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
Have they tried subscribing to Twitter Blue? As I understand it, it ‘unlocks’ the door feature…
/s
We’re deleting ‘doors’ as a feature. They just don’t make sense.
— Melontusk
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…
How is that even legal? It sounds like that is literally going to kill people.
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.”
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.
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
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).
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.
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.
