Posted on 10/24/2019 3:40:43 PM PDT by fruser1
A doctor in Florida burned to death because the battery in his Tesla burst into flames and the car's futuristic door handles wouldn't allow a police officer to rescue him, according to a legal complaint.
Dr Omar Awan died in February after his Tesla hit a palm tree.
...part of the design of the Tesla Model S is to retract the door handles into the car and they then "auto-present" and pop out when the car's key fob is detected nearby.
However, the handles malfunctioned and people were not able to open the doors
Dr Awan had no broken bones or other injuries resulting from the crash.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
Tesla has insurance for stuff like this.
Even if no batons, they could use a firearm, a rock or a log or a chunk of concrete, a tire iron...etc to break the glass.
[Cops mostly don’t carry batons any more, after Rodney King.]
Well, he’s dead now,so..
One of Frank Sinatra’s closest long term friends burned to death in a new car with automated locks without latches inside. If the car was off but on fire there were no latches to get the door open from inside. He couldn’t remember the way to get the doors to open. The electrical system had no power to unlock. A terrible idea.
When they show “could you survive?” shows on a car sliding off a road or bridge going into a river or pond they tell you to
“roll down the window halfway to equalize the water pressure” and then push the door out. Otherwise it’s stuck against you under the water pressure. BUT how many vehicles have roll down cranks instead of the shorted out, dead electric window motors?
On a lighter note a for a different Tesla breakdown, I heard the emergency call guy for another Tesla had to drive there in a regular Ford truck or van . Imagine old time gas station guy saying “Lordy, can’t fix you up with a can of dry gas, a gallon of regular or a jump cable start. You’re stuck. Maybe a 12 hour charge if I tow you to a charging place 75 miles away but I don’t have that much time to spare. Sorry you can’t stay at our station and it’s 15 below zero out.”
Also, Neil Young’s several electric cars had fires and I’ve heard stories of other car fires. Must be a “thing” with them.
A robust DFMEA was not performed.
Tesla is hosed.
According to this article, there was a crowd there.
Perhaps it got too hot too fast for anyone to get near it, and the enterprising lawyer thinks his version sounds better for more $$.
How many LEOs still carry a baton? The "get home tonight" mantra means either shoot 'em or leave 'em be. If they cooperate, they live. LEOs are not paid to wrestle with perps.
As for the burning driver, he has the comfort of dying with a small carbon footprint. And the cremation is already started...
Lithium ion batteries burn like magnesium flares when they are damaged. I mean the car sized ones burn like 500 pounds worth of magnesium flares. All the rubber, the seats, the upholstery, his clothes, virtually everything will turn to flame when subjected to the heat produced by a lithium ion battery pack destroying itself.
There are videos on youtube showing what happens when you damage a lithium ion battery. I wouldn't want to be anywhere near one large enough to power a car.
reduced carbon footprint ?
“BUT how many vehicles have roll down cranks instead of the shorted out, dead electric window motors?”
Good point. My father said 50 years ago they’re the first to go out for the most cost.
They seem to be a bit better these days, or people don’t keep their cars long enough for that to break, but I drive a manual transmission with roll-down windows.
Isn’t that one of the dive boat sinking theories?
What engineer worth a damn allows a single point of failure with this level of risk???
This +1
This is the future? Give me the good old days.
Scary and very wrong if true. They should not have doors so tech tricky that something like that could happen.
Just taze the door then.
Most carry a firearm. A sharp rap with the butt on the corner of any side window glass will make it pop into quarter inch fragments. Most first responders are trained to do it.
Dr Omar Awan.
Any relation to the Awan bros that scammed the dems?
Why the hell didn’t they just break the window and get him out???
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