Tesla is looking to redesign its door handles following trapped-passenger report • Hacker News Board

Re: Tesla is looking to redesign its door handles following trapped-passenger report

#111

Post by kstrauser » Fri, Sep 19, 2025, 6:30 PM UTC

dingaling wrote: post #108

kstrauser wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. Stand in front of a car, squint, and observe the size of its silhouette. Now move slightly so that you can see the outline of the door handle, and consider its relative size compared to the rest of the car. This isn't a perfect comparison. You could design car handles that look like little parachutes attached to something with the drag profile of a dolphin, but that's not a likely situation. In general, t…

It's not solely about size, it's about disruption of laminar flow which causes much more drag than the parasitic drag if the handle alone.

For sure, and hence the "little parachutes" bit. But most door handles are pretty streamlined compared to wheel wells, the wheels themselves, and decorative curves on normal vehicles built for routine transport instead of racing.

Re: Tesla is looking to redesign its door handles following trapped-passenger report

#112

Post by phatskat » Sun, Sep 21, 2025, 6:22 PM UTC

dzhiurgis wrote: post #92

gamblor956 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On every other car, you can open the rear door by just using the door handle. No need to remove a panel so you can pull a yellow cable to release a latch so you can open the door.

Can it drive itself?

If they made my exact Honda civic but with an electric motor and literally no other “improvements”, I’d be over the moon. I don’t need a touch screen, “self-driving” feature, or _electric-only door handles_ - the biggest pain points of cars have been solved for a long time, and Tesla has taken their ability to build great batteries and motors and said “now how can we mess up the rest of what a car is?”

Re: Tesla is looking to redesign its door handles following trapped-passenger report

#113

Post by phatskat » Sun, Sep 21, 2025, 6:24 PM UTC

mtlynch wrote: post #105

dzhiurgis wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s 5 to 10 unique things about Tesla, esp at that price point. But yes let’s focus on door handles and how they behave in an edge case of an edge case.

The first edge case is a collision. What's the second?

A collision where you lose power. I mean, let’s be real - it’s just when the door loses power, or the switch gets damaged, or… I feel there’s plenty of times when a manual latch is preferable.