From the article:

The man is blaming the automaker even though the manual door opener was under his left hand the whole time.

A man in Arizona says that he was recently trapped in his Tesla after getting in, closing the door, and then realizing that his battery was dead. What he didnā€™t know is that the manual release for the door was under his left hand the whole time. Now, heā€™s blaming the automaker and raising awareness.

Rick Meggison, 73, says that Tesla needs to address what he calls a ā€œsafety concernā€ involving how to exit the car when the battery dies. The main door latch actuator on all Tesla models is electronic so if the 12-volt battery dies it wonā€™t work. To ensure safe exit of the vehicle Tesla includes a manual release. Meggison didnā€™t know about that and ended up trapped in his car for 20 minutes on a hot day.

ā€œI couldnā€™t open the doors. I couldnā€™t lower the windows. The computer was dead, so I couldnā€™t open the glove box. I couldnā€™t open anything,ā€ he told ABC7. Of course, he couldā€™ve opened the door in about two seconds had he known that the manual release was just ahead of his window switches. His situation has many wondering whoā€™s to blame in situations like this.

  • @[email protected]
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    39ā€¢
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    1 year ago

    Controversial opinion, but anyone buying a car which is a giant death machine, should read the manual before driving it, especially when itā€™s an electric vehicle and things arenā€™t like normal cars.

    Now I dislike Tesla, but the manual release isnā€™t hard to find.

    • @[email protected]
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      37ā€¢1 year ago

      Youā€™re not wrong, but why is Tesla reinventing the door handle? Why does this need to be powered now? Seems like theyā€™re fixing something that wasnā€™t broken.

      • Kushan
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        -16ā€¢1 year ago

        On the outside, the door handles of a Tesla automatically recess when not in use, which reduces drag on the car and letā€™s it drive more efficiently (therefore giving you more range).

        Tesla does a lot of ā€œreinventing for the sake of itā€ but in this one instance there is actually a reason for it.

        • @[email protected]
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          19ā€¢1 year ago

          The door handle in question is on the inside of the car. It doesnā€™t serve any engineering reason to be resigned other than for aesthetics.

        • CurseBunny [she/her]
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          8ā€¢1 year ago

          Wikipedia article concerning drag coefficients

          The drag coefficients of even the more recent Teslas are comparable to other vehicles that donā€™t use retracting door handles, even the GM EV1 from 1999 beats all the Teslas on the table in terms of drag reduction. The door handles may technically be a contributing factor towards their more favorable position on the list, but theyā€™re certainly not necessary and donā€™t seem to be highly impactful. A large part of Tesla design philosophy and marketing is making their cars seem futuristic and highly advanced through things like motorized door handles and autopilot. Their primary goal is to provide a unique and pleasant user experience ā€œout of the boxā€ and their justification for things like the door handles retracting are almost certainly retroactive.

        • @[email protected]
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          1ā€¢1 year ago

          Genuinely curious, how much savings does that accomplish? Something as small as a door handle doesnā€™t seem like it would create a lot of drag, but it might just be unintuitive

          • @[email protected]
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            1ā€¢1 year ago

            Itā€™s bullshit. Theyā€™d save 1000x more in range if they fixed the shitty gaps in their paneling instead of doing away with door handles.

            Just because itā€™s new doesnā€™t mean itā€™s better. Reinventing door handles is something no car needs.

          • @[email protected]
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            1ā€¢1 year ago

            I seriously doubt it changes much.

            Hypermiling is a thing where people try to get 100 mpg from a compact car like the Honda Civic. Itā€™s been around for a few decades now.

            There are things you can do to improve aerodynamic abilities of the car. The biggest is the wheel shrouds and overall car shape (nose and tail). Then youā€™re covering up seams in the body work. Iā€™ve not heard of anyone swapping out or door handles.

            Iā€™m sure the cause drag, but there is so much lower hanging fruit to address before changing something that small.

          • Kushan
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            0ā€¢1 year ago

            I honestly donā€™t know, there does seem to be some controversy around this but Tesla seems determined to want flush handles so there must be something to it.

              • Kushan
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                0ā€¢1 year ago

                Itā€™s definitely not just aesthetics, but the impact is up for debate. Tesla arenā€™t the only EV manufacturer doing it.

                • themeatbridge
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                  1ā€¢1 year ago

                  The impact on drag at normal highway speeds is negligible, there is no debate. It is entirely for cool factor points. Nothing accomplished by retractable handles couldnā€™t be done better, cheaper, and with fewer moving parts with a standard handle.

                  • Kushan
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                    0ā€¢1 year ago

                    errr, yeah there is debate. Given that nearly every EV manufacturer is doing their darnedest to flatten or remove door handles, donā€™t you think there must be more than a ā€œnegligibleā€ impact?

                    https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180105005468/en/Top-3-Drivers-of-the-Global-Automotive-Retractable-Door-Handle-System-Market-Technavio

                    According to Amey Vikram, a lead analyst at Technavio for automotive components research, ā€œThe retractable door handle design allows radical aerodynamic designing for the side body panel. Retractable door handles are invisible handles that contribute by about 12% to reduce the drag coefficient of vehicles. Retractable door handles eliminate the issue of airflow bulge creation, air flow turbulence generation, and air flow pressure conservation. The decreased drag coefficient will also contribute to increasing the fuel efficiency of vehicles as there will be low drag generation resisting the movement of vehicles through the airflow.ā€

                • @[email protected]
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                  1ā€¢1 year ago

                  If there is no data, how do you know it ISNā€™T just for aesthetics? It certainly seems that way.

                  • Kushan
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                    0ā€¢1 year ago

                    Well, I did some googling and found this:

                    According to Amey Vikram, a lead analyst at Technavio for automotive components research, ā€œThe retractable door handle design allows radical aerodynamic designing for the side body panel. Retractable door handles are invisible handles that contribute by about 12% to reduce the drag coefficient of vehicles. Retractable door handles eliminate the issue of airflow bulge creation, air flow turbulence generation, and air flow pressure conservation. The decreased drag coefficient will also contribute to increasing the fuel efficiency of vehicles as there will be low drag generation resisting the movement of vehicles through the airflow.ā€

                    Source: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180105005468/en/Top-3-Drivers-of-the-Global-Automotive-Retractable-Door-Handle-System-Market-Technavio

                    Seems like there is indeed plenty of data.

        • @Skelectrician
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          22ā€¢1 year ago

          So imagine for a moment that this is a child and not a senior. You gonna scream at little Timmy for not RTFM?

          Car doors have been pretty standard and self explanatory for 100 years, until now. There was no good reason to make such a huge design change for the sake of looking cool, especially when the override is hidden behind a piece of trim.

          • @[email protected]
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            18ā€¢1 year ago

            Exactly. People on here claiming read the manual to find out how to open a door must be missing /s because they sound insane.

            Standards exist for a reason and your product should be intuitive or BETTER, a shitty button with a picture is not better than a handle like literally everywhere else.

            • @[email protected]
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              6ā€¢1 year ago

              If there even is a paper manual, itā€™s probably in the electronically opened glovebox, which obviously wonā€™t open anymoreā€¦

          • @[email protected]
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            -4ā€¢1 year ago

            Donā€™t get me wrong, I donā€™t like the change, I dislike Teslaā€™s and see no reason for Tesla to change what is standard.

            But I still believe a grown adult buying a giant metal death machine should read the manual before driving off in one, especially when if you do just calmly look around for more than 5 seconds you can find the door open latch.

            • @Skelectrician
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              9ā€¢1 year ago

              Normally, Iā€™d agree with you, but in a matter of life or death, like baking in a hot car, the means of exit should be obvious for anyone, including children and the elderly. Just like in public buildings with proper exit signage, there should be no questioning how to get the fuck out in an emergency.

        • @[email protected]
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          12ā€¢
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          1 year ago

          Have you read your carā€™s manual cover to cover?

          I hope youā€™re not responsible for designing products, because intuitive product design is important. Requiring a manual to understand a potentially life-saving feature of your vehicle, because the manufacturer chose form over functionā€¦ listen to yourself.

          Hereā€™s another great solution: donā€™t let your car battery die (/s)

          • @[email protected]
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            -1ā€¢1 year ago

            Yes, I have 2 cars, Iā€™ve read both manuals.

            Iā€™m not saying I agree with with the bad for handles, but manuals for a big death machine should be read anyway, and if he did heā€™d know how to open a door.

            • @[email protected]
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              3ā€¢6 months ago

              I know this is 8 months old, but are you seriously arguing people should read a carā€™s manual to know how to open the door?

              Any door that requires the user to read a manual is a terrible design.

    • Kevin
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      21ā€¢1 year ago

      The manual release doesnā€™t appear to have any symbols. The electric one does, yeah.

      The release should be obvious to all drivers, not just the owners. Valets and guests should be able to tell where the door release is too, without consulting a manual.

    • @[email protected]
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      20ā€¢1 year ago

      They donā€™t provide a printed copy of the manual, itā€™s only on the computer. This makes it awkward to really read as you have to sit in the car. It also means that if the battery dies you cannot access it to even look up things like the manual door release.

    • @[email protected]
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      10ā€¢1 year ago

      This might work if the only occupant ever was the owner. But it totally ignores all the passengers and children that will be in the vehicle.

      Door handles should be intuitive at this point.

    • @[email protected]
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      9ā€¢1 year ago

      Iā€™ve even had people almost use it instead of the normal button. ā€œOh not that one. The button where your thumb isā€

    • Knacht
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      2ā€¢1 year ago

      Isnā€™t the manual displayed on the touch screen?