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
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…
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.
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.”
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
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.
How is that even legal? It sounds like that is literally going to kill people.
