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

myelectricsparks.com

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

#81

Post by Reason077 »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #7

The model Y's inability to roll down its rear windows is another safety liability. I had to vomit out of an Uber and had much difficulty getting my head out the tiny opening.

This is an issue with many modern cars, not just Tesla. The rear windows physically can’t roll all the way down due to the shape of the doors.

One way to solve it might be to design a window mechanism where the glass rotates in the frame rather than just sliding on a single axis. But as always, there’s a cost and complexity trade off.

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

#82

Post by sorenjan »

alex1138 wrote: post #42

You know, I was really sad when the Shuttle retired in 2011 (which itself had numerous safety problems they probably had to fix). And this glowing idea SpaceX will aid us onwards into the future, blah blah. I hope to god SpaceX doesn't act in a careless way like Tesla has been accused of doing

They damaged at least one car when their launch pad was suddenly distributed over a large area, throwing concrete pieces at least 6.5 miles.

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-04-26/spacex-sta...

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

#83

Post by unsnap_biceps »

trinix912 wrote: post #51
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…

> Note that this involves removing the rear carpet in the Model S and the door pocket mat in the Model Y Seriously? How many people would be capable of pulling this stunt off in a burning vehicle filled with smoke? Especially considering the fact that in this case the vehicle was packed (5 people in it)--it's hard enough to get your own feet out of the way. If this passes the safety regulations, those regulations sho…

Regulations are written in blood. This is likely the first time a mass produced car went this far in not caring about the humans inside. I would say that they will be new regulations soon, but given the political climate in the US, I'm unsure if it will actually happen.

We can only hope that Canada and other countries takes the lead and forces the improvements to passenger safety.

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

#84

Post by Reason077 »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #17
dagmx wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps you mean “roll it down all the way”, but it most definitely can roll down most of the way. As someone with a large head myself, I can most definitely fit it out comfortably of mine.

I don't have a large head. There is zero chance of crawling out the window if you're trapped in these cars.

If the door won’t open electrically, then very likely the power windows won’t work either.

So to be able to crawl out the window, you’d have to break the glass, which would make the full size of the opening available.

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

#86

Post by unsnap_biceps »

proee wrote: post #63
proee wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like a huge failure on the part of the NTSB. Tesla is getting a lot of attention for this incident, but are there other manufactures that would have had the exact same problem given this same incident? The entire point of organizations like the NTSB is to prevent unsafe cars from going into production. The NTSB has given this type of door opening a green light. WHY?

In reading a bit on this topic: According to the NTSB, vehicle models with automatic locking doors should automatically unlock after an accident. This begs the question did the door automatically unlock? Perhaps the vehicle was so damaged that the door could not be opened due to structural damaged to the door itself.

Unlock doesn't mean unlatched, right?

The emergency release cable is to unlatch the door.

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

#87

Post by neuralRiot »

OptionOfT wrote: post #36
cyberax wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

In 2008 I had a BMW Convertible with frameless doors. When you pulled the door handle the window dropped. Same from the inside.

Every car with frameless windows does this without the need for a death-trap electric door release, i work in McLarens and the windows will drop if the battery gets low so you can open the vertical doors with a dead battery.

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

#88

Post by jonpurdy »

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 pillar in Toronto last month.

> Five people were trapped inside a Tesla Model Y after it crashed and burst into flames The Tesla didn’t lose control, the human driver lost control of the vehicle.

From a previous article the day after:

> Police said the driver of the Tesla lost control of the vehicle while travelling at a high rate of speed and collided with a guard rail. The vehicle then struck a concrete pillar, they said, before bursting into flames.

If it wasn’t for the irresponsible driving on the part of the human driver, this incident wouldn’t have occurred in the first place. The driver paid for this with their and others’ lives.

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

#89

Post by davidw »

Syonyk wrote: post #73

> This tragic incident has sparked a debate about the safety features of electric vehicles and the necessity for more intuitive emergency mechanisms. Tesla is an ever-more-irritating case study in what happens when you throw out all the accumulated wisdom of an industry, dismissing them as aging dinosaurs, because you know code. For most of the last century and change, cars have had some predictable behaviors. In the…

Wait until that same throwing out the accumulated wisdom is applied to the US government...

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

#90

Post by speedgoose »

OutOfHere wrote: post #44
pininja wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every Uber I take in a Tesla would practically need an airline safety briefing for this. There’s no way I’d find it on my own.

Cancel and rebook (another brand).

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