Technology

72440 readers

3322 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related news or articles.
Be excellent to each other!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

L3s@lemmy.world

enu@lemmy.world

technopagan@lemmy.world

L4s@lemmy.world

L3s@hackingne.ws

L4s@hackingne.ws

696

‘The vehicle suddenly accelerated with our baby in it’: the terrifying truth about why Tesla’s cars keep crashing (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 2 days ago by bytesonbike@discuss.online to c/technology@lemmy.world

163 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The car came to rest more than 70 metres away, on the opposite side of the road, leaving a trail of wreckage. According to witnesses, the Model S burst into flames while still airborne. Several passersby tried to open the doors and rescue the driver, but they couldn’t unlock the car. When they heard explosions and saw flames through the windows, they retreated. Even the firefighters, who arrived 20 minutes later, could do nothing but watch the Tesla burn.

At that moment, Rita Meier was unaware of the crash. She tried calling her husband, but he didn’t pick up. When he still hadn’t returned her call hours later – highly unusual for this devoted father – she attempted to track his car using Tesla’s app. It no longer worked. By the time police officers rang her doorbell late that night, Meier was already bracing for the worst.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com -2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Several passersby tried to open the doors and rescue the driver, but they couldn’t unlock the car.

Even the firefighters, who arrived 20 minutes later, could do nothing but watch the Tesla burn.

Did no one think to break open the windows?

[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 10 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, that must be it... they didn't think to break a window.

Many modern cars use laminated glass on their side windows now and, as far as I'm aware, this model has doors that won't open from the outside without power, making them very difficult to break open without tools even when the vehicle isn't on fire. 20 minutes in to the Tesla burning, when it was already sitting on top of a bomb of a battery... you're beyond fucked at that point. Difficult to just put the fire out for responders, a rescue was over about 15 minutes prior.

[–] Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Thanks for serving a side of snark while teaching others.

I fucking hate cars, so this is a shit design feature (coming from a design engineer myself).

[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 1 points 39 minutes ago

All the best lessons come with some sass, but on a serious note, I'd hate to think of how someone who had powerlessly watched a person burn to death would feel about seeing people second guess their actions. You would feel awful enough already.

Laminated windows are great for a lot of things (e.g. sound dampening), getting in to/out of the vehicle rapidly is definitely not one of them. The inability to unlock without power is just a chefs kiss though, obviously.