Tesla owners are modifying their cars to be escapable if the car catches fire, because the doors stop working like normal and you need to rely on well-hidden mechanical overrides.

Which... feels pretty dangerous, like that's the worst possible time for the doors to stop working like normal.

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 101 points 1 year ago (14 children)

The manual door open on some models of Teslas require removing 2 panels that are not labeled and need a diagram to know how to remove them. Another requires removing the speaker grill and pulling an unlabeled wire.

Even once the manual door release is pulled, without power you need a firefighter's upper body strength to open the door, and it's likely that flames and poisonous smoke will be coming up any tiny gap you can create by pushing open the door a little.

Just willful disregard of your customers' lives.

  • source
  • hideshow 14 child comments
  • [–] 37 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Honestly, this seems more like incompetence. They hired tech bros to make a car, not safety engineers. How these cars got through safety regulations is beyond me.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 44 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Simple, the regulations don't talk about any of that shit.

    US road regulations are a blend of smart, fucking stupid, and just plain missing regulations.

    The fact any current "standard" pickup trucks are allowed on the road despite nearly half the population being short enough that they can't see over the hood is just one of the most obvious examples that the US road regulations are pointless to try and make sense of.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • load more comments (5 replies)
    [–] 62 points 1 year ago (21 children)

    How is this legal? Who let these vehicles on the road?

  • source
  • hideshow 21 child comments
  • [–] [S] 41 points 1 year ago (8 children)

    I, for one, am baffled.

    How didn't this get recalled after the first escapable entrapment death? I could find 12 fire deaths where the occupants were evidently trapped, and that was just my dumb ass Googling for an afternoon for recent cases, I'm sure there's more.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago* (3 children)

    If a new car built by my company leaves Chicago traveling west at 60 miles per hour, and the rear differential locks up, and the car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside, does my company initiate a recall?

    You take the population of vehicles in the field (A) and multiple it by the probable rate of failure (B), then multiply the result by the average cost of an out-of-court settlement (C).

    A times B times C equals X. This is what it will cost if we don't initiate a recall.

    If X is greater than the cost of a recall, we recall the cars and no one gets hurt.

    If X is less than the cost of a recall, then we don't recall.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • [+] 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)
  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago

    Regulators figured nobody would be stupid enough to mess that up and no paragraphs are needed to make things explicit. Then came Elon who thought that technically correct is the best kind of correct so he made this abomination of a manual release.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 40 points 1 year ago (1 child)
  • [–] 22 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    I recently went car shopping, and I had considered an EV. I told someone this, and she immediately started recommending Tesla to me, despite Elon's bullshit. She tried to tell me that Elon's insanity doesn't change that Tesla is the "best product in the space".

    I have to admit, Elon's bullshit was a big factor in not even giving Tesla the time of day, but there's also issues just like this one. I do not want a car that prioritizes gee-whiz geegaws over basic safety like this.

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 19 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Having now driven basically all the EV vehicles available in my country, from the byd range to Hyundai, Nissan and Tesla, Tesla is just a straight mess of a vehicle by comparison, and don't even get me started on the Tesla indicator thing. Oh and they feel cheap on the inside, even the plaid and other high end ones. Lol

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • load more comments (2 replies)
    [–] 22 points 1 year ago (8 children)

    At this point I don't know why anyone is buying those death-traps. For me any benefit from the self-driving feature is outweighed by the safety and poor build quality issues.

  • source
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I don't know why anyone is buying those death-traps.

    I've got good news, then! Fewer and fewer people are buying the illegal immigrant's dangerous and overpriced swastikar, with new buyers dropping and trade-ins rising every day as public support for the emerald mine nepo baby nazi dwindles daily.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Because risk is statistically low and fuel cost savings are more tangible than believing you're going to crash, let alone die. Humans are not logical. We know most conservatives don't believe in EVs and outright liberals don't want to support Musk, so who keeps buying them? Despite the reports of slumping sales, my area is continually renewing them despite being deeply blue. There's another category: the real silent majority. The apathetic majority that's being selfish and diminishing the weight of their actions.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (2 replies)
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 16 points 1 year ago (4 children)
  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    You need to grab the ripcord with your right hand, conveniently placed above the heart, and thrust it forward and up.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 14 points 1 year ago

    I would not expect US auto regulations to improve for at least 3.5 years, minimum.

  • source
  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    if only there was an easier way of not getting trapped in a car...

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    Huh, this reminded me of Five Nights at Freddy's and how even with murderous robots around, there is a safety precaution where the doors open incase power goes out.

  • source
  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (1 child)
    load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    These stupid cucks...

  • source
  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    It's probably easier to get one of those ceramic window breakers and get out that way. I'm pretty sure the rip cords are actually quite hard to pull.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments
    view more: next ›