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
This happened in Toronto on October 24th
The Elon Musk-owned automaker has a troubling history of owners getting locked in their cars without power. Some of these cases may be down to user error, since most Teslas come with manual release levers.
Of course, let's blame the users 🙄
most Teslas come with manual release levers.
MOST?
Yea the cheapest ones skipped the manual release for the back doors. Gotta deliver maximum value to shareholders!
Now, now, remember correlation is not causation. Maybe it's not the unintuitive design; maybe a disproportionate number of idiots buy Teslas?
I don't want to be a dick but not using the mechanism to open them is user error.
But it does also sound like they aren't very well placed in some models. I feel like the manual release being the same as any car would make sense. As a fucking standard door handle.
I assume the no power locking is an anti theft thing. But if you're in the car already just provide a handle.
If the door can't be opened easily in a panicked life or death situation, it's a design flaw and needs to be recalled and fixed.
I will be a dick: this is one of those imbeciles teck-bro takes, always comming with excuses for big tech "but actualy.. "
If you design a door handle and people cannot open it: your design is shit. Point.
This was stupid when apple did it with the 'you're holding the phone wrong, idiot', it is criminal when it is done on a security feature.
Opening a Rear Door with No Power
You can open a rear door manually (if equipped) in the unlikely situation in which Model Y has no power:
- Remove the mat from the bottom of the rear door pocket.
- Press the red tab to remove the access door.
- Pull the mechanical release cable forward.
Note
Not all Model Y vehicles are equipped with a manual release for the rear doors.
Opening the front doors seems easy enough in the user manual, but opening the back doors requires you to remove a hidden panel then pull a cable, but not all versions of the car even have that hidden panel. Assuming the one in this article did, the car owner would need to give a little safety briefing to every passenger if you want to expect them to know how to open the door. And I'm really not sure what you're expected to do if you have a kid in a carseat in the back.
Explain to me how the engineers aren't guilty of manslaughter?
Look, I lasted one semester at engineering school, washed all the way out almost immediately. I still had to write a 10-page case study on an engineering failure, and the one I chose was the McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 cargo door failures. They teach this shit in failing community colleges in purple states. The buck stops with the PE that signed the plans. Drag his ass into criminal court. The person who allowed this design to go to production does not need to be free.
They won't because this would require a trial where rich people wouldn't benefit, which is a waste of government resources, which goes against the Department of Government Efficiency's goals. More efficient to throw these poor souls' families under the bus.
The people who design the Tesla cars are not engineers. They're a bunch of tech geeks who think they're engineers.
I mean, ask yourself this why is. Every single automobile that exists today with the exception of the Tesla can handle rain and car washes with absolutely no issues and yet Teslas have to have a special button to close off certain parts of the car so that the air intake doesn't get too wet otherwise the car ends up stinking horribly of mildew.
Where's the Safety FMEA! Show me the FMEA!
Risk 3452.7: feature, door. Function, opens during fire, failure mode: won't open during fire, trapping people inside. Cause: the darn things are electronic! So if the battery fails in a big ass fire with people inside, those fuckers are gonna cook real good! Engineering controls in place to prevent the failure mode: 200,000 units delivered in time! As in it took time to deliver the units. Risk rank: 😉 it's Frank! 😄 My name's Frank! Not rank!
Well I'm glad we took time to mitigate these risks.
Meanwhile, actual autonomous vehicle companies actually perform FMEDA.
There are no PEs signing off on "consumer products," or even little things like airplanes.
(Seriously, PEs are only relevant in engineering fields where design is easily governed by standards, such as HVAC and civil.)
There are absolutely engineers (with or without PE licenses, I'm not sure if that's necessary in aerospace) signing off on airplanes, even after they're built. For a mechanic to make a major modification or repair to an airframe or power plant it needs to be approved somehow, either covered by the airplane's original Type Certificate and detailed in the maintenance manual, covered in a supplemental type certificate (STC), or they can work with an aeronautical engineer to design and approve the repair. I have forgotten the exact line between "you can get an A&P IA to approve this skin patch plate" and "You need to either call an AE to design a repair for this but it might be cheaper to buy a whole wing."
I can think of only a few situations where you'd want to get out of a car quickly, where you'd have enough time to look under all the matte covers to find a manual door release switch that may or may not be installed. A fire is certainly not one of them. At the very least shouldn't they be equipped with a Nothammer...?
A lot of newer cars have stronger glass that even these or the spring-loaded kind can’t break.
If that's not illegal already it should be
tesla gonna tesla so I assume they are as dangerous as can be.
For the rest? There is always (?) one window that isn't reinforced. So that CAN be an issue if your cabin is significantly damaged. But otherwise? It is a problem to find in a high adrenaline emergency and you SHOULD be aware which window to smash, but you are 3-6 smacks away from being out.
What's the point of one of these if the windows are supposed to be unbreakable?
I've seen it said elsewhere that these don't work on the windows of current Tesla models as they're laminated.
Why cant’t the doors be manual on an EV?
Not cool enough for someone whose brain stopped developing at 15
Than you wouldnt look smart when a person sitting in your ev doesnt know how to open the door, and you smugly grin and show how stupid they look for not spending 30min on youtube and looking at videos how to open ev doors.
Think I read they can, but it's in a special non obvious place. So they probably didn't know or didn't find it
Is there an advantage to such an electronic door opener? If they have to include a manual release anyways, it really doesn't seem like they'd save space.
I guess, there might be novelty to just pressing a button, but not burning alive is also quite a cool feature.
It would be crazy sci-fi villian if Musk had mobile access to everyone's Tesla and he is just killing off customers he doesn't like by doing shit like refusing to unlock the doors.
I mean if there's electronics that control the speed and steering he could just force people to drive straight into a wall at full speed
As if this is hard to believe....
Why is it Lemmy is okay with Outrage culture when it targets Tesla/SpaceX/Apple, yet criticized else where?
So reading these comments most people don't understand that many cars have electronic doors for several valid design reasons and yet all I have seen have manual overrides. Tesla as many other cars without window trims have to lower the glass before you can open the door. Most if not all cars even German makes do this electronicly but like my Tesla, have a manual handle that mechanicly drops the glass windows panel so you can open normally.
Both my Tesla and friends VW Benzin(Gas) car som 15 years ago use the same system... If the car have no trim and electronic windows, you also have this design issue, which extends this to ALL car brands.
But yea let's throw reason out the window and yell "Tesla bad!!!"...
How if it is true some models don't have the manual override (and that might include none Tesla cars if there indeed is no regulation that mandates it) I feel bad for the people not knowing or the safety ratings ignoring this oversight.
I can just say, mine does and is mentioned in the safety rating used in EU.
If there was a burning car and I had to open your Tesla's door from the outside to save you, you're dead because I wouldn't be able to figure out how to use the handle, regardless of whether the thing was still powered or not.
Try breaking a window man, do your due diligence and save a life. Don’t just give up at the slight obstacle.
I have had many people ride in my Tesla and most of them opened the door by pulling the emergency handle... By instinct. So great job reading a headline and commenting without ever being in a Tesla, calling something you have never seen "bad design".
Some kind of argument this group deals with when people say " busses/trains don't work [instead made up thing they have never seen]"
Great job furthering the cause or any change at improving anything.
I think it's more like
Car on fire PANIC!!! OH SHIT I can't just pull this door handle to get out. Oh God it's so hot, what's happening ... (Get disoriented) ... Trying to find a way out still. A series of steps with a hidden release has to happen - hope you knew that before you climbed in.
Yeah many cars do have electronic doors, but they can be easily opened without electricity in a simple way. Yank the handle.
For some reason Tesla thought that was a bad idea. It's stupid, I know they should have broken a window but when you're panicking going on years of experience opening car doors you're going to try to open them the way you know how.
So, yeah, it's not just because it's a Tesla - it's because it's a dangerous and dumb engineering choice that they made which puts people's lives in danger unnecessarily.
Many people in my Tesla have janked the emergency handle, rather than clicking the button to get out without any emergency, there isn't any Door handle, there is the emergency handle... Which kinda proves my point and your outrage comment proves you haven't even been in a Tesla yet comment on "it's bad design".
Same kind of comments from people against seatbelts when they were introduced. "It's not the standard and people will burn in their cars" without seeing or trying a seatbelt.
It very much is because it's a Tesla because my point about Tesla not being the only car which use electric windows control pre opening the door. Yet people hating on "EV needs power to get out" failing to realise that many Gas powered vehicles require the same thing. Some even implemented explosives that need to push the door off to be able to get out.
How the fuck is being sad about preventable deaths “outrage culture”?
Why does stoposto promote Shitty Post Culture?
Why is it Lemmy is okay with Outrage culture when it targets Tesla/SpaceX/Apple, yet criticized else where?
Is that a serious question?
It is. I very much enjoy fuckcars and push for public transport when possible. However I hate the traditional car companies more for lying and burying alternatives to ICE more than I do the one company that in 10 years changed a stagnant Gas/Benzin polluting product which got bigger and bigger to a now Electric alternatives. That includes the side effect in my city for electric busses which were not a thing before said company and the change in zeitgeist around EV vs ICE.
So yes I'm in fuck cars and I am saying while I hate the current CEO of the company, I also recognize their success have pushed and improved my local public transport system and city (which in 2030 will ban all ICE cars from its center with a much larger push towards public alternatives at the same time).
How many shares of TSLA do you own?
Always have an emergency hammer in your car to break a window
Would that work in a car that purports to have bulletproof windows?
Only the tesla truck claims to be bullet proof. This happened in a model y and the 5th person in the car narrowly survived because a bystander smashed the window.
Hmm yeah, didn't think of that
I have a Civic with a manual door handle, but after reading your comment ... I think I'm going to get one to leave in the car just in case.
Should your car ever wind up submerged in water a hammer could come in handy. Make sure it's a "break glass" type hammer, which has a point. Thick tempered glass is surprisingly strong.
The spring-loaded kind are a lot easier to use in a cramped car and by people with less upper body strength. However, those won't work on newer cars with dual-pane or laminated glass
I've seen people say that emergency window hammers don't work with Tesla windows as they're laminated in current models.
Why isn't there a manual mechanism for the door? Why didn't the passengers use an emergency glass hammer? Why isn't there an emergency release for the door?
I'd expect that the passengers may not have known about the emergency releases. It's also possible the releases failed, but all of them?
The article does a poor job of mentioning that those releases are standard to the vehicle. It's discussed elsewhere in this thread too, where they also provided the Model Y's manual.
https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/modely/en_us/GUID-AAD769C7-88A3-4695-987E-0E00025F64E0.html
"seemingly"
News titles sometimes
Fair, but at least they're reporting it and connecting the dots re: this tesla safety issue, which I haven't seen from any legacy media
We all know American car safety is a joke, that's not news
Worried about libel, it is very likely that someone like Musk would sue.
If they said "It was the fault of Tesla that these people are dead" without proof and without it being a quote from someone else, they can be sued pretty easily.