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.
this is the most sleekness-over-usability dysfunctional bullshit I’ve seen in a minute, it’s 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.
If a passenger can’t 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 shouldn’t require special knowledge. It shouldn’t 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 don’t 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
Manual release huh. Back in my day we called it a door handle.
Can we quit reinventing shit that works fine already? It’s just marketing anyway.
