Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Four dead in fire as Tesla doors fail to open after crash

myelectricsparks.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 188 posts

Re: Four dead in fire as Tesla doors fail to open after crash

#101

Post by DrillShopper »

nemomarx wrote: post #5
ndiddy wrote: post #2

Another similar incident happened around a week after that one: https://www.channel3000.com/news/dane-county-sheriffs-office... . One thing to note is that the car doors in Teslas are electrically controlled and a different failsafe method of opening the doors is required when the electrical system isn't working. Here's the steps for manually opening the Model Y's rear doors (car in the story the post links to): http…

why are the doors electronically controlled to start with? is it cost savings?

To make the marks they're selling the death sedans to feel like they have something special until the vape batteries under the car spontaneously combust and roast them like a gas station hotdog

Re: Four dead in fire as Tesla doors fail to open after crash

#102

Post by Ccecil »

browningstreet wrote: post #46

I recently had a break-in to my Tesla. All captured on sentry mode. The thief got in with a subtle, barely visible stab of their wrist. The Tesla service person who replaced my window figured it was a spark plug. In the video they barely make contact with my window and the whole window shatters, completely. So maybe at least storing spark plugs in each door bin. (Btw none of the relevant police jurisdictions cared a…

It is the spark plug insulator. They are using the ceramic from it to break the glass. I remember hearing about this in the 90s with thieves carrying insulators on strings in their pockets.

https://www.carparts.com/blog/can-a-spark-plug-break-a-windo...

note from the article: "Keeping Spark Plug Shards Might Be Illegal in Your State" so keep that in mind

Re: Four dead in fire as Tesla doors fail to open after crash

#104

Post by ThePowerOfFuet »

jonpurdy wrote: post #88

Just calling out the poor way this (and many) articles write about car accidents. I’m not a Tesla fan at all but blaming Tesla for the crash is incorrect. (It is correct to blame them for the way the door locks work though and therefore can be blamed for the excess injuries/deaths that result from the design decision.) From the article: > Four people were killed in a fire after a Tesla Model Y lost control and hit a…

>It is correct to blame them for the way the door locks work though and therefore can be blamed for the excess injuries/deaths that result from the design decision.

This is what is being discussed here: that four people burned to death because they were unable to exit the vehicle.

Re: Four dead in fire as Tesla doors fail to open after crash

#105

Post by lttlrck »

cyberax wrote: post #13
nemomarx wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why are the doors electronically controlled to start with? is it cost savings?

They use frameless windows, so the electronic release slightly lowers them to avoid them scraping the door frame.

Dropping the windows on frameless doors goes back to at least the 90s and mechanical door handles.

I wouldn't be surprised if it goes back even earlier and someone even tried it entirely mechanically without electric windows...

Update: it looks like it was first done on 1946 Buick convertibles.

Re: Four dead in fire as Tesla doors fail to open after crash

#106

Post by viraptor »

OutOfHere wrote: post #92
speedgoose wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn’t the average car safety be significantly below a Tesla Model Y anyway?

Tesla has the highest fatality rate, so that is ruled out! :) Secondly, it is the coupling of electronic controls with unintuitive manual backups that create the danger.

That statistic is not controlling for the drivers. It's interesting, but it may be biased by who buys Tesla and how they drive. Similar to likely "cars with aggressive custom paint jobs have higher fatality rate".

Re: Four dead in fire as Tesla doors fail to open after crash

#107

Post by remus »

OutOfHere wrote: post #92
speedgoose wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn’t the average car safety be significantly below a Tesla Model Y anyway?

Tesla has the highest fatality rate, so that is ruled out! :) Secondly, it is the coupling of electronic controls with unintuitive manual backups that create the danger.

> Tesla has the highest fatality rate, so that is ruled out! :)

Do you have a source? Genuinely interested. From the little reading I've done Tesla seem to have put quite a bit of thought in to making their cars perform well in crash tests so it seems surprising that they'd have a high fatality rate.

Re: Four dead in fire as Tesla doors fail to open after crash

#108

Post by [deleted] »

criddell wrote: post #77
Havoc wrote: post #26

wow. That's genuinely scary. Sitting on top of a lithium fire while locked in seems terrifying. I wonder whether legislators should require inclusion of one of those glass break hammers in each car?

Would those hammers work on Tesla windows? IIRC, they now use laminated glass (like windshield glass) on the door windows as well.

[deleted]

Re: Four dead in fire as Tesla doors fail to open after crash

#109

Post by viraptor »

OutOfHere wrote: post #95
fallingsquirrel wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Always have a glass breaker Isn't this advice becoming dated now that most new cars have side windows with laminated glass? https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a28422725/car-windows-glas...

Kick out the window with a very forceful boot kick with both legs.

That advice will work for significantly limited number of population. Like, it's true, but also "hope you have enough mass/strength/flexibility". My little-old-lady neighbour could not do it.

Re: Four dead in fire as Tesla doors fail to open after crash

#110

Post by JumpCrisscross »

viraptor wrote: post #106
OutOfHere wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla has the highest fatality rate, so that is ruled out! :) Secondly, it is the coupling of electronic controls with unintuitive manual backups that create the danger.

That statistic is not controlling for the drivers. It's interesting, but it may be biased by who buys Tesla and how they drive. Similar to likely "cars with aggressive custom paint jobs have higher fatality rate".

Doesn’t matter if you’re getting in someone else’s car.
Post reply on HN