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 didn’t know is that the manual release for the door was under his left hand the whole time. Now, he’s blaming the automaker and raising awareness.
Rick Meggison, 73, says that Tesla needs to address what he calls a “safety concern” 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 won’t work. To ensure safe exit of the vehicle Tesla includes a manual release. Meggison didn’t know about that and ended up trapped in his car for 20 minutes on a hot day.
“I couldn’t open the doors. I couldn’t lower the windows. The computer was dead, so I couldn’t open the glove box. I couldn’t open anything,” he told ABC7. Of course, he could’ve 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 who’s to blame in situations like this.
Controversial opinion, but anyone buying a car which is a giant death machine, should read the manual before driving it, especially when it’s an electric vehicle and things aren’t like normal cars.
Now I dislike Tesla, but the manual release isn’t hard to find.
You’re not wrong, but why is Tesla reinventing the door handle? Why does this need to be powered now? Seems like they’re fixing something that wasn’t broken.
Because it’s soOoOOo futuristic and innovative!!! /s
On the outside, the door handles of a Tesla automatically recess when not in use, which reduces drag on the car and let’s it drive more efficiently (therefore giving you more range).
Tesla does a lot of “reinventing for the sake of it” but in this one instance there is actually a reason for it.
The door handle in question is on the inside of the car. It doesn’t serve any engineering reason to be resigned other than for aesthetics.
Wikipedia article concerning drag coefficients
The drag coefficients of even the more recent Teslas are comparable to other vehicles that don’t use retracting door handles, even the GM EV1 from 1999 beats all the Teslas on the table in terms of drag reduction. The door handles may technically be a contributing factor towards their more favorable position on the list, but they’re certainly not necessary and don’t seem to be highly impactful. A large part of Tesla design philosophy and marketing is making their cars seem futuristic and highly advanced through things like motorized door handles and autopilot. Their primary goal is to provide a unique and pleasant user experience “out of the box” and their justification for things like the door handles retracting are almost certainly retroactive.
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.
Have you read your car’s manual cover to cover?
I hope you’re 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 function… listen to yourself.
Here’s another great solution: don’t let your car battery die (/s)
Yes, I have 2 cars, I’ve read both manuals.
I’m 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 he’d know how to open a door.
The manual release doesn’t appear to have any symbols. The electric one does, yeah.
The release should be obvious to all drivers, not just the owners. Valets and guests should be able to tell where the door release is too, without consulting a manual.
They don’t provide a printed copy of the manual, it’s 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 don’t own a Tesla so I guess it’s impossible for me to read this then.
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?
I’ve even had people almost use it instead of the normal button. “Oh not that one. The button where your thumb is”