China is banning hidden door handles on all cars sold in the country, becoming the first country in the world to target the feature – which was popularized by Tesla but has for years drawn concern over safety risks.
The feature has previously come under heavy scrutiny, both in China and elsewhere.
Last September, Tesla said it was looking into redesigning the way to open its car doors in an emergency, after several accidents where passengers were reportedly killed or severely injured in burning vehicles because rescuers could not open them.
Other Tesla owners have reported having to break their own car windows after buckling their children in and then being unable to get in the car again, according to an investigation by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
An investigation by Bloomberg found 140 incidents of people being trapped in their Teslas due to problems with the door handles, including several that resulted in horrific injuries.
“AH IT’S SO HOT, I’M BURNING ALIVE! OH GOD MAKE IT STOP!!! Still love my Tesla though.”
I got uber once, and tesla arrived. I was unable to enter this piece of death machine.
So now imagine that you want to help people locked in burning tesla, but you have no idea how to open freaking door. Tesla is protecting the world from some kind of people.
Same with me but I got in ok and then couldn’t get out at the end of the ride. It was dark and I couldn’t find the door handle. More genius ideas from pedo elon, changing standard design to make it worse for no fucking reason.
Safety policies are written in blood. Or in this case, ashes.
So when Tesla goes bankrupt and all these people own cars locked down by software, unable to service them, I guess they just turn into giant paper weights?
People are already hacking/jailbreaking Teslas, but that definitely not for everyone
We’ve all become desensitized automotive death. They’re like children dying in schools. *scroll* *scroll* next story. next dopamine hit.
Heh-heh, now China is just fucking with Tesla.
You forget the part about a US government bailout. When your company earns money, you’re a business genius and you get to cash out. When it looses money the taxpayer will help you
I don’t know much about this, but in my understanding, it’s not that the handle hides in the door, but the fact that the latch inside is electronic. Using a mechanical latch that will work even without any electrical power would solve the problem.
It’s both. The electric latch can trap occupants inside the vehicle, and the external handles make it difficult for rescuers to quickly access anyone trapped inside.
How do rescuers get into the car via the handle when it’s locked? Or are cars supposed to unlock upon failure/crashes?
Long before Tesla existed, the Hurst tool (aka Jaws of Life) was created. It’s like a giant can opener for cars, and firemen love to use it. The lack of door handles, locked doors, and even smashed and jammed doors,don’t really stop firefighters from getting in. This has been a thing since the 80s at least. Also, Teslas do have mechanical door handles on the inside, so occupants can open doors without power, but these factoids don’t make for good rage bait.
Nobody wants to rescue anyone in a burning SwastiKKKar.
This is the point Lemmy fails to grasp. All cars autolock when moving to keep kids from falling out the back doors. Whether the door handle is exposed or not is irrelevant. In case of crash, EMTs punch out the windows anyway.
I have never been in a car that locked the doors from the inside with the autolock. Locking the doors from the inside usually requires activation of the child locks, which can usually be accessed on the door when it is opened. The autolocks only lock the doors from the outside, so any would-be car thieves or nosy firemen can’t get in.
But it’s about locking the door from the outside that is relevant here. If the external handles get in the way of rescuers, then the fact that they outside handles are almost certainly locked in that situation anyway is even more so. They will break the window and use the interior mechanism (which if electronic, could still suck, which Tesla runs afoul of). If you had traditional door handles, but electronic mechanism, the first responders would still be screwed).
But the mechanism being electronic means no one can operate the latch. But if it were somehow mechanical, but still physically like the Model 3/Y door handles, would that be considered ‘adequate’? It’s confusing, and harder to open if there’s ice over it, but I don’t think that facet factors into a rescue scenario.
(but you would be right that the auto-lock has nothing to do with child occupants, it’s about if someone can open your door at a stoplight)
One is definitely way worse than the other though.
The flush handles on a model 3 are annoying in ice but the situations in which you desperately need into a car seem less likely than the situations where you need out but can’t find the stupid pull tab that’s hidden under plastic.
How can it has been approved first? in case of crash and battery disconnect for whatever reason, you are trapped in the car, cannot get in cannot get out‽‽‽
Also I’d like to know after let’s say 10 years, how many kWh did you save thanks to that?
So, the flush handles actually save a lot.
The thing is, there’s purely mechanical ways of solving the problem. Including a hinge set somewhere towards the middle- so you push one side in, and the other angled out so you can open it.
Not the most convenient, but it’s less inconvenient than an over engineered piece of shit that breaks every winter.
They do not “save a lot” It’s purely a marketing gimmick.
The normal pocket handles do create a not insignificant amount of drag.
The pop out mechanism is stupid, don’t get me wrong, but it does have an appreciable effect on range.
The normal handles might shift the coefficient of drag by 0.01 by the most generous estimate I could find, and the Lucid Air has a coefficient of 0.197… It’s insignificant. A flap-type door handle that is recessed is probably exactly the same as the ‘cool’ flat handle look, and if not an air baffle for the lower half would absolutely make it the same as the weird ones
No, it really doesn’t. Having your tires low by 1 psi would be a bigger difference.
Last time I got on a coworker’s Tesler, thats how they worked. Push the large part in with your thumb and the handle pops out. Curl your fingers around it and pull.
The thing I thought of later was “that made sene to me, who grew up in the 70’s/80’s/90’s with handles that had a button you push in with your thumb. No kid knows that anymore.”
That’s not what is being banned- though the newer style could still be electric and problematic, the style they’re really going after seems motorized pop out handles that look like this:
Iirc there’s a panel you can remove to pull the patch cable manually, which is how they try to explain this being ok
Yeah, all you need is a small toolkit, five minutes, and a cool head - perfect for an emergency
And whennyou actually need rescuing, e.g. with a compund fracture or are pinned behind some twisted metal. Sounds like an elon idea, indeed.
If you incinerate all of the victims, they can’t leave bad reviews!
Also you need to know about this and find it first. Try doing that in the middle of the night, on a car that has been deformed by a crash, and is on fire.
A small toolkit that didn’t get yeeted around the car when you had your accident.
All you need is to read the manual.
I get the hate for Musk, but this is all being driven by US ambulance chasers in a class action. Remember when only cars sold in America has “sudden acceleration”?
A door handle should not require reading a manual, especially not if it works one way day to day but an entirely different way in an emergency when people are least likely to think of perusing the manual (which is also electronic in the Teslas, I believe).
Right, I read and memorize all 768 pages of the manual of every since car I rent.
in case of crash and battery disconnect for whatever reason, you are trapped in the car, cannot get in cannot get out‽‽‽
You can get out using a manual pull.
But Americans don’t read manuals.
@MicroWave good. The door handle did not need disrupting
I mean the entire goal of Tesla’s design was to minimize drag coefficient. It’s important in EVs because with ICE you just burn more fuel which takes 5 minutes to refuel, with EVs you have tedious charging stops more often - particularly with older EVs like the Tesla Model S that popularized this.
Say what you will about Tesla, but their Cd is pretty darn impressive especially if you consider that every car in the table that beats the Model S, save for the EV1, is newer than the Model S. That and the powertrain are the two things they absolutely nailed in their otherwise pretty mediocre EVs.
Minimizing the drag coefficient is not worth someone potentially being trapped in a lithium fire after an accident.
You can also do it such that they work mechanically and don’t even need to come out. Tesla was just lazy. Good idea, poor execution.
You can also do it such that they work mechanically and don’t even need to come out.
The model 3 handle is just as flush, cheaper to make, far more reliable.
They’re Tesla owners, so no big loss.
I mean the entire goal of Tesla’s design was to minimize drag coefficient.
That’s their bullshit story. They just love to market gadgets. The Model 3 handles pivot out and are just as flush, without the need of an electric motor and pointless complexity. Those stupid handles also fail and freeze closed. It’s bad design. A tiny door handle does nothing to Cd compared to side mirrors, and cars in the 70s had smaller mechanical handles.
Read the table again, the S is beat by 4 models, one of which is 30 years old.
The Model 3 handles pivot out and are just as flush, without the need of an electric motor and pointless complexity.
The Model 3 is several years newer and likely by that time someone brought it up that the original was idiotic.
Those stupid handles also fail and freeze closed. It’s bad design
Never said it wasn’t a bad design, just that there was reason to innovate when it comes to door handles. Tesla did it, they just didn’t do it well.
A tiny door handle does nothing to Cd compared to side mirrors
Tesla’s side mirrors already look pretty aero. You also can’t remove them completely or make them flush, because they’re actually needed for safety. Some manufacturers have gone to cameras, but that’s just another part that can fail + they’re significantly more expensive than regular old mirrors.
Read the table again, the S is beat by 4 models, one of which is 30 years old.
Now go read my comment again, I said:
consider that every car in the table that beats the Model S, save for the EV1, is newer than the Model S.
Yes, the Model S gets beat by 4 cars (probably more, this is just an examples table), but 3 of them are an entire generation newer EVs and one is an experimental vehicle that was 110% about efficiency. Tesla positioned the S as an executive/luxury car, they could NEVER afford to have a design like that. The entire reason Tesla was the first successful EV was that they made one of the first ones that looked like a normal car, while still being slick so it would have good range on the highway.
To be clear I don’t think Teslas are great or that motorizing the handle was a great idea. I was just saying that flush handles make sense on an EV where Cd is pretty important.
This is why Tesla has been a mixed bag. They have made some smart choices and they have made some not so smart choices. Unfortunately, because they essentially are the EV market in America, all other companies looking to bring EVs to the market have copied Tesla in many ways, both the good and the bad. I think that’s at least part of the reason why the EV market is suffering right now.
People shouldn’t buy Tesla because a) their cars are garbage and dangerous, and b) their owner is a Nazi. Have a good day, y’all!
Wasn’t Ford practically a Nazi & Volkswagen established by Nazis?
They’re overpriced.
Yup, any price for garbage is too much
a) their cars are garbage and dangerous, and b) the owner of the company is a Nazi.
also c) the owner is a pedophile who frequented Epstein Island.
Anyways, this will all be moot in a few years, Tesla is getting out of cars and shifting to robot butler sex robots.
Moot? b) and c) are surely timeless crimes.
A.2, overpriced!
Name one of their smart choices.
The plug they came up with, that eventually became the NAC standard. Technology Connections did a video about it, and he is no Tesla fan, I assure you of that.
I love the Audi e-tron. Feels sturdy like an audi, no stupid gimmicks like disappearing handles.
But it’s an AUDI, so it will fall apart 11 seconds after the lease is up.
Do you own one?
I test drove one (Bolt Drive rental lol) and it was honestly a bit less smooth on the road than my 2007 A6 Allroad. The performance was amazing (even though it was the lower power version I believe), but due to the hefty weight it seems the suspension is compromised. But since it wasn’t brand new, I also don’t know how good a shape it was in. IIRC it was on air suspension, so it should’ve been better than steel springs.
Buuuuut with the prices they have dropped down to, they’re also god damn enticing these days! And 300 kilowatts is a ridiculous amount of power lol. The downside of course being that a brand new battery off Audi is twice the value of the car if it goes bad lol. But EV battery repair shops are starting to be a thing here, so that might make replacing single cells a very affordable option.
I wish I could turn that “feature” off on my Renault Scenic. It’s very annoying and feels very unsafe, even though Renault has added a way to open the door handles, the way you have to do that is very counterintuitive. If it weren’t a leased car, I’d remove those flaps next to the door handles myself.
