- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmit.online
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmit.online
Numerous Tesla owners say they’ve been trapped inside their EVs after they lost power.::Numerous Tesla owners say they have been trapped inside their EVs after they lost power.Teslas come with manual door releases, but they can be hard to find
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Have they tried subscribing to Twitter Blue? As I understand it, it ‘unlocks’ the door feature…
/s
Musk has been disabling the power door locks of his political enemies.
We’re deleting ‘doors’ as a feature. They just don’t make sense.
— Melontusk
‘Doors’ feature will only be available as a subscription service*
- your subscription can be revoked at any moment if you’re mean to Melon on Xitter
Doors are bloat, why would you need them when you got windows?
This is how the BMW a friend owns works, and it’s not an EV. The unlock button in the driver’s seat just stops working if the car is off.
How do I know this? I decided to stay in the car while my friend went to go get something, and it auto-locked as he walked away. After about 5 minutes of trying everything I could think of to get out (including attempting to climb into the boot, which was too small for anything except a malnourished child to fit through), he came back and unlocked it.
There is no manual way to unlock the door from the inside. I checked the driver’s manual. It says it’s impossible to do without “special knowledge” and does not provide any pointers on how to do so. The friend asked a guy at the BMW place after a service how to unlock it from the inside, and he said “oh, yeah, there’s no way to do that,” and laughed it off.
Previous BMW models weren’t designed like this. I can’t imagine what they’ll do to the next generation…
This sounds like a very dangerous design.
BMW thinks so too!
How idiotic. Manual interior trunk releases were mandated for a reason. BMW designers saw that and said “hold my beer!”
How is that even legal? It sounds like that is literally going to kill people.
A recent Corvette did kill its confused owner and his dog.
At last, able-bodied adults will join kids and pets in checks notes dying in a hot car
Yep. It’s going to kill people.
Teslas have manual door releases on the front doors though.
Im surprised thats not a NHTSA mandate. Its a safety thing. Like why you have to have a windsheild and mirrors on a car. Even if you can remove the windshield (ie: Jeep Wranglers) if you are caught on the road with it down, you are gonna get a ticket.
Isn’t there a way to submit that idea to the NHTSA?
I believe you can write them. Based on this, it does appear to mandate that you have to have a release on the inside. bUT it doesn’t say it has to be manual and it doesn’t necessarily say it has to be operable at all times.
That said, at the least, it would seem BMW would be in violation of the spirit of the law at least, and probably the letter too.
Teslas less so since they have an manual override but it being hidden and not well labeled is it’s own issue.
https://www.nhtsa.gov/interpretations/08-000497-16-jan-09-rewrite
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Motorcycles arent cars and arent treated as such. But anyone thats driven one knows how shitty it is to drive one with no protection on your face. Even a juicy bug at 70 mph doesnt feel awesome.
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The same ones that also say you cant drive with a cracked windshield.
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TIL Teslas are better designed than this BMW model 🤷♀️
Listen, r/technology needs its antimusk fix, OK? Teslas are pig piles of shit and people who likes theirs are simply too stockholmedf/sunkcost/whatever to see it.
I can’t imagine what they’ll do to the next generation…
Given the heated seats subscription, we can make a guess…
“Fire Detected! Unlock rapid vehicle disembarkation service? Single use €199.95. Taxes calculated at checkout. €19.95 convenience fee. Want it immediately? Instant delivery just €29.95. To purchase, just install BMW EZcape app from Google Play or Apple App Store! Registration, compatible device and registration required.”
Weird. When I got my VW ID.3, I once left the wife inside and (out of habit) locked the car. Everything was okay until she opened the glove box and the alarm went off, but she was still able to open the door and leave the car. And then glare at me.
Never lost power yet, but the door IS purely mechanical so I can’t imagine being trapped inside.
The previous generation BMW car my friend owned worked fine. This is a new regression, and if you look further up the thread, you’ll see I’ve posted a photo of page 86 of the BMW handbook where BMW acknowledges their own bad design and pushes the responsibility onto the owner to not lock people inside the car. While also having an auto-lock feature which is on by default.
It would be good to find out if this design was intentional or somehow just not tested until they had produced these models. The wording makes it seem that way.
Okay - I’ll grant you that, having not owned a BMW since my old 2002 days. I’m perhaps responding to the general discussions points of poor user controls and interactions rather than the rabbit hole of BMW quirks.
DRM doors. You want to get out of the car? Pay up!
Which model?
330i
BMW I have has the same thing going on. I was working on the car and thought to unplug the battery before continuing to work, unplugged it, closed the trunk, with my tools inside, closed the other doors and went inside for a snack. That was a rough day. I figured out that jumping the car would let me pop the trunk real quick and that saved me. Horrifying few hours before finding that out though
Yeah, uhh…it’s pretty stupid. The more I think about it, the more shocked I am that BMW is so aware of this that they need two separate warnings for it in the handbook, but make it the owner’s responsibility not to put themselves in that situation…?
If that where me I’d find some way to install a manual door release
That’s extra or a subscription.
Car is on some sort of lease program where you trade it in for the next model after a few years. There would need to be some way of installing a manual release without causing damage to the car…or preventing BMW from taking it back.
These same people drive into lakes because the GPS said so.
I am inclined to agree, except that I’ve also worked at Tesla and they’re not well designed or put together. They don’t have things where every other car on the market has them, and some things fall apart easily or dont work in the first place.
Owning a Tesla is basically a scavenger hunt to find out where they cut corners during design and manufacturing. (Hint: It’s literally everywhere possible.) I’ve never been so disappointed by a car in my life (‘23 MYP).
Whats what we get for buying cars from a software company.
You’re right about that. The software is quite epic, compared to other EV manufacturers, like BMW.
The route planning for 1000+ km road trips is almost perfect.
You’re totally right.
There is a manual door handle, which is not supposed to be used.
Most guests in my car naturally tend to go for the manual handle instead of the button, when not instructed.
So the people who claim to be locked are either looking for money or are total dumbfucks.
And they also walk into mall fountains.
I hate to be the voice of reason here, but if you get inside a powerful device to pilot it you should at minimum read the directions first.
I hate to be the voice of reason here
But you could read the article first…
Exton followed the instructions for the manual release to open the door, but he said this “somehow broke the driver’s window.”
That’s the tax. “You want to get out of your crippled car and not have a heat stroke? Go buy a new proprietary window from GlassX.”
IIRC Teslas roll the window down slightly when you open the doors, and this doesn’t work if the car’s dead.
Lots of cars do this. My old boss had a 350Z in like 2009 that lowered the window when you opened the door.
Yes that’s a risk, but would you rather have a broken window or be caught in a burning car? More important it still works after a power failure.
Have you read your entire car manual? Mine’s like 200 pages, no way I’d remember everything even if I did read all of it. It’s best used as a refefence when you need to do something.
If there was a weird procedure to open the doors I’d read that part… and anything else that isn’t standard or obvious too.
Yes I have read the entire thing. I paid enough for it I better know how to use it.
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Lemmy sure does love name calling! It’s such a mature and productive way to carry on a conversation!
I mean literally I paid 60k-ish all together for my two cars , why is it so hard to believe? I didn’t read it cover to cover, like all the detailed specifications, and the index and all that kind of stuff, I didn’t memorize the maintenance schedules for Canada and Mexico, but all the explanations of all the features? Of course I read all of that. It takes just 2-3 hours to go through it all, even sitting in the car and trying everything out as I go. It’s a super small time investment into something I’m going to own for several years. I spend way more time on a weekly basis on leisure activities like playing games.
I bought a new car recently, and I looked up how to get in, open the hood and jump start it if it has a dead battery, how to get in and start it with a dead keyfob, etc before I ever took delivery.
A bit of knowledge turns a major problem into a 5 minute problem. That said, it sounds like following the directions and using the manual release didn’t work very well.
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i hear that numerous tesla owners say they’ve been trapped inside their EVs after they lost power
i’ve also heard that numerous tesla owners say they’ve been trapped inside their EVs after they lost power
that, on top of the news that numerous tesla owners say they’ve been trapped inside their EVs after they lost power makes me realize we may be facing a horrifying truth: that numerous tesla owners are being trapped inside their EVs after they lost power
Did you hear that numerous Tesla owners say they’ve been trapped inside their EVs after they lost power?
Hold on, are you saying that numerous Tesla owners say they’ve been trapped inside their EVs after they lost power? I ask because I heard that numerous Tesla owners say they’ve been trapped inside their EVs after they lost power. Did you also hear that numerous Tesla owners say they’ve been trapped inside their EVs after they lost power?
This reminds me of the reports I’ve heard about numerous tesla owners being trapped inside their EVs after they lost power.
https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/model3/en_au/GUID-7A32EC01-A17E-42CC-A15B-2E0A39FD07AB.html
Really doesn’t look that hard to find… and who the fuck is getting into any car without knowing how to open it in case of an emergency lol.
Pretty stupid that there’s only a manual open for the front doors though, at least on the model 3.
and who the fuck is getting into any car without knowing how to open it in case of an emergency lol.
I think most people assume car doors all operate reasonably similarly. I don’t necessarily specifically check “how to open the door if I need to” when getting into a rental, an Uber, or a friend’s new car.
The emergency release on a Tesla is in the normal spot for a door handle. People trapped just assume there isn’t a release and don’t look for one.
Did you look at the link posted? I’ve never seen a door handle like that, and I’m not even sure I would realize it was a lever if I saw it. It looks like a static part of the door to me.
I do agree that I’d probably end up pulling on it after some searching, but it wouldn’t be the first place I’d go.
You’re getting into a car with an electronic door button, you probably shouldn’t assume it’s the same as every other car door.
I have never once in my life asked the driver of a vehicle how to open a door in case of emergency, because you should just be able to use the handle like any other fucking door.
What kind of absolute dipshit asks every driver they ride with where the hidden emergency door releases are on their car? That’s never been a thing. Never. Because no one would imagine a door would be so poorly designed.
Counter argument, what kind of absolute dipshit gets into a car with a fucking electronic door button and doesn’t look for a manual alternative?
Nobody’s saying Tesla doors are fucking well designed, but you would have to he an absolute fucking brick of a human being to get “trapped” in one.
Why would you assume pulling up on the inner part of the door is easy to find? It looks dumb as fuck and I would not think to try pulling that part
I can’t believe there isn’t a manual unlock for the back doors. They shouldn’t be road legal to lack that safety feature.
They could have at least put a label or symbol on it. I can totally understand if someone was looking for the emergency door handle and didn’t see it because it blends in. If the normal handle is marked it’s not unreasonable to presume the emergency handle would be too.
Never underestimate the stupidity of the average person. Don’t take my word for this, but I’ve heard that something like 50% of drivers don’t even know that you need to change your oil, intake filter, and check your tire pressure on a regular basis. The most basic, barebones maintenance that you need to have done, yet half of vehicle owners are completely clueless.
You have no idea how many videos I’ve seen from Just Rolled into the Shop & Mechanical Nightmare on YouTube, where someone brings in a brand new car with a seized engine and only 40K miles on the dash, all because the owner never changed (nor even checked) the oil. And then they have the nerve to try to get a warranty replacement. Or how many alligators I see on the road because people are driving around with 20 PSI in their tires and wondering why they keep having blowouts.
Check your oil level and tire pressure at least every other fill up, people. Also get every fluid flushed and every filter replaced if you’ve owned the vehicle for awhile or just bought it used. It’s not difficult, people.
I needed to look up what a road gator is and I have never seen one. In pre-1989 communist Czechoslovakia, people would need to do all kinds of repairs themselves and every car owner knew their machine inside out. To this day, knowledge of basic technology & maintenance (difference between the four-stroke diesel / spark-ignition engine, dashboard indicators, replacement of all fluids and brake pads, function of the battery, service intervals) is a required part of getting a driver’s license.
I see these almost daily and it’s usually from commercial vehicles having a blowout on their trucks or trailers.
I was riding in the front of my old boss’ model 3 and immediately just used the emergency unlock rather than the button. He said he didn’t even know about that.
It definitely seemed like a pretty intuitive location.
Yeah that’s more of a problem that people tend to use the emergency release because it’s a physical handle and seems familiar. The manual used to even warn against using it (it didn’t drop the side window, risking damage… I think that was fixed a while ago though).
I am flabbergasted about how little some people know about cars.
In a discussion about a potentially mandatory hardware cutoff button for EVs after the accident in China:
- But that’s just an electric button! What is a button good for if the electronics fail?
Do you know what a hardware cutoff does?
- Could I press it accidentally?
Such button would be mounted somewhere you can see and easily reach but normally don’t have hands there, like the dashboard.
- What if I’m going 80 mph on a highway and the cutoff somehow activates?
Did you realize that you don’t actually stop dead when the motor is disconnected? You will start coasting, gradually slowing down (unless it’s downhill) and come to a halt in about a minute.
However, the software (or hardware, if the manufacturer is actually safety aware) will “notice” the cutoff and turn on brake lights (& hazards if they are separate), and inform you that you need to pull the button back up to reconnect the contacts. If you realize your mistake immediately, you can revert it in less time than it takes beginners to shift gears on some old cars (which is also a time when the motor is not engaged).- But how do I stop a rogue car if the button actually does not do it by itself?
Slamming the brakes all the way should mechanically engage the brake pads regardless of whether the electronics works. If not, the car is not road legal.
- Cars did not use to have this!
Do you know what the ignition key does? It physically prevents the motor from firing any further if it is pulled.
Stop complaining about mechanical overrides to electronic systems! Any software engineer will tell you that they’ll happily be able to pull the plug if their computer tries to kill them!
The brakes in a Tesla are move powerful than the motors. If the guy in China had actually been hitting the brakes, the car could have never reached 150kmh. The chance of a simultaneous failure of the mechanical brakes, the electrical interlocks and the drive software is FAR less likely than the chance the driver was pushing the wrong peddle.
The brakes in a Tesla are move powerful than the motors.
Maybe if you combine e-brakes and brake pads, I guess? Anyway, I agree that at >100 km/h, the brake pads should easily overpower the motor.
And aircraft have manual overrides. Moving the yoke will disconnect the autopilot, circuit breakers can be pulled to disconnect systems, landing gear can drop via gravity, etc.
The manual door release can be tricky to find unless you’ve combed through your car’s owner’s manual.
Absolute horseshit. Practically every person who gets out of my car for the first time goes for the manual handle. I have to make a point to tell them to use the button.
I have to make a point to tell them to use the button.
So the design is flawed. 20 year old cars can drop the window slightly when the door is opened, why can’t a semi-self-driving car do it?
20 year old cars can drop the window slightly when the door is opened
sigh
It does. If there is no power or somebody swings the door open super fast it can damage/break the window. Generally it’s fine.
Not even a Tesla or Elon guy but wow people just really enjoy shitting on these cars lol. That 20 year old car that drops the window doesn’t drop it when the battery is dead either. Flawed design man, Teslas are ass, Elon is Satan 🤷♂️
Not when the battery is dead dipshit
What? Do you mean that there’s a button to open the door in Teslas? Wasn’t that standardized? And it is hard to find? They must be retarded.
https://youtu.be/GzXEhkI-Y3k?t=22
Tesla’s have a button to electronically open the door and immediately below it they have a traditional pull handle to open the door.
Oh well, no wonder people didn’t notice it.
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came here to say this exact thing. I’m paranoid new people will pull the manual exit over the button, becauseit can potentially damage the frame.(which is dumb for other reasons).
Teslas come with manual door releases, but they can be hard to find
This is misleading. The door releases are extremely hidden, and seem to be specifically designed to not be found by anyone who has not received special training to find and use them. Also, they are not the same on every model, and are sometimes not even the same on all versions of the same model.
Some releases are hidden inside of door panel molding, others are hidden inside speaker grills, some are hidden under floor mats and even then must be pulled a specific direction to function.
Tesla seems to be going out of their way to kill people by trapping them. It’s fucking bizarre.
Like the ones on the 3 and Y that are literally the first things the people go for if you haven’t told them where the open button is…
I mean, if you’re functionally blind, you could argue they’re hidden…
This is actually true, I did this last week. The owner had to show me the open button. However, I think I’ve heard the S or X might have an actually difficult to find release, but not sure.
The first time I ever rode in a Model 3, I accidentally used the mechanical door handle instead of the electronic one. It’s exactly where a normal door handle is. The driver said it happens all the time.
I’ve had a lot more people accidentally open the door with the manual override than the normal door release because it’s a lot more obvious than the normal door release. There are a ton of reasons to criticize Tesla, this is not one of them IMO. This article reads like a lot of other anti-EV “news” articles.
I mean, when you hide a manual door release behind a speaker grill what other conclusion can be made?
People… There are manual door handles right where you expect them to be. Why isn’t this in the title hmmmmmmm?
For the model S and X the handles look normal, but not for the model Y and 3. The handles for the model Y and 3 are in front of the window buttons, easy to miss. On top of that using the manual release handles for the model Y and 3 could possibly crack your window trim. Stupid, but true.
Try looking up the models they’re talking about in the article before assuming things hmmmmmmm?
But seriously, everyone should look up the emergency info for your vehicles. May you never need it, but it’s good to know. Like not all Tesla models have a back seat/trunk escape if you find yourself in a serious front end collision. Or how in the Model X you have to pry off the speaker grill to access the manual release wire.
I have a 3. Again, I have to tell people to use the button the first (and 2nd, and on) time they get out. They go right for the manual release which is where, as I said, you would expect.
My dad has a 3. I have no idea where that manual release is supposed to be
Next time you’re in the front seat take a wild guess.
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You know why
I get that people could be more curious about their cars, but hiding an emergency release like some kind of hidden book on Hogwarts that you have to yank on seems like a dumb idea. Car doors have established design language, and if you break that design language it has to be pretty fucking obvious how to do the action your users were trained to do.
I the Tesla, the emergency release is where you’d normally look for the regular release. I have to tell people to use the button near their thumb instead.
I get that not everyone has this same experience, but it seems like most people already know where the emergency release is on the Tesla, even if they’re not owners.
I think the problem is more that people don’t even look for an emergency release because they assume there isn’t one.
Tesla is not alone (there was a story about someone trapped in a Corvette because they didn’t know about the separate emergency release handle).
However, there are examples of doing it better. For example, evidently in the Mach E the emergency release is… pulling the normal door release harder. So there’s some detent for ‘normal electric opening of door’ and then if you are more frantic, pulling harder to really open the door.
Yeah that Mach-E example sounds ideal.
They are not hidden, I proactively tell new passengers to use the button not the emergency pull handle. If you use the emergency release the window doesn’t drop and can mess up the window trim. I learned to warn people after the first 3 passengers pulled the handle automatically instead of pressing the button marked ‘door’.
Why would you want the window to open when you open your door?
Sorry just saw this. Frameless windows.
Just when I start to think there’s alot of great information in the posts and comments on Lemmy, I read some like this.
Yep I thought the same after seeing 3 Tesla bashing posts one after the other in my feed. I don’t care for the brand but I also don’t want to hear about every single defect with them in individual posts.
I think the ‘technology’ topic is too broad and allows for this sort of shit slinging to happen too easily.
I would argue that because reddit technology was anti-Tesla, they carried that over to lemmy as well.
Most people working in technology, even software engineers, will appreciate being able to stop or exit a 1-ton machine mechanically. Heck, I don’t even trust my own code and it’s mostly fun shit like this. However, this post has reached the All feed on many instances, which I guess the less knowledgeable people are coming from… it’s been the same on Reddit last year (see my other comment)
Koušesa už zase rdousí? :-D
Háj felou Ček! Dount f𝔯get tu sabsk𝔯ájb tu !cesky@czech-lemmy.eu ó𝔯 !czechrepublic@czech-lemmy.eu! (It mej tejk seve𝔯l minits bifó𝔯 jó𝔯 instens louds 𝔱 kontent, plís bí pejšnt.)
Yea … hopefully user-defined multi communities come around and we can start to be a bit more organised about stuff here while also more easily able to splinter off into separate communities with different focuses.
It’s been the same on Reddit when arguing about emergency motor cutoff last year, see my other comment…
Fact #648637 why Tesla is a bad car. It just feels very sloppy and badly engineered.
Excuse me? But I happen to enjoy taking off my speaker grill to pull my manual release lever to open the back doors. /s
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the door handles are the definition of over-engineered
except when you need to get out of the car.
There are manual door handles right where you would expect them to be.
People are dumb.
if lots of people are having the same issue with the design, then it is the design that is dumb.
Knowing absolutely nothing about this situation, there are enough Teslas out there that dumb mistakes of every variety are going to happen. At a certain point you can’t work around every kind of stupid, some of them directly conflict with each other. Now, I personally think Teslas are over-engineered in some areas, but despite not ever having been inside one even I know they have electronic doors and and manual override.
Remember when Toyotas had a problem with spontaneous acceleration? The thing is, no, they didn’t. People were mixing up the brake and accelerator like they always do and somehow one incident made the news, and it became a trend.
I’ve already lost my enthusiasm for this discussion, but there you go. People be doing dumb things and you gotta ask what the acceptable dumb mistake rate is, because you will never completely eliminate it.
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The manual door release is so hard to find that most time, passengers not knowing Tesla cars use them.
If you can’t find the door release, maybe you are too dumb to drive a 2 tons car with other humans.
Model X: If the power drops out, you can open the rear doors using a mechanical release found behind the speaker grille, which you need to remove from the vehicle’s door, the manual adds.
Ah yes, if I can’t get out of a car, my first thought would be to dismantle the speaker grille.
What the actual fuck. Why would a door handle be so god damned difficult?
The Model Y has it hidden too: the back (you know, where small children are likely to be) has its manual release under the floor mat. And the exterior door handles need power to pop out, obviously, since they’re flush with the door normally. So if you have power out, and there are kids in the back with extreme heat or a fire or something, good fucking luck.
How on Earth did the NHTSA let this shit happen?
The release on the front doors doesn’t look like a release —but at least you can use it readily.
The release on the back doors is hidden behind a hard to remove cover.
Not knowing where a hidden lever and driving a vehicle are two pretty mutually exclusive skills.
This is the anti musk circlejerk, I’ve seen countless articles like this being posted here, and the cohort of brainless haters always follow.
I have a Tesla, not because I like musk (dude is human garbage), but because I like the car. Only a moron wouldn’t be able to find the manual door unlock. At this point this is either trolling or natural selection.
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