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Nearly 3M Teslas recalled in China over hidden door handles

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Re: Nearly 3M Teslas recalled in China over hidden door handles

#71

Post by Leonard_of_Q »

yieldcrv wrote: post #50

This current Chinese administration is great Maybe Xi getting rid of generals in the party really helped many other high ranking officials step in line and step up in doing things for the people

"Great" except for those nagging problems in Xinjiang, that nasty business with trade in prisoner's organs, forced labour camps, lack of freedom of association and expression, the problem with people forcibly being disappeared by the state, the heavy omnipresent censorship and many other similarly repressive policies.

Re: Nearly 3M Teslas recalled in China over hidden door handles

#72

Post by yourusername »

eru wrote: post #22
sillysaurusx wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it help to add a surface behind the side mirrors so that it's more aerodynamic? I'm thinking something that stretches from the car body to the side mirrors. Or could the side mirrors could be shaped like an airplane's wing so that the air displaces nicely? It'd look weird, but I'd rather have the fuel efficiency.

You could replace the mirrors with tiny cameras and screens inside the car, perhaps. But not sure that would be legal.

Audi e-tron has had this as a option for a number of years. But replacing mirrors with screen has a downside: it ruins your depth perception. Instead of focussing 30-100 meters away through the mirror you have to focus on a screen 0.5 meters away. Digital mirrors are very tiring for your eyes compared to mirrors.

Re: Nearly 3M Teslas recalled in China over hidden door handles

#73

Post by userbinator »

cherioo wrote: post #10
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #8

Good move. There's an interesting old article on the door handles here: > https://medium.com/@arunchidambaram/is-teslas-door-handle-an... In aerodynamic terms, door handles are nbd compared to side mirrors. Mirrors account for 6% of a car's aerodynamic drag. Door handles: roughly 0.2%. Basically they make no difference -- their effect is a rounding error -- and they were implemented for form-over-function style point…

What i hear is that electric door handle is more of a manufacturing cost-saving measure than an aerodynamic saving.

Strong disagree; it's not saving anything but the jobs of those who seem to really enjoy overcomplicating things so they can justify their continued employment.

The old-school pure mechanical lock can be converted into an electric one with just the addition of a solenoid to unlock and lock it.

They can be just as flush and aerodynamic without introducing more complexity: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49415744

I've dealt with the complexities of automotive mechanisms long enough to see many cases where it seems someone just wanted to make something extra fancy rather than solve the fundamentally simple problem. German designs were notoriously one of the worst in this regard, but others are catching up.

Re: Nearly 3M Teslas recalled in China over hidden door handles

#74

Post by arlcode »

eru wrote: post #29
fxtentacle wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s what big trucks use. Because you can use wide angle cameras and actually see more.

These days you could probably even stitch together images from multiple cameras?

That's also what trucks already do to eliminate dead angles and help the driver manoeuver in tight spaces

Re: Nearly 3M Teslas recalled in China over hidden door handles

#75

Post by a96 »

eru wrote: post #22
sillysaurusx wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it help to add a surface behind the side mirrors so that it's more aerodynamic? I'm thinking something that stretches from the car body to the side mirrors. Or could the side mirrors could be shaped like an airplane's wing so that the air displaces nicely? It'd look weird, but I'd rather have the fuel efficiency.

You could replace the mirrors with tiny cameras and screens inside the car, perhaps. But not sure that would be legal.

Honda E is a production car with virtual mirrors. I think they're an option on Audi E-tron (R8? GT?) and Lexus ES.

Re: Nearly 3M Teslas recalled in China over hidden door handles

#76

Post by arlcode »

userbinator wrote: post #65

They could've made exterior door handles that look exactly the same as they currently do, but without adding all this additional fragile complexity: put them on a pivot, so you press one end and the other pops up so you can pull on it... https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61xdWAXl2ML.jpg ...no electricity required to operate those. door handles that are "difficult to identify and operate because their colour is simi…

Hyundai is doing that at least in the Ionic 5

Re: Nearly 3M Teslas recalled in China over hidden door handles

#77

Post by Zanfa »

bestouff wrote: post #61
versteegen wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ok the rear red turn signal lights were already a trend in the US before Tesla. But please reverse this too. I'm surprised. But it shouldn't be up to Tesla; it's illegal and they never get on the road in countries with proper regulations.

You will never see those in the EU.

I wish. Never used to really see any until recently. Looks like a brake light malfunction if you're not expecting it.

Re: Nearly 3M Teslas recalled in China over hidden door handles

#78

Post by bdhdhduuyd »

Freedom2 wrote: post #58
aurareturn wrote: post #7

Hidden door handles, button open doors when inside the car, only touch screen buttons, rear red turn signal lights. Reverse these trends. They all suck and unsafe. Ok the rear red turn signal lights were already a trend in the US before Tesla. But please reverse this too. It's very difficult to see blinking red lights on the freeway when it's sunny. For you people out there who buy cars with red blinking signal light…

There's commenters here who genuinely believe the hidden door handles have a non-negligible effect on the aerodynamics of these cars.

A 0.5-1% efficiency gain is not much.

Re: Nearly 3M Teslas recalled in China over hidden door handles

#79

Post by sudahtigabulan »

aurareturn wrote: post #7

Hidden door handles, button open doors when inside the car, only touch screen buttons, rear red turn signal lights. Reverse these trends. They all suck and unsafe. Ok the rear red turn signal lights were already a trend in the US before Tesla. But please reverse this too. It's very difficult to see blinking red lights on the freeway when it's sunny. For you people out there who buy cars with red blinking signal light…

When you can only see half of a car, the red turn signal lights also make it impossible to tell quickly whether the car is about to get into your lane or the driver's foot is on the brakes.

This situation can happen both in traffic or in a row of parked vehicles.

Re: Nearly 3M Teslas recalled in China over hidden door handles

#80

Post by bigfatkitten »

bestouff wrote: post #61
versteegen wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ok the rear red turn signal lights were already a trend in the US before Tesla. But please reverse this too. I'm surprised. But it shouldn't be up to Tesla; it's illegal and they never get on the road in countries with proper regulations.

You will never see those in the EU.

Australia generally follows EU for vehicle safety regs, and red turn signals were banned for new vehicles in 1973.
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