Posted on 06/23/2024 7:36:45 PM PDT by T.B. Yoits
There's a new trend in the automotive industry to replace physical parts with electrically-actuated systems. The most obvious example is the electrical door release system. All Teslas have such a system, which ensures that the frameless windows are lowered before the door opens. However, when the 12-volt battery dies, the same systems can pose a significant danger, especially when people must quickly evacuate the vehicle.
Tesla offers a backup emergency release that works without power, but many owners are unaware of how to use it. Sometimes, the release string is hidden behind the door panel and is not always easy to reach in an emergency. This has caused problems more than once when the car's low-voltage (12-volt) battery died.
When the low-voltage battery approaches the end of its lifecycle, the car is expected to warn drivers to schedule a service center appointment. Sometimes, the battery just dies without warning. When this happens, the vehicle's auxiliary systems remain without power, even though the high-voltage battery has enough charge.
A Scottsdale grandmother learned this the hard way on Wednesday as she loaded her 20-month-old granddaughter into her car seat. She closed the rear door and went to get in the driver's seat, but she couldn't open the door. The 12-volt battery was dead, and she was locked outside. She had no option but to call 911.
Intriguingly, the firefighters didn't know that you could "jumpstart" a Tesla with an external battery that allows you to open the doors. Instead, they used an axe to break a window.
Other brands provide a physical key hidden in the key fob that can be used to manually open the door. However, Tesla only relies on a system that is unknown to most owners and first responders.
(Excerpt) Read more at autoevolution.com ...
You may never need it for your own rescue but you may be involved in this type of situation, especially with the number of Tesla cars on the road.
Some are spring loaded and include a seatbelt cutter.
Some are a hammer with a point that will break the glass.
From the inside this is a non-issue every Tesla has a emergency release inside the cab and also federally mandated in the trunk that mist glow in the dark per fedlaw. After 2020 every tesla has the release right on the arm rest that the articles picture 4 showed where it is and how easy it is to use it.
That said it is an engineering fail that you have a 400 volt battery with 50+ kwh of capacity and it cannot send charge to the 12 volt system when the car is in standby. I say standby because a tesla is never off its always on with the computers and 4/5G modem on. When the vehicle is in powered up run mode there is a DC to DC converter from the 400V+ pack to the 12v system. The simple fix is software since the DC to DC link already exists its how the 12v system gets its power in the first place that DC link is also active during charging. The risk the engineering dept wanted to avoid is a constant slow drain in the 12v system keeping the DC to DC converter on and draining the main pack.
No, this is a huge issue. A child strapped into a car seat isn't going to operate the emergency release inside the cab.
That happened in my ICE Chevy hatchback. The battery died located under trunk in back of car. To replace it needs to open hatch door. But battery is needed to activate hatch door release. I had to locate manual release hidden in the door.
I used an electrical vehicle for 12 years. It was much better than noisy gas powered riding golf carts. No fumes to breath either. It was powered by a bank of lead acid batteries. Excellent vehicle on golf course.
The simple fix is a physical lock and a physical key - like the keys and locks first used on the Buick Model 10 and Cadillac Model 30 starting in 1908.
It’s the 12-volt battery that lost its charge. Without it, can’t start the car. My daughter ran into this with her hybrid car when the 12-volt battery died after sitting in it for a long time with the stereo on.
On the Tesla, you can remove a cover on the bumper, and activate the door opener with a small battery. But who reads the manual before driving a car (I don’t read it all). On my non-Tesla EV, the big battery pack always re-charges the 12-volt battery. You should get a warning if the battery is getting old and too weak to hold a charge; if not, then poor design.
“On my non-Tesla EV, the big battery pack always re-charges the 12-volt battery.”
That’s my point. If the Tesla is sitting out there for a year, then maybe both batteries go totally dead. If it’s less than a year, then it should do what yours does and top-off the little battery. Just a dumb design by Tesla and it will cause lives to be lost, if not already the case.
I deal with programmers and "data scientists" who violate standards that were figured out 20+ years ago because they're from non-Western countries and have no understanding of what preceded them at all. None. It's disturbing to witness it. It's not getting any better either.
Even the team at Microsoft itself that built the Surface laptops failed miserably at a few things. One of the glaringly obvious ones was that they used serial numbers that contained leading zeros and numeric characters instead of alphanumeric characters (even laser etching them into the cases). It was a sophomoric mistake and no one caught it before launching them. What a way to scream to the world that you don't know what you're doing.
You may be aware of the problems with leading zeros but others on the thread may not be. Basically, a serial number might be
000123456789
but computer programs trim the leading zeros off and change the serial number to
123456789
Computer programs do not recognize both of those as the same device and that causes problems when writing code to push out updates to devices on the network (among a whole slew of other problems).
Not using alphanumeric characters means that programs treat either as a number. Years ago, even the rookies understood that you want the serial number to start with a letter, such as:
MS0123456789
which makes programs treat it as text, not a number, saving networking and programming teams all kinds of aggravation.
Being an engineer and forcing myself to think green I would have a solar charging system built into the car with enough charging power to open the doors.
My brother in law recently bought the Tesla cyber truck thing looks like a space ship all electric my sister didn’t want him to get it but he wanted a new toy to play with seriously it gives you no warning if the battery us going to die but there is a manual latch on the side of the door that will unlock the car if the battery croaks
“I would have taken a door off with the Jaws of Life tools.”
LOL... classic! Reminds me of that scene in that movie “Backdraft”. Luxury car parked in front of a hydrant. The firemen break out windows on both sides of the car and pass the hose right through the car! And it makes them very happy to smash those windows.
From the Cybertruck user owner's manual
https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/cybertruck/en_us/GUID-903C82F8-8F52-450C-82A8-B9B4B34CD54E.html
To open a front door manually, pull up the manual door release located in front of the window switches and push the door open.
To open a rear door manually, perform the following steps:
1. Remove the rubber mat on the bottom of the rear door's map pocket.
2. Pull back the flap of plastic trim (if equipped), then pull the mechanical release cable forward and push the rear door open.
No small child strapped into a car seat is going to operate any release mechanism and even an older child isn't going to figure out those directions, even if Grandma knows what to do and is screaming it through the glass at them.
It's a needless and dangerous risk created by ignorant engineers and approved by ignorant executives.
I'd give the Tesla engineers a pop-quiz tomorrow morning, disconnecting the batteries and stuffing them in the vehicles in the hot sun. I'm sure they'll figure it out.
Wait till they disconnect the front wheels from the steering wheel mechanically
Oh wait, They did in the cyber truck.
Even the most expensive mansions have doors with a lock with a key. (and they don’t have electric windows either)
The idea that a car needs an electric door handles is a stupidity that follows from a management that needs to keep “updating” the model, but can’t think of any genuine improvements.
We're living through a devolution of the entire human race, seems to me.
The federal government enacts all kinds of safety regulations on Cars and yet they allow this insane nonsense.
It’s a good thing Musk is a genius, because otherwise, this would be stupid. Oh, wait (manual override? Hello? Engineering 101?).
So, absolutely anyone can get into absolutely any Tesla simply by opening a little flap and connecting a little battery?
No wonder they didn’t want anyone to know!
If I was out in the wilderness and couldn’t open the door, I would pick up a big rock and smashed the driver’s side window.
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