No, your Tesla is not going to lock you inside and kill you
At least, no more often than any other car, which is basically never
This newsletter is all about separating reality from bullshit in pop culture. The idea that you can get locked inside a car with electronic door releases and be unable to get out is most definitely bullshit — every such car has relatively obvious mechanical backups as required by federal law. But I suppose it’s possible that a person — perhaps a small child, perhaps an elderly person with cognitive decline — might get confused. Luckily, the chances of being in a car at the same time its battery happens to completely die (rendering the electronic door releases useless) are very, very small.
In addition, the chances of this happening to you in one particular brand of the many cars that work this way are even smaller.
And yet, here’s the headline we get from Popular Science:
Note that it “keeps happening,” and apparently, only to Teslas.
The article does cite a few examples: two cases where a toddler had been accidentally locked inside the car (and only once when the car’s 12V battery happened to be dead), and two cases where adults opted to break their way out of the car, apparently unaware of the manual releases.
One of these was actually a false report: the owner claimed she was locked in during a software update, which can’t really happen — the door power is always available during every update, since the door mechanisms are not controlled by the computer. They are two unconnected systems.
Now, I should disclose that I am a Tesla owner. However, I’m no fanboi, and the car has far more than enough quirks that I will never buy another one. But it has sold me on EVs. I love my EV and can’t wait to get one that’s a better match for me. So, though I’m not a Tesla fan, I hate it when lazy reporters and editors publish “shocking” anti-Tesla articles, just because it’s so fashionable to do so. Such articles are almost always false and/or misleading, as is this one.
Here are just a few points:
Lots of cars work this way, not just EVs, and certainly not just Teslas. Mercedes’ higher-end models have had electronic door releases for decades, since before Tesla even existed. BMW has been doing it since the 1990s. Corvettes too. More and more manufacturers are adopting electronic door releases — why did the article attack only Tesla, and not the increasingly common practice by all manufacturers? The reporter had to have known he was being disingenuous; Pop Sci should accept no more articles from him until he can demonstrate an ability to fact check.
In my car — a Model 3 (which works the same as the Model Y in the article) — the manual release is the big obvious one, and the electronic release is a small unlabeled, unintuitive button. Every passenger who’s ever been in my car has used the obvious manual one. (They’re not supposed to, because the electronic release rolls the windows down half an inch to protect the glass; using the manual every time puts undue strain on the glass.)
For Tesla’s higher-end cars, the Model S and X, there’s only one door handle and it operates both the electronic and manual releases.
The article focuses on the manual release for the Model Y’s back seats — which is, admittedly, hidden (it’s behind a panel you have to pop open). If you park your car, my guess is you’re likely driving from the front seat, and can let the back seat passengers out yourself if your 12V has magically died during those few intervening seconds.
The chances of this happening in any car are small. Such door releases are powered by the car’s 12V battery (EVs have normal 12V batteries just like gas cars do). In gas cars, the 12V is always being charged by the engine. In EVs, the 12V is always being charged by the big high-voltage battery. Even if your 12V is in terrible shape, it will hold onto a bit of charge for a short while after every drive — nobody is going to be locked inside at the end of a drive. Much more likely you’ll find it dead when you try to drive next time, in which case you won’t be able to get in.
So, in summary, Pop Sci’s article is just more yellow journalism, a shocking headline intended to get shares and clicks. A Tesla will not lock you in with no way to get out, any more than any other car will.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68622898
I assume its this incident here. I think the main point I got is don't drive into ponds while drunk (or at all really)
I read a news article - hmm, a while ago, so the name of the deceased driver escapes me. But, the person managed to drive their Tesla into a pond and the car went completely underwater. The driver phoned friends to call for help and said she couldn't open the door. Water pressure? But apparently the Tesla's electrical system got blamed by the panicked driver and horrified friends. The driver was famous in some way (sorry - I live under a rock when it comes to pop culture.) So - after this long preamble - could something like this with a famous driver have started the Tesla-door-lock ball rolling?