If anyone’s curious, it looks like you “hold the brake and swipe up” on a touchscreen area to go in drive, and “hold the brake and swipe down” to go into reverse.
So yeah, it’s not a physical shifter, though it seems pretty intuitive and simple. BUT if you’re in reverse and try to swipe up to drive(like you’d do during a 3 point turn) , you have no feedback aside from looking at the screen to let you know it actually registered your shift.
IMO this is another idiotic implementation at going cheap on physical controls or “being high tech fancy” that shouldn’t exist. It’s dumb to not have important functions give physical feedback while driving. I’m not laying most of the blame on tesla for this. It still sounds like she’s the one who really screwed herself, but I’d all but guarantee there’s going to be a lawsuit for this one, and rightly so. Fuck all this touch control crap in cars. It’s lousy enough just on the radios.
Don’t forget the fancy electric door handles that stop working when you back into a pond.
There are emergency override handles, but not everyone knows where they are or how to use them, so they’re not all that useful in an emergency.
These deadly features are purely cosmetic, so I would lay a decent amount of blame is on tesla
Stupid cosmetic designs have been an issue for a long time. There was a theater fire in Chicago in the early 1900’s where a bunch of people died because they couldn’t figure out how to use the fancy door handles while panicking and being crushed by everyone trying to get out. That’s the reason why exit doors on buildings with a high occupancy are now required to swing out, and have those pushbar locks that allow the door to open even if you’re just falling on it.
If it’s possible that someone will need to use something while panicking, it needs to be as simple, intuitive, and failproof as possible
Wanted to chime in and clarify, the major issue there is you cannot operate a door handle in a crush, no matter how much of your senses you have. Can’t use a door handle if you can’t use your arms. Am drunk on the internet and hope this isn’t interpreted as a hostile reply.
If it’s possible
It’s always “possible”. In fact, it’s inevitable that an accident or emergency will happen. They happen every day. It’s clearly Tesla’s fault for having terrible controls but what else is new?
That’s why we have dedicated first responders instead of just fire hoses everywhere. Many fires can be stopped with just some baking soda or a wet towel, but non-professionals can’t be trusted to act rationally in that situation.
… and have those pushbar locks that allow the door to open even if you’re just falling on it.
Crash bars
It wasn’t that they didn’t know how to use the door handles. It was that the doors opened inward.
There were also ornamental doors that were an issue, but those weren’t actually doors, so it wasn’t that the victims couldn’t figure out how to use the handles, it’s that the “doors” weren’t really doors. They were walls.
If I had my way, regulations would require a physical connection for all door handles, and not just that a secondary physical release be available. I don’t know how you would go about finding injuries associated with each design as a layperson, but I bet there’s a death or two associated with each novel design.
An old man roasted in his Cadillac XLR because the battery was dead and he didn’t know where the secondary release was. I think it’s under the seat on that car. I don’t care how cool that electronic door release was, or if the old man was negligent in not knowing his exits; it wasn’t worth his life.
And let’s not forget that there are people who have flexibility issues that can’t reach under their seat in an emergency.
This is why I liked driving the newer Army vehicles or well cared for Humvees. Everything was labeled. Anything important to not hit accidentally had a safety cover. And anything not obvious like an out of sight fire extinguisher has a high visibility sign pointing to it from your normal field of view.
Fuck fashion, give me cars that are comfortable and safe.
I love how they made the emergency door release a multi step process, which on some models recommended a flat head screwdriver or in others only is for the front doors.
A flat-head screwdriver for an emergency door O_o
How do these cars pass regulations?
This would be at least the second time this “feature” has been tied to dying horribly.
The front driver and passenger emergency handles are so intuitively placed that every Tesla owner has to warn all their passengers not to use them.
The back is another story entirely if they even have them, but the front are fine.
Edit: I will grant people might forget after not using them for years in a moment of panic. But they know.
I do have to find these but ….
- you don’t need the mechanical backup if you open the door immediately
- mechanical backup can’t help with unequal pressure while you’re sinking
- who the heck would think of that while underwater in a car full of water?
IMO, the real answers are:
- Train people to open windows when they go into the water and expect to swim out. There ought to be power long enough to do this
- Make sure there is a window breaker securely mounted someplace obvious
I don’t know if I’d do any better in a panic, but I really ought to get window breakers for all my family’s cars
These deadly features are purely cosmetic
No, electronic door handles are not cosmetic, they save a lot more lives than than they kill by people drowning or burning alive in their car because they are too stupid to read their cars manual.
Since you apparently do not know this, the purpose of electronic door handles is for the car to be able to lock you out from opening the door if there is a car or bicycle approaching from behind in your blind spot. That’s why you only see them in cars with blind spot radars
That being said, Teslas design is still terrible. In Audis the electronic door handle doubles up as the mechanical emergency door handle, you just need to pull on it harder than normal and it will engage the manual mechanism
they save a lot more lives than than they kill
Do they? Can you provide any examples?
the purpose of electronic door handles is for the car to be able to lock you out from opening the door if there is a car or bicycle approaching from behind in your blind spot.
Seems like they created a lot of unnecessary risk to alleviate a relatively minor problem.
Anton Yelchin was also done in by a not too dissimilar feature. The gear shift of his vehicle returned to a “neutral position” after shifting so unless you looked at the letter indicator you may not realize what gear you’re in.
That’s however not a good comparison because you still have a physical “way” of feeling where you are shifting to. I never had an issue with shifters that return to neutral, even in very high stress situations.
Touch controls are however a very different thing, because you have absolutely no indication if you actually shifted or not.
In fact, Ive had various cars now with return to neutral shifters - the new Mazda CX-60/70/80/90 don’t have this and I happend to shift in neutral, simply resting my hand on the shifter…
I’m curious. In what situations do shifters need to return to neutral? Like, at a stop? Or when you open the door? Why neutral and not park, for example? Or is park also neutral in EV lingo?
Even a button shift. Literally just a row of buttons, select your gear by pressing it. Reverse would be under a safety cover so you don’t hit it at 60mph.
Or, you just have logic in the car’s software that stops you from shifting to reverse over 5mph.
Don’t trust software. Just don’t. Software crashes planes. There’s no way car companies are programming better than plane companies. You can certainly have the feature, but a safety cover should also exist in such a configuration. There’s no reason, except shareholder primacy, to not include it.
How’s that any different?
- My current Tesla has a stalk to click up/down to go into reverse/drive, but I always verify before taking my foot off the brake
- my Subaru had a physical shifter on the console to move forward or back to a specific selection , but I always verified by taking my foot off the brake
- I used to have a Pontiac with a shifter stalk on the steering wheel that I move to a specific selection, but I always verified before taking my foot off the brake
I find it hard to talk badly of anyone who had just died, whether or not they were related to Mitch McConnell. That was a horrible way to go.
But, if it turns out the Tesla design was at fault, then we may be watching one of the few families who have enough resources to challenge Elon Musk get medieval on his ass. Which would be fun to watch, even if did take a tragedy to start all off.
Their family is not a “loving family” that normal people would imagine. These are conservatives who lack the capacity for empathy and do not feel kindness or love for one another. Their relationships are transactional.
If they sue, it will only be because they see an opportunity for profit. Not because they want to prevent this from happening to anyone else.
I disagree, it’s important to note that Conservatives love their families, too. They are not inhuman.
And their love of their family can, for some, feed into their racism. Their families are successful and they may attribute that to genetics. People with inferior genetics can’t really help themselves, can they? They need a ruling class to make the important decisions for them.
You’re right though, if they sue it won’t be to prevent this from happening to anyone else. It will be for revenge and punishment. Profit is a side motive here. They might pour an excessive amount into any lawsuit just for revenge.
That paragraph about genetics and needing a ruling class because the poor can’t help themselves feels so wrong, immoral and like a completely degenerate thing to say that I am tempted to turn the argument around and say that these people need help. Who in there right mind would, seriously, consider something that’s not even the closest thing to being backed by science and logic.
If it’s about money for them, they may see a payday incoming. At the very least, the insurance company that had a life insurance policy out on her might have a thing or two to say to Muskrat. I cannot imagine how much money they are going to be paying out.
I’m really torn between hoping the lawsuit payout is very high vs. not wanting the McConnell crime family to become even richer.
The level of glee here over a death is kind of appalling. Yeah, she was a billionaire, so was Steve Jobs. Related by marriage to Mitch does not make her responsible for Mitch’s garbage decisions. I’m sure she has family and friends who are devastated. I had not heard anything about her existence before this, but even if she’s a bad person she’s still a human and drowning is an awful way to die.
Wow, he referenced her death in his retirement statement, but I just assumed it was age related because… well… look at them.
Always remember, if your car goes in the water, you CAN’T open your door until the pressure equalizes. You have pounds of water pushing against the door, keeping it closed.
Mythbusters went over this… Undo your seat belt and let the water IN. When there’s enough water inside, open the door.
Shortly after Mythbusters did that bit. They were directly credited with saving a trucker’s life. He crashed into a lake. His window didn’t work but he had a manual roof vent, which he was able to open to equalize the pressure. He said he would have never done that if he hadn’t seen the episode because of how scary it was to watch the water pour into his cab.
Spelling
Adam Savage has said that that was the most terrifying myth they’ve tested, and I’m pretty sure even with all of their divers and support crew he thought he was going to die.
This is a Tesla right? Those door handles are electric, so you need to hope the cars electrics hold and not short. Or you can find the emergency release in the door pocket.
I’ve heard they have some manual door latch backups? do you know if they’d be affected as well?
If the backups aren’t the door handles themselves, where are they located, and how many owners and passengers know about them?
Ah I was confusing the front and rear doors. From this video it looks like it’s in the door arm rests, while the rear door is burred in the rear door pocket under a flap. Both appear to operate the latch manually so no electricity required.
They’re completely manual. There’s a manual door latch literally right below the button you’d press inside to open it.
Pull that up & the door unlatches to open.
They’re literally designed in for emergencies.
It’s the same in the model 3, Y, & S.
Helicopter Egress Training they actually have you keep your seat belt(s) on until the cabin is filled with water, pressure equalized, AND door/window opened. The reason is, to push a door or window open you need a solid “foundation” and if you’re unstrapped floating in water you may only push your body away.
A road vehicle has a smaller cabin and more hand/foot holds, but I thought it worth mentioning.
Top gear also did this and their results were pretty much just get out of the car as soon as you know you’re going in the water.
Yes. There are three phases to going into the water. Getting out before pressure builds, waiting for pressure equalization or creating it, and getting out after pressure equalizes.
There’s a lot of situations where you will not have time to get the door open, like busting a turn rail and flying into the water. Obviously if you’re going in slowly and can’t stop it, (Like a slick boat ramp pulling a truck in.), just get out early.
Better yet, smash the front wind shield (after seatbelt is off or cut) to get out sooner
The windshield won’t break like that. Only the passenger windows would break and come apart
Smash anything but a windshield. I’ve needed to violently remove a windshield when replacing it (time was running out and tool shops were closed). Wearing protective glasses and pushing with both legs is what it took to somewhat loosen it, but not immediately remove it. Windshields are a multilayer structure of plastic and glass. Side windows are just glass.
The mods on this community are pathetic. It wasn’t offensive in the least.
“After a Friday evening celebrating Lunar New Year with close friends, Chao decided to drive back to the main house on the ranch around 11:30 p.m., the Journal reported.”
I wonder if she had been drinking.
“According to the Journal’s account, Chao told her friend that she had put her car in reverse instead of drive — a mistake she had made before — leading her to back over an embankment and into the pond.”
Tesla removed the shift stalks from X and *S models in 2021 in favor of the car guessing which direction you want to go, with the option to override on the touchscreen.
Edit: Originally stated Y by mistake. Chao was driving an X when the incident occurred.
Tesla removed the shift stalks from X and Y models in 2021 in favor of the car guessing which direction you want to go, with the option to override on the touchscreen.
…what? What in the hell is going on at that place!? That is so fucking stupid and dangerous.
“We’re so confident in our self driving tech we removed the steering wheel”
Give me the touchscreen gear shift. It’s not that hard, and I’d rather not have the extra physical object in the car.
Tesla removed the shift stalks from X and Y models in 2021 in favor of the car guessing which direction you want to go,
Holy shit, I thought you were joking. How the hell did that pass any regulatory body?
It$ a my$tery i$nt it. Fortunately we all are subject to the rule of law in this cou . . . hahahahahaha nahhh just joshin’. The rich are above the law. Everyone else needs to resort to extreme violence, apparently. That is to say, I really don’t know what the DoJ is thinking.
That would be Model S & X. Model 3 stalks are removed in 2023/2024 Highland refresh. Model 3 Performance hasn’t been highlanded yet so that one still has stalks. Model Y hasn’t released their refresh yet so all versions of Model Y have stalks.
That’s crazy.
Whoever was in charge of U.S. transportation when that system got approved must feel like a real jerk right now.
Chao decided to drive back to the main house on the ranch around 11:30 p.m.
Ah the main house, yes. Of course. As one does.
DEBBIE: Can I ask you a question?
GRIM REAPER: What?
DEBBIE: How can we all have died at the same time? [silence]
GRIM REAPER: The Tesla!
GEOFFREY: Darling, you didn’t buy a Tesla, did you?
ANGELA: I’m most dreadfully embarrassed.
GRIM REAPER: Now the time has come. Follow. Follow me. [clunk] [bang bang bang bang bang]
GEOFFREY: Just… testing. Sorry.
