From the article:
The man is blaming the automaker even though the manual door opener was under his left hand the whole time.
A man in Arizona says that he was recently trapped in his Tesla after getting in, closing the door, and then realizing that his battery was dead. What he didnāt know is that the manual release for the door was under his left hand the whole time. Now, heās blaming the automaker and raising awareness.
Rick Meggison, 73, says that Tesla needs to address what he calls a āsafety concernā involving how to exit the car when the battery dies. The main door latch actuator on all Tesla models is electronic so if the 12-volt battery dies it wonāt work. To ensure safe exit of the vehicle Tesla includes a manual release. Meggison didnāt know about that and ended up trapped in his car for 20 minutes on a hot day.
āI couldnāt open the doors. I couldnāt lower the windows. The computer was dead, so I couldnāt open the glove box. I couldnāt open anything,ā he told ABC7. Of course, he couldāve opened the door in about two seconds had he known that the manual release was just ahead of his window switches. His situation has many wondering whoās to blame in situations like this.
If a passenger canāt figure out how to safety exit a vehicle, that sounds like a design problem.
Yeah. This is pretty cut and dry.
Opening a car door from the inside shouldnāt require special knowledge. It shouldnāt require searching.
The manual release inside a trunk is easier to find.
Agreed. Manual opening should be visible and easily used by anyone even if you donāt know how Tesla works.
Looking at the image in the article, it looks like a pretty simple latch
Not obvious enough for a safety feature
So Iāve been driving my partners Tesla for around 6 months now. After we moved in togther it just made sense to take her nicer car than mine. Mostly just to the store and back, but once a road trip for a few days.
I legit did not know there was a manual release of the door until now. I asked her if she knew and apparently the dealership told her. But if this exact scenario happened to me, I assume I wouldāve found it eventually, butā¦ I assume it would probably take me a few minutes.
If the safety feature is unnoticeable to a regular user, then itās not a very good feature.
Most Tesla owners donāt actually know. Itās a problem.
A larger problem is that emergency responders arenāt being trained on every model, (they donāt have the time,) so if the 12v turns off, or shorts, youāre stuck.
The rampant over-engineering of literally everything in the car is one of the largest reasons i will never willingly drive a Tesla.
this is the most sleekness-over-usability dysfunctional bullshit Iāve seen in a minute, itās not even labeled
$0.50 has been deposited into your Tesla Supercharger credit account
The back one is even worse. You have to pull up the cup holder mat and pry out a clip before you can pull a wire.
God damn thatās some shitty execution of a handle. I can see how it would get mistaken as asthetic molding
Itās not meant to be used normally. The button further up is the normal electronic release.
Could have called 911, provided he had a phone with him. With an active battery.
Manual release huh. Back in my day we called it a door handle.
Can we quit reinventing shit that works fine already? Itās just marketing anyway.
Not even really relevant to this post but I hate the minimizing trend of carās interfaces. Iād much rather have an actual handle & volume dials rather than touch screens shoved at you as a cheap way to trick people into thinking a car is more expensive when in reality it has better margins like that.
Touch screens are cheaper to use over actual buttons and dials which is why they are the new standard.
Door handles have been perfected since Ogg build a door to his cave. Why do we need to reinvent it?
Can we stop reinventing the wheel constantly ffs?
Electric windows, electric handbrakes, computers in control of everything and now electric fucking doors?
Whatās even the point besides artificially upping the price and selling it as a āluxury productā that can barely function in an emergency?
Do these cars not come with a physical manual?
Might be in the glove box? Accessible via touchscreen only (yes itās dumb).
This source keeps pushing tesla propaganda. Thereās always an angle trying to sell that it wasnāt the teslaās fault
Controversial opinion, but anyone buying a car which is a giant death machine, should read the manual before driving it, especially when itās an electric vehicle and things arenāt like normal cars.
Now I dislike Tesla, but the manual release isnāt hard to find.
When someone is panicking, the nonstandard design will really shine.
Especially for seventy year olds, the most reasonable and adaptive kind of human!
Exactly why you should read the manual first.
So imagine for a moment that this is a child and not a senior. You gonna scream at little Timmy for not RTFM?
Car doors have been pretty standard and self explanatory for 100 years, until now. There was no good reason to make such a huge design change for the sake of looking cool, especially when the override is hidden behind a piece of trim.
Exactly. People on here claiming read the manual to find out how to open a door must be missing /s because they sound insane.
Standards exist for a reason and your product should be intuitive or BETTER, a shitty button with a picture is not better than a handle like literally everywhere else.
If there even is a paper manual, itās probably in the electronically opened glovebox, which obviously wonāt open anymoreā¦
Donāt get me wrong, I donāt like the change, I dislike Teslaās and see no reason for Tesla to change what is standard.
But I still believe a grown adult buying a giant metal death machine should read the manual before driving off in one, especially when if you do just calmly look around for more than 5 seconds you can find the door open latch.
Normally, Iād agree with you, but in a matter of life or death, like baking in a hot car, the means of exit should be obvious for anyone, including children and the elderly. Just like in public buildings with proper exit signage, there should be no questioning how to get the fuck out in an emergency.
Have you read your carās manual cover to cover?
I hope youāre not responsible for designing products, because intuitive product design is important. Requiring a manual to understand a potentially life-saving feature of your vehicle, because the manufacturer chose form over functionā¦ listen to yourself.
Hereās another great solution: donāt let your car battery die (/s)
Yes, I have 2 cars, Iāve read both manuals.
Iām not saying I agree with with the bad for handles, but manuals for a big death machine should be read anyway, and if he did heād know how to open a door.
I know this is 8 months old, but are you seriously arguing people should read a carās manual to know how to open the door?
Any door that requires the user to read a manual is a terrible design.
You misunderstand. Iām saying every car owner should read the manual for their car. Buy a new car, read the manual, it contains a lot of useful information whether you drive a crappy Tesla or not.
Isnāt the manual displayed on the touch screen?
They have a copy on the touch screen and another on their website. Iāve probably read more of the Tesla manual than most Tesla drivers and I donāt even like Tesla.
This might work if the only occupant ever was the owner. But it totally ignores all the passengers and children that will be in the vehicle.
Door handles should be intuitive at this point.
What about passengers or people who rent a Tesla?
They donāt provide a printed copy of the manual, itās only on the computer. This makes it awkward to really read as you have to sit in the car. It also means that if the battery dies you cannot access it to even look up things like the manual door release.
https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/model3/en_us/GUID-7A32EC01-A17E-42CC-A15B-2E0A39FD07AB.html
I donāt own a Tesla so I guess itās impossible for me to read this then.
Iāve even had people almost use it instead of the normal button. āOh not that one. The button where your thumb isā
