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Arizona toddler rescued after getting trapped in a Tesla with a dead battery

27 points by belter 2y ago

asdasdsddd 2y ago
[flagged]
- Jtsummers 2y ago
  > Isn't the problem here that the parent left the kid in the car. What does this have to do with Tesla. Grandparent, and she put the kid in the carseat before trying to get in herself. And if you read the article (yeah, yeah, against the rules, but you clearly didn't read it) it has to do with Tesla because the only way to open the door with a dead 12-volt battery is from the inside. The exterior mechanisms don't work. And a 20-month-old in a carseat isn't in a great position to help out the adults stuck on the outside.
- MarceColl 2y ago
  It literally explains it in the article. > The car’s owner, Renee Sanchez, was taking her granddaughter to the zoo, but after loading the child in the Model Y, she closed the door and wasn’t able to open it again. “My phone key wouldn’t open it,” Sanchez said in an interview with Arizona’s Family. “My car key wouldn’t open it.” She called emergency services, and firefighters were dispatched to help.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- chgs 2y ago
  Put kid in back seat. Close door. Open front door. Get in. What do you do?
- andyjohnson0 2y ago
  From the article: > the issue raises concerns about why there isn’t an easy way to open the car from the outside when its 12-volt battery — the one that powers things like its door locks and windows — loses power. Its a design problem. Not sure whether its unique to Teslas, but it would seem to affect this particular model.
  - bagels 2y ago
    Using mechanical locks and keys would do it. Even just on one door. Regular cars have the same problem if you accidentally lock your keys in the car with the kid though.
    - rightbyte 2y ago
      How is it possible to lock the car without the keys? Maybe if you press the 'stick' down accidently? Unless the kid press the 'lock doors button' by the driver seat.
      - romanhn 2y ago
        I've accidentally dropped the key at the same time as slamming down the trunk. The key happened to fall into the groove that the trunk goes in, and the close button got pressed by the closing trunk. This was a fun one to explain to the AAA guy. I'm sure lots of other ways are possible too.
        happytoexplain 2y ago
        >I'm sure lots of other ways are possible too. There actually aren't! Modern cars are surprisingly good at avoiding this. You can't even lock the doors while they are open. The trunk is the only opportunity for that accident.
      - higeorge13 2y ago
        Or you give the kid the key to hold for a while, strap him in the seat, close the door to go to the driver seat, kid presses the lock button and throws the key away. That was a horror scene while in holidays with another couple. Fortunately somebody arrived to help without having to break the glass.
- mmmpetrichor 2y ago
  please read the article before commenting.
- ctur 2y ago
  Reread the story. The child wasn’t left in the car for an extended period (by a grandparent, not parent). The child had just been buckled into a car seat and the driver closed the door, walked around to the drivers side, and couldn’t get in. Absolutely no indication of improper adult behavior.
nomilk 2y ago
Unfortunately, youngsters can lock themselves in any car. It's not something unique to electric cars or Tesla. E.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=child+locked+themselves+in+car&tbm=nws https://www.google.com/search?q=child+locked+themselves+in+c...
- Jtsummers 2y ago
  But most other cars have physical locks that can be unlocked from the outside and a handle that doesn't require a still-charged 12-volt battery. You may need to call a locksmith (for instance, the keys are also inside the car), but you probably don't have to bust open the windows unless it's really urgent and you need to get them out now (instead of 20-30 minutes from now).
- chgs 2y ago
  People who lock the key in the car with the child. Not remotely the same.
  - Turing_Machine 2y ago
    How is it "not remotely the same"? In both cases the child is in the car and the door cannot be opened. In my city, the fire department solves the problem by bashing out a window, just as in this case. I know this because that's what happened when a friend locked in her baby. That seems more like "exactly the same" than "not remotely the same" to me. I'll bet it happens dozens of times across the country every single day.
    - chgs 2y ago
      One is due to the carelessness of the driver. The other is due to a failure in the car.
      - Turing_Machine 2y ago
        You can't open the door if you don't have the key You can't open the door if the battery is dead (or, presumably, the battery has removed by a would-be car thief). I'm not sure why one of these is a "failure of the car" but not the other. If the Tesla cars defaulted to "doors open" when the battery was dead/removed, people would be complaining about that. In both cases, the end outcome is exactly the same: the window gets bashed out by the fire department.
doku 2y ago
Wait till this happens on a cybertruck
- r0ckarong 2y ago
  Jaws of life will make it a convertible.
higeorge13 2y ago
I don’t own a tesla. So every door opening in teslas (even with the car unlocked) relies on electrical parts and batteries? That’s crazy!
- stefan_ 2y ago
  It's even dumber. They rely on the bog-standard lead 12V battery which has a habit of dying in Teslas. So you got a huge battery with enough energy to power your home for a week right there but can't open the door because that part relies on the other battery.
  - voisin 2y ago
    Any idea what the rationale is for this? Seems bizarre. Why even have a 12V lead battery when that weight could be eliminated?
    - rightbyte 2y ago
      You want to be able to run brake and steering servo if the main battery has to disengage due to faults. E.g. the ground fault protection has alot of false positives. The led battery is way more robust to abuse and faults than a lithium battery, too.
      - voisin 2y ago
        Why wouldn’t they make the lithium battery a backup for the lead?
        enslavedrobot 2y ago
        New Tesla's have a lithium battery. The reason for the 12V is that the low voltage electrical system can periodically need to deliver and control ~100A @ 12V. To do this with DC to DC conversion from the ~400V main pack is complex and expensive. The legacy auto industry supply chain won't switch from 12V further complicating the economics of a better design. If your Tesla senses a fault in the low voltage system it will cut the connection to the high voltage pack and send you a message saying "pull over your car may not restart" depending on the fault, this message will stay up for hours or even days. At this point your 12V batter is no longer being recharged. Once the battery gets really low the warning messages get more intense and the car will literally not move. At this point the doors still work, usually for hours. There is a ton of warning before your doors won't open. This is for the lead acid case of older cars. Newer cars have a 12V lithium ion battery with higher capacity that may behave differently. Next gen Tesla's (starting with the cybertruck) use 48V low voltage architecture that is 4x lower current. Tesla now has the scale to develop the 48V automotive supply chain internally in spite of the resistance from incumbent OEMs. Overall I give this story a 3/10. Mostly FUD.
johnea 2y ago
Tesla's are becoming the new junked refrigerators: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator_death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator_death I did just read an article where the trapped person, on calling tesla support from inside the locked car, was told there is a "secret" mechanical release under the arm rest. I guess they only want those in teh know to be able to escape 8-/ Personally, I just bought a used Nissan Leaf, with the mechanical door handles, and other mechanical buttons and controls as one of the primary reasons. Putting everything in a touchscreen in a car should be illegal. Just like electric door handles.

27 points by belter 2y ago

asdasdsddd 2y ago

[flagged]

Jtsummers 2y ago
> Isn't the problem here that the parent left the kid in the car. What does this have to do with Tesla. Grandparent, and she put the kid in the carseat before trying to get in herself. And if you read the article (yeah, yeah, against the rules, but you clearly didn't read it) it has to do with Tesla because the only way to open the door with a dead 12-volt battery is from the inside. The exterior mechanisms don't work. And a 20-month-old in a carseat isn't in a great position to help out the adults stuck on the outside.
MarceColl 2y ago
It literally explains it in the article. > The car’s owner, Renee Sanchez, was taking her granddaughter to the zoo, but after loading the child in the Model Y, she closed the door and wasn’t able to open it again. “My phone key wouldn’t open it,” Sanchez said in an interview with Arizona’s Family. “My car key wouldn’t open it.” She called emergency services, and firefighters were dispatched to help.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
chgs 2y ago
Put kid in back seat. Close door. Open front door. Get in. What do you do?
andyjohnson0 2y ago
From the article: > the issue raises concerns about why there isn’t an easy way to open the car from the outside when its 12-volt battery — the one that powers things like its door locks and windows — loses power. Its a design problem. Not sure whether its unique to Teslas, but it would seem to affect this particular model.
- bagels 2y ago
  Using mechanical locks and keys would do it. Even just on one door. Regular cars have the same problem if you accidentally lock your keys in the car with the kid though.
  - rightbyte 2y ago
    How is it possible to lock the car without the keys? Maybe if you press the 'stick' down accidently? Unless the kid press the 'lock doors button' by the driver seat.
    - romanhn 2y ago
      I've accidentally dropped the key at the same time as slamming down the trunk. The key happened to fall into the groove that the trunk goes in, and the close button got pressed by the closing trunk. This was a fun one to explain to the AAA guy. I'm sure lots of other ways are possible too.
      - happytoexplain 2y ago
        >I'm sure lots of other ways are possible too. There actually aren't! Modern cars are surprisingly good at avoiding this. You can't even lock the doors while they are open. The trunk is the only opportunity for that accident.
    - higeorge13 2y ago
      Or you give the kid the key to hold for a while, strap him in the seat, close the door to go to the driver seat, kid presses the lock button and throws the key away. That was a horror scene while in holidays with another couple. Fortunately somebody arrived to help without having to break the glass.
mmmpetrichor 2y ago
please read the article before commenting.
ctur 2y ago
Reread the story. The child wasn’t left in the car for an extended period (by a grandparent, not parent). The child had just been buckled into a car seat and the driver closed the door, walked around to the drivers side, and couldn’t get in. Absolutely no indication of improper adult behavior.

nomilk 2y ago

Unfortunately, youngsters can lock themselves in any car. It's not something unique to electric cars or Tesla. E.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=child+locked+themselves+in+car&tbm=nws https://www.google.com/search?q=child+locked+themselves+in+c...

Jtsummers 2y ago
But most other cars have physical locks that can be unlocked from the outside and a handle that doesn't require a still-charged 12-volt battery. You may need to call a locksmith (for instance, the keys are also inside the car), but you probably don't have to bust open the windows unless it's really urgent and you need to get them out now (instead of 20-30 minutes from now).
chgs 2y ago
People who lock the key in the car with the child. Not remotely the same.
- Turing_Machine 2y ago
  How is it "not remotely the same"? In both cases the child is in the car and the door cannot be opened. In my city, the fire department solves the problem by bashing out a window, just as in this case. I know this because that's what happened when a friend locked in her baby. That seems more like "exactly the same" than "not remotely the same" to me. I'll bet it happens dozens of times across the country every single day.
  - chgs 2y ago
    One is due to the carelessness of the driver. The other is due to a failure in the car.
    - Turing_Machine 2y ago
      You can't open the door if you don't have the key You can't open the door if the battery is dead (or, presumably, the battery has removed by a would-be car thief). I'm not sure why one of these is a "failure of the car" but not the other. If the Tesla cars defaulted to "doors open" when the battery was dead/removed, people would be complaining about that. In both cases, the end outcome is exactly the same: the window gets bashed out by the fire department.

doku 2y ago

Wait till this happens on a cybertruck

r0ckarong 2y ago
Jaws of life will make it a convertible.

higeorge13 2y ago

I don’t own a tesla. So every door opening in teslas (even with the car unlocked) relies on electrical parts and batteries? That’s crazy!

stefan_ 2y ago
It's even dumber. They rely on the bog-standard lead 12V battery which has a habit of dying in Teslas. So you got a huge battery with enough energy to power your home for a week right there but can't open the door because that part relies on the other battery.
- voisin 2y ago
  Any idea what the rationale is for this? Seems bizarre. Why even have a 12V lead battery when that weight could be eliminated?
  - rightbyte 2y ago
    You want to be able to run brake and steering servo if the main battery has to disengage due to faults. E.g. the ground fault protection has alot of false positives. The led battery is way more robust to abuse and faults than a lithium battery, too.
    - voisin 2y ago
      Why wouldn’t they make the lithium battery a backup for the lead?
      - enslavedrobot 2y ago
        New Tesla's have a lithium battery. The reason for the 12V is that the low voltage electrical system can periodically need to deliver and control ~100A @ 12V. To do this with DC to DC conversion from the ~400V main pack is complex and expensive. The legacy auto industry supply chain won't switch from 12V further complicating the economics of a better design. If your Tesla senses a fault in the low voltage system it will cut the connection to the high voltage pack and send you a message saying "pull over your car may not restart" depending on the fault, this message will stay up for hours or even days. At this point your 12V batter is no longer being recharged. Once the battery gets really low the warning messages get more intense and the car will literally not move. At this point the doors still work, usually for hours. There is a ton of warning before your doors won't open. This is for the lead acid case of older cars. Newer cars have a 12V lithium ion battery with higher capacity that may behave differently. Next gen Tesla's (starting with the cybertruck) use 48V low voltage architecture that is 4x lower current. Tesla now has the scale to develop the 48V automotive supply chain internally in spite of the resistance from incumbent OEMs. Overall I give this story a 3/10. Mostly FUD.

johnea 2y ago

Tesla's are becoming the new junked refrigerators: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator_death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator_death I did just read an article where the trapped person, on calling tesla support from inside the locked car, was told there is a "secret" mechanical release under the arm rest. I guess they only want those in teh know to be able to escape 8-/ Personally, I just bought a used Nissan Leaf, with the mechanical door handles, and other mechanical buttons and controls as one of the primary reasons. Putting everything in a touchscreen in a car should be illegal. Just like electric door handles.