Tesla owner breaks window to escape after car bursts into flames

https://www.inputmag.com/culture/tesla-model-y-catches-fire-driving-man-escapes-electric-vehicles

by Balgair • 4 years ago

30 51 4 years ago

inputmag.com

BitwiseFool3• 4 years ago

The media sure loves to cover stories about Teslas catching fire, don't they?

coldtea• 4 years ago

Yes, by now they should have been used to it. It's not like it's a rare occurence...

mwint2• 4 years ago

Statistically, it is indeed a rare occurrence. What they should be used to is gas cars self-immolating.

gamblor9564• 4 years ago

Yes, but if Tesla wants to go around claiming their cars are so much safer than ICE cars, they'll just have to deal with all the media coverage of the many, many, many, many times that Teslas are less safe than other cars on the road.

Live by the sword, die by the sword, and all that.

You'll note that the Kia Niro EV gets minimal coverage (other than perfunctory reporting of recalls) because....wait for it...they don't claim it's safer or better than other cars, just electrified.

BitwiseFool3• 4 years ago

The real question is, are they objectively safer than ICEs by a numbers standpoint? There's a reporting bias because intputmag and other media outlets do not write stories about when other cars catch fire. Such coverage is skewing people's perceptions.

Sohcahtoa824• 4 years ago

There have been about 135K Kia Niros sold in the 6 years they've been being produced.

Meanwhile, Tesla is delivering 300K vehicles per quarter.

Kia Niro EV gets minimal coverage because they're selling a minimal number of them.

malermeister• 4 years ago

Teslas sure love catching fire, don't they?

BitwiseFool3• 4 years ago

Compared to other ICE cars? When a ford fiesta catches fire no one writes an article about it.

Sohcahtoa824• 4 years ago

Not really.

But the media likes to latch on to that idea. Like a plane crash, a Tesla fire is exceptionally rare, but the news media will report every single one.

If someone's ICE overheats and catches fire, it will hit the local news, maybe. Even if it does, it'll be a 15 second "Oh, traffic on I-5 was slower than normal this afternoon because of a car fire." But a Tesla fire? That's national news.

PascLeRasc• 4 years ago

The fire wasn't the main safety issue of the story.

josephcsible3• 4 years ago

Teslas do have an emergency door release, though, and it's exactly where you'd expect it to be (to the point that most first-time passengers think it's how you're supposed to open the door all the time).

cma• 4 years ago

Looks kind of hidden, just from the styling of it:

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/attachments/smartselect_2019...

devonbleak2• 4 years ago

Anecdotally this is the first method I found to open the door when I got mine but it did take several seconds - time I would probably not like to spend if my car was on fire with me in it. Then the car made a noise and displayed a warning about damaging the windows or something if I kept doing that and to push the button instead so I've done that ever since.

While I remembered the physical lever existed, I forgot where it actually was until this post so I would likely be spending that time to figure it out again and probably just panic and break the window like the person in the original article did.

herpderperator2• 4 years ago

"Only front doors are equippped with a manual door release"... whose stupid idea was this? Would it have been so hard to add this literal life-saving feature to the back doors?

encoderer2• 4 years ago

I like what Tesla is doing but got suckered into test driving a Mercedes 13 years ago and it’s all I’ve bought since. That said..

This really looks like a corolla. I’ve heard the critique before of the interiors but wow. Beyond that, they have to roll the windows down every time you open the door to prevent damage to the seals? That seems insane? I’d get used to it but I’m surprised this isn’t pointed out more often as kind of absurd engineering.

buffington6• 4 years ago

I've owned and driven a Model 3 since October of 2021, and I only have a vague idea of where the emergency door release is or how to use it. If I were trying to escape, I doubt I'd be able to figure it out quicker than a panic-fueled kick to the window.

The theme of "no need for buttons, everything is software driven" of the model 3 is the thing I like the least about the car. The marketing message is "this is the future, and it's better", when in reality, I think it's all motivated by cutting costs.

A single touch screen is far cheaper than the cost of designing and testing physical controls. The "fancy" feature of rolling down the frameless windows before opening and closing isn't a feature, it's a compromise. Rather than properly design seals, let software solve it.

If I could have a Model 3 that had no touch screen, manual everything, that'd be amazing. It'd also mean that random software updates wouldn't require me to relearn where the hell all the controls I'd become familiar with went.

throwaway0a5e• 4 years ago

You don't even need to "design and test" controls cabin controls. There are companies that make that stuff. You call their sales department, spend a lot of time emailing back and forth. Exchange CAD models, etc, etc, magic happens and a pallet of assemblies that fit in you dash and plug into the stuff you need to shows up at the loading dock of your manufacturing facility.

The problem is that you can't market your creation as a yuppie status symbol when you've built stuff using off the shelf parts. Some snarky reviewer will point out that you're using some switch in common with their 10yo car or that the out of sight portion of your HVAC is copy-pasta'd from a minivan and the internet idiot will whip themselves into a frenzy over it.

I'm sure the engineers would just love to call up someone who makes that stuff just buy a battle tested solution but that is simply not compatible with the realities of the product they're working on.

martin84122• 4 years ago

Interesting.. On the vast majority of cars, the emergency door opener is the same as the regular door opener. Tesla is AFAIK the only ones with this retarded design.

gamblor9564• 4 years ago

On a somewhat related note, I was stuck behind a Tesla on my morning commute and it was behaving like a teenage driver; constantly breaking without reason and dangerously slowing to a halt as soon as any vehicle got into the lane in front of it. When I passed it later, the driver didn't have his hands on the wheel, and the car was (very poorly) driving itself in AP or FSD.

I've seen Teslas drive somewhat better than that before, so it appears their latest update in response to last week's fatal crash has some serious regressions.

buffington6• 4 years ago

it appears their latest update in response to last week's fatal crash has some serious regressions.

I wouldn't be comfortable making that assertion, given you don't know if the car you describe was using FSD, let alone FSD of a specific version.

gamblor9564• 4 years ago

It doesn't matter whether they were using FSD or AP. The point is that the Tesla was self-driving like a drunk teenager on the freeway, and this is a noticeable regression from the behavior of other self-driving Teslas I'm forced to share the road with.

mlindner• 4 years ago

Just as a note, I drive my completely manual honda in stop and go traffic without my hands on the wheel pretty regularly. You only need to make minor adjustments occasionally if your wheels are properly aligned.

herpderperator2• 4 years ago

Interesting that the lane change indicators continue blinking throughout the entire ordeal, both during the fire and after being flooded with water.

warning26• 4 years ago

I drove a Model Y a few weeks ago and I found the "press a button to open the door" to be both an egregious safety violation and terrible UX. What do you possibly get by having the door release be a button instead of a handle? It archives nothing but making it extremely nonintuitive to leave the vehicle if the electronic release stops functioning.

Having a mostly-hidden emergency release is practically worthless in an emergency scenario, since in such an event you can't count on users hunting for and operating a new control that they've never used before.

gorkish• 4 years ago

Teslas all have mechanical door releases, but aside from the front seat doors in Model S and Model X they all require knowledge of their location and use.

The design in Model S and X are that a light pull of the door handle triggers the electronic latch, but pulling it fully will engage the mechanical release also. I think this design is excellent, but I personally believe that every other mechanism Tesla has used is dangerous, especially for backseat passengers who are more likely not to know the unusual location and operation of the emergency releases.

When I took delivery of my car many years ago, one of the back door latches hadn't been connected at the factory, so luckily I learned all about this on day 1 of ownership.

Tesla owner breaks window to escape after car bursts into flames

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