In the US there are nine investigations involving the Tesla Model Y, ranging from “unexpected brake activation” to “sudden unintended acceleration,” according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Nice
Expect those investigations to quietly go away or turn up nothing in about two months from now.
I doubt it as that would be a very bad look
If there’s anything the incoming administration is unconcerned about, it’s the optics of any decisions they make.
Because the team that headlines with this guy giving bjs to microphones and bragging about sexual assault is worried how things look.
Lol
“when a crash disabled its electronic doors.”
Female AI voice: Please stay in your seats with your seat belts on until Elon has been notified of this incident.
This reminds me… I need a glass breaking hammer for safety in my non Tesla car.
They might all have one but if not, get one that has a seat belt cutter on it. And keep it in the front console, not anywhere in the back or in the glove compartment.
I knew someone (an acquaintance, we weren’t close) who died in a crash because their seatbelt got stuck and they couldn’t get out. They had one of those cutter hammer combos but it was in the back seat. Absolutely nightmarish.
Also fix it to the console with a clip. Can’t use the cutter when it is out of reach because the car flipped over. And buy more than one, driver could become incapacitated after a crash while the backseat passengers are stuck.
My dad was driving a truck full of pigs back in the 70s. He was driving with 2 friends in a very heavy rain. They were crossing a shitty Mexican bridge when they lost traction and went off into the river upside down. The river/channel was narrow so they doors wouldn’t open. They managed to break the windshield and escape. None of the pigs survived. But neither the pigs nor my dad or friends were wearing seatbelts… because Mexico and 1970’s, reasons, etc. I mean the truck was a Datsun and those things did not have seatbelts installed from what I recall.
I ride my bicycle in traffic. I find the differences in our perceived risk profiles funny.
Find a good lawyer and sue the living shit out of Tesla and “Leon.” I agree with the majority of the comments.
We should rebrand him as Emperor Cleon (Day)
Who could see this coming, other than literally everybody
I can’t believe there isn’t an NHTSA regulation about manual egress from an unpowered vehicle. This is just bonkers.
There are manual releases but they’re hidden. They need to be more obvious because these cars are rented to people and obviously the owners aren’t taking the time to figure out where they’re at.
I would also think just having secondary power packs in each door would help in the event power is cut to ensure the doors can continue to function for a few minutes while also a speaker could explain how to use the emergency release if none of the doors are working.
All this added complexity and cost isn’t worth it to me, manual doors just make sense for so many reasons.
Or, how about this: it’s a door, have it work like every other car door for the last 70 years.
Redesigning stuff to make it “cool” and “futuristic” is fucking stupid and is clearly not safe. Doors have handles, the handles are pulled to open the door. Keep it simple.
The reason given for hiding them just makes that fact worse. It’s for “aesthetics”. Manual latches don’t look futuristic enough.
In the future nobody reads “the design of everyday things” apparently
In the future nobody reads
“the design of everyday things” apparently
Honestly Tesla should be sued over this
The front handles aren’t hidden. They’re so obvious everyone I take in my car tries to use them first if I don’t tell them.
Back doors is a whole other story.
That’s if they have them. Apparently some models of the Y don’t come with manual back door releases.
Back doors is a whole other story.
Thats what this means. The back seats are hit and miss depending on the vehicle.
I thought that was more in reference to the release being hidden under a mat to access. The fact that ‘a whole other story’ could be misconstrued two ways I think just shows how bonkers this is 😂
Ah, I can see how that may have come across like that. My bad.
Ah when you try to reinvent the the wheel, fail, and then kill people with it
This is what it says on their website. Hope you’ve got the link handy if you’re in a crash, and also that you’re not in one that doesn’t have this…
make everything electronic because Elon thinks it is super cool
put very inefficiently placed manual overrides because it was a bad idea
Not all Model Y vehicles are equipped with a manual release for the rear doors.
I think I see a problem.
Also: that’s waaaay too many steps for an emergency. Imagine trying to dismantle the door trim when you have a concussion.
Are you kidding meeeee
Look it’s very simple if you get in a crash and are on fire.
Stop. Drop. Roll. 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. Remember that not all Model Y vehicles are equipped with a manual release for the rear doors. Die.
Rolls right off the tongue. If you’re still in trouble call 0118 999 88199 9119 725 3.
For english press 1. Your call will be answered in the order it was received.
For regicide, press 3
To return to the main menu, press all of the buttons on your keypad simultaneously.
Remember: To speed up, increase your speed. To decrease your speed, slow down.
Door handles are ugly though.
Worth a few lives to get them out of the way.
This is some “Headphone jacks are ugly” logic here.
No, this is so much worse. Enjoyment function vs aesthetic is a reasonable trade off. Emergency egress vs aesthetic is an insane trade off
And don’t you know how many cents a door handle costs? Christ, we’re not made of money.
“Expensive” is the real issue for Tesla. That’s a couple dollars that can go into Elon’s pockets.
Realistically they should show the owners at the dealership and make sure they open it several times before taking it off the lot then reinforce it in software and make them release it once a month.
Or you know… just make it mechanical
And what about the passengers? Is the owner going to be required to give an airline attendant “emergency exits are located here” safety speech every time someone hops in the car with them? Can we actually trust them to do so?
Also, not all models have mechanical release mechanisms in the rear doors. There are models where it is 100% possible to just be locked in the back seat. And when you only have ~15 seconds to escape before the lithium flames+smoke cook you, you’re not going to be able to crawl to the front.
Well fuck Tesla. This should be illegal.
It’s so easy! When you get in a crash are panicking and disoriented, who needs a simple quick lever that’s there at all times??? Simply follow these complicated 3 steps to extract yourself from the burning vehicle!
*not available on all models.
Link?
Or they could try a front door, which is much more straightforward
Man, I bet those dead kids in the back seat feel so stupid now.
They should’ve just read the owners manual (and hoped their car was equipped with an emergency release) not my fault they’re lazy.
What important living beings go in the back anyway? It’s usually just babies, pets, and children.
Yeah but mechanical car door handles aren’t “Cool.” You don’t want to have a car that isn’t cool, right?
Some GenZ kids were talking about how cool rolling up a window with a handle was and wished it was in cars again. It was refreshing to hear.
When electric windows became a thing I considered it a downgrade because it meant that I couldn’t roll down my window when the engine was off.
More fancy bits is just more bits to break.
“For god’s sake call customer service!!!”
So happy my car is not a tesla.
Always have an emergency tool in your car to break your windows in case this shit happens to you. Even if you’re in a car not designed by a god damn moron.
Tesla uses double pane laminated glass, it doesn’t shatter like normal tempered glass. It can be really difficult to break and get through.
Also to break glass, don’t hit the middle of the glass, strike near a bottom corner where it is less likely to flex against the impact. You may be able to take a seatbelt’s end and use the corner of the metal end of the seatbelt to break it if you have nothing else. Corners for breaking
When I first learned that Teslas (and almost all other EV’s) have electronic only doors, I knew this kind of situation would happen.
I hope this gets laws enacted that force manufacturers to install mechanical latches on all of their vehicles. I know Teslas have manual overrides on their front doors, but the rear doors still have this issue.When I first learned that Teslas (and almost all other EV’s) have electronic only doors
I really just want a regular car with an EV power train. Don’t to change a bunch of shit on the car, unless it is germane to its function as an EV. Things like doors, instrument clusters, turn signals, infotainment, HVAC controls, shifting (e.g. park, reverse, drive) should be the same as any other vehicle.
I hope this gets laws enacted that force manufacturers to install mechanical latches on all of their vehicles.
Considering Musk’s love affair with the incoming administration, I wouldn’t bet on it for the next 4 years (hopefully)
In fact I’d be happy to just have the NHTSA avoid being dismantled in the next 4 years
Just how California had laws that effectively forced automakers to make nationwide changes, Europe can still mandate this and it may end up here regardless.
The cybertruck is already illegal here in the EU since it doesn’t comply with pedestrian safety laws.
I don’t think it will have as much of an effect on the auto industry I’m afraid, the auto industry is already well used to having multiple regional models to comply with weird country quirks of their own vehicle safety boards.
Any EU mandate will just get through onto the already existing model destined for EU countries. Unless the EU writes it in such a way to force companies to abide by it in all countries even non-EU, but that would be a legal gray area for sure.
It works for Cali because no company is going to have multiple regional region cars (i.e. states), that would be a step to far for them lol
In general, this isn’t exactly a safety conscious administration in those terms.
Prepare to see a lot more products with serious safety issues coast by disinterested regulators and become popular with your friends and family. Peppering your life with a little extra spice.
Mid-terms are in 2 years!
NHTSA is part of the executive, so he would still have control over it, but we can at least hopefully place restrictions on his power (or impeach) in 2, assuming the election still happens and the results are accepted.
Most manufacturers use the door handle to override the electronic system. Like pulling twice or harder than usual.
That’s fine then. We’re relearning why all cars with manual transmissions have the same foot pedal and shift pattern arrangement. It’s so in a panic situation, people aren’t having to orientate themselves mentally and can just go off of muscle memory to save themselves. I should be shocked that Tesla didn’t hire any auto industry veterans that know that, but I’m not. This reeks of software dev shit where every new MBA coming in just has to shake things up and reinvent everything so they can leave their mark.
And it reeks because they “leave their mark” just like an unneutered cat.
I read an article that Teslas are designed to have thier electrics in a daisy chain to avoid big ugly bundles of wires. But that just means a failure propagates down the chain so non critical systems can take out critical ones. Clearly he doesn’t listen to or hire car engineers.
Shouldn’t an electric be programmed to open if it finds itself undergoing powerloss? Isn’t that like a very basic failsafe? One so basic it’s the plot to an indie horror game that wasn’t intended for children but found an audience there anyway?
What game is that?
FNAF
Should’ve known
this is why electric locks should NOT be relied on for safety: electric locks MUST default open when something goes wrong, which means that picking them is as easy as making them malfunction or cutting the power.
Except power cables are inside and to pick them you first need to pick them.
The model Y has mechanical emergency door openers in the front. Not in the rear. It complains about possibly breaking window trim when you use them.
They are not super obvious though and you’d have to know in an emergency.
Yeah the releases in the 3 and Y aren’t too bad. Most people use them by mistake once or twice (and get the warning about window trim).
The X however is unforgivable. You have to pop off the speaker grills to get to them and then the door also weighs a lot and has to be manually lifted upwards.
You have to pop off the speaker grills
Oh yes, the obvious thing to do when trying to escape a fire.
As if we didn’t have enough reasons to hate musk
No, on the X there is a lever just below the open door button on the front doors. I have seen multiple people use it instead of the button because the button in the front door is less obvious to them then the lever.
I’m talking about the back doors. But yes. I incorrectly compared the front doors in the 3/Y with the back doors of the X.
Same with the Model 3.
I have to disagree with them not being obvious however. Nearly every new person in my Model 3 goes to grab the emergency release immediately. I even added vinyl door open stickers next to the button to make it more obvious and it still happens almost every time.
Yes I wasn’t clear. They aren’t obvious for rear seat passengers. They are in a reasonable and semi obvious place for front seat passengers. The very first time I was in a model y I pulled the emergency door pull thinking that was the handle.
The model 3 and Y both back mechanical backups. I suspect the S does too. The back doors on the X definitely don’t, but that’s not the only questionable design decision on the X.
but that’s not the only questionable design decision on the X.
They didn’t want sliding doors because that makes it a minivan. And minivans are “uncool”
So give it regular-ass doors like every other SUV. Now Tesla’s only full-size SUV (as well as their only “truck”) are not compatible with a roof rack. If I get an SUV or a truck it’s because I want to move a bunch of stuff around, and I 100% will get a roof rack because of that.
Every fucking one of them needs to be recalled.
With lord Elon presiding over god king trumps “economy”, I wouldn’t count on that. Adding that safe guard measure would cost him too much.
deleted by creator
Horse shit. Safety features should not require reading the manual to operate. They should be big, obvious, and easy to operate. What if you’re a passenger and the accident causes the driver to lose consciousness?
Bigger horseshit in the manual: https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/modely/en_us/GUID-AAD769C7-88A3-4695-987E-0E00025F64E0.html
Not all Model Y vehicles are equipped with a manual release for the rear doors.
How is that legal?!
Perhaps same as 3 seat row or 2 door cars with rear row. Good luck escaping from the back in rush.
Uber passenger? Better read the manual!
Also safety features should be accessible to those panicking. It’s why heavy machinery emergency stops tend to be big red buttons/switches
I want to see you recite a haiku while the car is burning. Can’t think of one? Maybe relying on knowledge instead of intuition isn’t such a great idea.
People have died in front of emergency escape doors that are slide to open instead of push because of air pressure, so expecting people to find a little loop under a plastic cover in the door compartment during an emergency is asinine. Which is the case for Tesla Y, btw.
Imagine being in a burning car and needing the manual to open the doors. And then you can’t find it so you start googling “Tesla model S manual”, find a PDF, then start scrolling through it trying to find out how do you open the doors.
Here’s an idea, how about just make it so the handles mechanically open the damn doors? This is why i’ll never own an electric car, they’re full of bullshit like this where things are done electronically for absolutely no reason. I hate this fucking design phylosophy where everything has to be more complicated, less reliable and less functional.
Being electric isn’t the problem. These are design choices that assume that things will always be perfect.
True, but this design philosophy is currently omnipresent in electric vehicles. I guess i shouldn’t say never, maybe someday they’ll make an electric Lada and i’d buy that in an instant
deleted by creator
Nonono. There’s no excuse to not make a door work mechanically. It should be easy and obvious to open from the inside. Why shit like this is even allowed is completely beyond me.
Ok, what about passengers?
What about kids? Should they start go right from ABC’s to the Tesla Model Y 2020-2021 Owners Manual?
What if it’s a rental, do you sit down and read the owners manual in the parking lot of the rental place before you go anywhere?
Door handles have basically been an industry standard as they are (mechanical) because of form and function. They just work, there is zero reason that door handles need to be electric and have a manual emergency release. The only reason I could grasp from the smallest straws was aesthetics: they look cooler/go better with the car.
Lamborghinis and Ferrari’s have mechanical door handles, if it’s good enough for them, it should be good enough for Musk.
Can I set your car on fire, and only let you out once you’ve shown me the fuse box?
No problem; the first one is under the hood on the right, and the second one is in the driver’s side footwell.
Now let me out please.
Any safety feature that requires you read how to use it has already failed. During an emergency, you have to know, intuitively, how to escape. It’s why panic bars exist on doors.
I put two window smashers with seatbelt cutters in my Wife’s Model Y for this reason. The back seat door releases are HARD to notice as they are buried in a door pocket. We are getting rid of the car next year for something made by an actual 100 year old car company and not run by a fucking greedy dork.
