Car doors Tesla They open from the inside with a button that activates the electronic opening. If the electrical system fails or the power is cut off, for example in an accident, you can only open manually from the inside by activating a unintuitive mechanism. That’s in the front seats. In the rear, it is also poorly accessible.
This can be fatal in an emergency. A fateful accident by one Tesla Model Y He has shown it in the worst of ways. Four of its occupants burned to death when they became trapped. inside. The SUV caught fire after the crash.
A death trap in the event of an accident: not all Model Ys have manual opening in the rear
On October 24, a Tesla Model Y crashed into a concrete pillar in downtown Toronto, Canada. It was 12:10 and, according to city policeit is estimated that it was due to excessive speed: the driver lost control and ended up crashing. The electric SUV began to burn after the impact, with five occupants inside.
Only one of the passengers managed to get out of the burning Model Ya 25-year-old woman. She did not do it on her own, but was rescued by a Canadian postal service worker who was passing by at the time: Rick Harper. The 73-year-old man stopped when he saw the burning SUV. Was unable to open doors from outside. Seeing this passenger desperate to get out, he broke one of the rear windows with a metal bar.
Thus, she managed to emerge headlong from the inside. Due to the smoke, Harper did not realize that four other occupants were inside the car. The rescued woman was at that moment in shock and unable to speak. So, The other four occupants ended up dying inside the Tesla Model Y devoured by flames after spreading from the front, which was where the fire originated.
On the left, the opening system in the front seats; on the right, the one with the rear seats.
Opening a Tesla manually is neither easy nor intuitive. Happens with all Teslas. If the electrical system fails from the passenger compartment, it can be manually opened. In the Model Y, in the front seats, it is operated with a lever next to the window controls. Although it is accessible, it is not indicated with an icon or any signage: you have to know what it is for by reading the manual, or if the seller tells us in advance.
In the back row it is much more complicated. It is hidden at the bottom of the door pocket: you have to remove the molding that covers it, open a hatch with a lever and access a release cable. To make matters worse, not all Model Ys have this system in the rear rows. This is stated in the manual.
From the outside, the only way to open it is from the hood and also, when the electrical system is cut off, it requires plugging in a portable charger with clips. There have been several cases of people trapped inside a Tesla in which the rescue personnel have directly chosen to break the windows. Among them, that of a 20-month-old baby who was trapped when the 12V battery ran out of power. It was also in a Model Y.
In addition to the auxiliary battery running out, the electronic opening system also stops working after a strong impact in the event of an accident. It happens in most cars: when the airbags go off, the power supply is cut off, for safety. This occurs thanks to an emergency fuse, which breaks when the airbag deploys. It is understood what happened in this case.
Teslas do not have a key: they are opened from the outside from the app or with a card.
In a situation like this fatal accident, with the occupants injured or in a panic trying to get out of the car, the mechanism is anything but practical and functional. And even if the driver or owner knows it, having to explain this entire process at a time like this is almost an impossible task. Let’s not say if other people are disabled. Or with the interior full of smoke as was the case.
As noted by Harperthat’s how it was: “I guess the young woman had tried to open the door from the inside, because I was pretty desperate to get out. I don’t know if it was the battery or what. But he couldn’t get out“.
If we add to the equation that the Tesla Model Y was on fire, being much more complicated to put out in an electric vehicle due to the phenomenon known as thermal runaway that occurs in the battery chemistry, we have a dangerous combo that can end in total misfortune as That’s how it has been.
Tesla boasts that the design of its cars is safety-oriented. But clearly this system is not. In general, Tesla relies almost everything on electrical systems and most functions are operated from its screen or by voice control: few physical buttons are found inside. And it is eliminating the ones it already had: for example in the new Tesla Model 3 the indicators are activated by a button on the steering wheel, since it has dispensed with the traditional levers.
Source: www.motorpasion.com
