Tesla Owners are Installing DIY Rip Cords to Avoid Being Trapped in Their Vehicles in Case of Fire - FuelArc News
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Tesla owners have started doing something wild… installing DIY emergency escape rip cords inside their vehicles so their passengers don’t get trapped if the car catches fire. That’s not a joke. That’s just how badly the doors are designed. Here’s why: Tesla doors are entirely electronic. When you want to get out, you hit a […]

Tesla owners are modifying their cars to be escapable if the car catches fire, because the doors stop working like normal and you need to rely on well-hidden mechanical overrides.

Which… feels pretty dangerous, like that’s the worst possible time for the doors to stop working like normal.

  • KayLeadfoot@fedia.ioOP
    40·
    1 day ago

    I, for one, am baffled.

    How didn’t this get recalled after the first escapable entrapment death? I could find 12 fire deaths where the occupants were evidently trapped, and that was just my dumb ass Googling for an afternoon for recent cases, I’m sure there’s more.

    • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      1 day ago

      If a new car built by my company leaves Chicago traveling west at 60 miles per hour, and the rear differential locks up, and the car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside, does my company initiate a recall?

      You take the population of vehicles in the field (A) and multiple it by the probable rate of failure (B), then multiply the result by the average cost of an out-of-court settlement ©.

      A times B times C equals X. This is what it will cost if we don’t initiate a recall.

      If X is greater than the cost of a recall, we recall the cars and no one gets hurt.

      If X is less than the cost of a recall, then we don’t recall.

    • Ilovethebomb@lemm.eeEnglish
      5·
      1 day ago

      I remember something similar happening with the Delorean DMC-12, and they were absolutely ridiculed for it.

    • Hegar@fedia.io
      4·
      1 day ago

      And some of those are really horrific. I think in one of the CA crashes, one person was able to be pulled out a window before the battery cooking off got too hot for anyone to approach and help the three others who were trapped and died.

      • KayLeadfoot@fedia.ioOP
        2·
        23 hours ago

        Reading that coverage was fucking heartbreaking. Pointless, stupid, preventable.

        And you know what? The rescuer kid and the rescued kid are both going to be haunted by that forever.