Four Passengers Die in Burning Tesla After Electronic Doors Seemingly Won't Open
Four Passengers Die in Burning Tesla After Electronic Doors Seemingly Won't Open
Four people died after a Tesla crashed and burst into flames, while a fifth person narrowly escaped after a bystander broke open a window.
This happened in Toronto on October 24th
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I heard Teslas are supposed to have manual release latches inside.
In any case, doors should always be manual anyway. This isn't the first time this happened and I'm surprised there isn't a regulation for this yet.
If we investigated car accidents like we did plane accidents we’d probably have banned them by now.
We'd probably have high speed rail too instead of a vast expanse of highways
Investigators arrive on scene. Immediately notice how the infrastructure was designed for gridlock rush hour where nothing is moving. Are appalled that the only safety training the motorists received was completed 20 years ago and never refreshed. Dismayed that these circumstances are permitted in densely populated areas.
They do have manual release latches, but if you have never used them they might be hard to find. Especially in the panic of a burning car.
Really vehicle electronic doors should operate the same way they (usually?) do in buildings - in case of power loss they default to unlatched.
Power loss isn't necessarily a good choice even in a traditional ICE car with a battery, let alone one with a bigass EV battery.
Because it makes it super easy to break into a car (pop the hood and unplug two connectors) AND very likely will remain charged throughout much of the fire.
No. The answer is you have fucking manual locks and door handles that don't require you to pry open a panel.
The article says that some Model Ys don't have a manual release on the rear doors. Can't imagine how that passes any country's safety standards.
$$$
Yikes, that is wildly irresponsible
Have you looked at teslas manual for the back doors. Some are behind panels that have to be removed. You are not doing that well burying alive.
The BMW manual door release is pulling the handle twice. This kind of negligence is insane and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should slap them with a punitive fine and a mandatory recall.
Oh Elon is definitely gonna kill that department.
The ones in the rear are hidden under a mat in the door.
https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/modely/en_us/GUID-AAD769C7-88A3-4695-987E-0E00025F64E0.html
The model X requires you to remove the speaker grill to manually open the door.
You know, nice and intuitive.
Do these panels and speaker grills at least have a tooless design so they’re easy to remove if you’re aware of them? This design just sounds so dumb.
It looks like it, but they're still hidden. If you didn't know to look under a mat while you're car is fire I doubt it would be easy to find.
The article also says that not all model Y have releases in the rear, so even if you know 'well my model Y has them here' you still might be screwed.
So glad I never had the opportunity to get a Tesla way back when I thought they were cool new tech.
and I'm surprised there isn't a regulation for this yet.
Don't be. Expect any existing regulations to be rolled back soon.
There definitely needs to be a way for people outside the car to open it. People involved in accidents are often incapacitated.
They do, but only in the front.
The only reason to use the button is that when you press it, it lowers the window slightly so that it clears the door trim when you open it (the windows are frameless).
Although, I don't see why that couldn't have been integrated into a single mechanism rather than having two separate controls for the same function.
Absolutely terrible design if the window needs to be lowered on a frameless door before it can be opened.
My 2007 Subaru Impreza had frameless windows that don't have this problem. The window makes a pressure seal against a gasket that does not impede the operation of the door in any way.
Oh ok. Well that's a really shitty design then!