind of guy who would put sawdust in your food and call it innovation.
Agree on your overall sentiment, though I’d say it is a bit more complicated than that for car doors. You don’t want it to fail and come open while moving, for example, especially if the car is coming to a stop and inertia forces the doors fully open. That Boeing door failed open and it was not very safe.
Vehicle doors should be fail functional rather than open to fail safe. As in designed to be very unlikely to fail and/or still functional even if one or several components do fail.
Edit: I normally avoid commenting on my downvotes (you win some, you lose some) but this one is baffling. What’s controversial or unpopular about what I said?
Sure, for the electrical part. But the door as a whole should Fail Open. You can pull over with an open door. You should not have to break the door to escape after a failure.
According to a report from Arizona’s Family:
The 12-volt battery that powers the car’s electronics died without warning.
Tesla drivers are supposed to receive three warnings before that happens, but the Tesla service department confirmed that Sanchez didn’t receive any warnings.
The fucking DOORS require a charged battery? Fuck that. That decision will age great in the next ten years. Not to mention emergency situations where the electrical system is compromised.
Now imagine this happens in a remote area with no cell coverage. In Arizona those are a thing too.
I assume Arizona has rocks and bricks and stuff lying around somewhere
Luckily not even the Cybertruck is immune to those
Yes. You go out to grab a rock, go back in and smash the windows. Or keep one tactical door opening rock beneath the seat.
Yeah, but I don’t think EVs have spark plugs to smash and use to break the windows. Checkmate.
No need for remoteness. Imagine you drive into water or battery catches fire. You aren’t opening those doors.
There is a manual release on the inside … So yes you are.
No you are not. People panic and default to most common behavior, this is why emergency exercises are a thing. In other words, the hidden manual release somewhere in the car that was never used is not going to be used in the moment of panic. You won’t even remember it exists.
Also, that’s only on some cars and only in the front. None on the back seat.
It is not hidden, covered, obfuscated, or even in a weird location. It’s literally sitting right on the door handle. Also even with a standard 1990 car with fully manual doors you are not going to be escaping out the doors if your car falls into water. The pressure differential of the water pushing against your door prevents you from opening it until the entire inside of the car has filled with water, MythBusters did a whole episode on this back in the day if you want to go find that for the full story. But the tldr is that once your car is in the water you’re only Escape options are to break the window, get the window rolled down, or wait until the entire car has filled with water and the pressure equalizes
Edit: turns out this is only in the M3, the Y, X, And CT are all designed by absolute idiots, and i joined them by not looking into all models
I looked into all the manuals before posting that to make sure. Turns out they did improve on some models location of it. Which is commendable. But some are downright retarded. Am also well aware about effect of pressure and similar. Am less worried about the water than getting stranded in the car after crash or if battery catches on fire.
Also, thanks for the edit and correcting your statement. We live and we learn. Unless pride prevents us from doing so.
Easy enough to get out, if you have a couple braincells to rub together. The manual release is not hidden, covered, obfuscated, or even in a weird location. It’s literally right on the door handle
Edit: turns out this is only in the M3, the Y, X, And CT are all designed by absolute idiots, and i joined them by not looking into all models
Now imagine you are under the ocean talking to Aquaman.
In the middle of nowhere, maybe. But I’ve been on several road trips across the state and had service the entire way, mostly LTE with a few spots of 3G here and there. As long as you’re near the highway or a town, you’ll get service.
Why not just open the door with the key like every car ever
It’s so obvious, then again I think there’s some cars out there without even a metal key for the engine. So dumb.
My car (Citroën) has a contact less key, I don’t have to get it out of my pocket and the car automatically opens.
But it still includes a small physical key to open the car when the battery (of the car or key) is dead.
The metal key is attached to the contactless key or is it a seperate device?
what happens when a car catches fire because the electrical system is on fire and you can’t Open the door because it’s electric
Manual release or you die, just like that lady that drove hers into her pond.
There are manual releases on each door inside, but I’m surprised they don’t have them outside as well.
Reading more about it, I find that many only have manual releases on the front doors until recently and they have a connection point you’re meant to jump with power to unlock and open from the outside. I didn’t think anyone would be okay waiting for a jump to get their baby out, but then these people waited for firemen to break their window, so…
Hidden manual releases that still require you to push the door through the windows trim. FFS people have already died because of this shit. Why the hell hasn’t there been a mandatory recall on all Teslas over this?
It’s not fucking hidden, it’s right on the fucking door. Right there, in plain view. Fuck elon but equally fuck idiots who never read their manual or bother to learn fucking anything about a product then claim bullshit like that. Nothing about this is fucking hidden.
The rear doors also have one, that’s the only one you could argue is “hidden” as it’s in the little storage pocket area
Edit: turns out this is only in the M3, the Y, X, And CT are all designed by absolute idiots, and i joined them by not looking into all models
A child isn’t going to find that. A rescuer who isn’t familiar with Teslas isn’t going to be able to find that.
I couldn’t even figure out how to open a fully functional door from outside the first time I got in a Tesla. I’m an adult who’s been driving my entire life.
That’s not innovation; it’s a safety hazard for the sake of the aesthetics of a handle that doesn’t stick out. I don’t view that as a reasonable trade-off.
A lot of people are giving Tesla shit here, but surely there should be regulations in place to ensure something like this isn’t allowed to be released for public use?
You’d think.
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Yeah, Tesla is certainly not the first ones to have this design or issues with it:
it’s really smart to have non-mechanical mechanical parts for things like a door
You mean, non-electrical… not non-mechanical.
With sarcasm, one might say that it is desirable to have obviously undesirable thing. Your interpretation is one way, but I think they really meant “stupid” instead of “smart”.
There should really be a law, requiring a certain list of mechanical things to exist on the car. So far, it’s only the emergency turn signals, and what, the mirrors? The door handles absolutely need to be on that list
Really interesting design decision. Was the main battery also dead? I’m guessing not. There’s a step-down converter under the rear seat that outputs 12-16 volts, Tesla could probably have fairly easily set the car up to power the doors from that when the auxiliary 12V battery dies.
I’d love to see a crank on EVs to power the low voltage stuff in emergencies. How many amps does the car startup take? 15A? Maybe bicycle pedals.
Or just have manual doors and locks with an electric actuator if you really want those “smart” features.
So we would have come full circle. That actually has a retro appeal to it that it could catch on!
Yeah, My volt battery is in the floor of the trunk. If the battery on the volt dies you can’t open the trunk easily. Physical locks in the doors are no problem but they didn’t put a keyhole on the damn trunk.
You can pop the hood and access the jump terminals and then pop the trunk. You can also crawl into the back hatch from inside pull a panel off and pop the trunk.
Glad the toddler could be saved.
These cars all have manual backups.
The question is how easy is it to use?
Lets ask the dead billionaire
She died of stupid, the release is literally right on the door. It’s not hidden, obfuscated, covered, or in any way shape or form difficult to use. Just another idiot that didn’t bother learning what all the controls on their new card did.
That being said, even with a manual release they most likely would have died anyway. As once your car is in the water unless you’re able to open the door basically instantaneously upon hitting the water you’re going to find that the door is impossible to open as the weight of the water will prevent it until such time as the car has filled with water to equalize the pressure. Generally speaking people that survive cars falling into water were able to get the window open, or just break it entirely. The door is almost never the Escape Route as it will not allow itself to be opened due to the difference in pressure
Edit: turns out this is only in the M3, the Y, X, And CT are all designed by absolute idiots, and i joined them by not looking into all models
Was going to tell you that she didn’t die in a model 3 but you found out yourself!
Only takes about a half second Google search to find out, it’s literally a handle right on the door. Just above the window switches. It’s not hidden, obfuscated, covered, or even in a weird spot
Edit: turns out this is only in the M3, the Y, X, And CT are all designed by absolute idiots, and i joined them by not looking into all models
