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Rescuer at Fatal Tesla Cybertruck Crash Says Car Doors Wouldn't Open
- komali2 1y agoI just don't understand why people accept the sheer arrogance of the design of Tesla vehicles. I don't need to worry about the programming of the computer controlling the door handle in a Honda civic - it's mechanical and will work in basically all circumstances excluding catastrophic mechanical damage - in which case there's 3 backups on the other doors or I'm crushed anyway and it's irrelevant. Meanwhile I hear story after story of various components on Teslas failing in all sorts of ridiculous circumstances - I recall cybertrucks having issues in car washes. It's insanity.
- chasing0entropy 1y agoInsanity indeed. Along the lines of trusting crucial business functions and general life philosophy to predictive text trained on the internet since no one remembers wow memes accurately proclaiming the true purpose of the internet. A design group that refuses to use lasers or radar for navigation does not prioritize sound engineering of any type let alone worst case design planning.
- measurablefunc 1y agoProfits must be made. How do you suppose they do that if they don't rush products to market?
- chasing0entropy 1y agoThis is huge revelation for me. Now to determine why I'm still making just over minimum wage and not designing any death traps
- userbinator 1y agoIt's form over function. That said, a lot of other newer cars already do not have the classic locking lever and handle arrangement.
- tanvach 1y agoBringing up the design flaws of my Model Y in any Tesla groups and I got endless amount of toxicity or aggressive responses. Theres a lot of fanboyism unfortunately. Reminds me of Apple during the Jobs era, but more insidious.
- raspasov 1y agoIt’s true that before Apple Silicon one could make the argument that the hardware benefits of a Mac were mostly incremental vs a PC. But today that’s not true anymore. Today Apple is both form and function. I’ve personally heard many misguided people still repeating blindly that Apple is “just” fancy design without having used Apple Silicon computer.
- orwin 1y agoApple computers (unlike their tablet or phones) are saved by extremely good Devs who managed to implement a very good package versions control, brew, and a lot of external software (non-webkit browser being the biggest) make the computer actually good. I think Apple native package version control is worse than IIS pre-version 7, and that's saying something (maybe it's better now, but that used to be the worse).
- raspasov 1y agoWhat is Apple native package version control? Almost everyone that I know uses brew. And even people who swear by Linux use it, so obviously props to brew. Apple computers now use more or less the same architecture as their phones, based on ARM. That is why you can install most iPad apps on macOS, and they typically work surprisingly well without any customization. Shared GPU and RAM are a game-changer for efficiency, speed, and battery life. What is the distinction between computers and phones/tablets you're referring to? PS FWIW I've used IIS all the way back in Windows XP days. It worked well enough for my needs at that point to run a basic web server from my home computer!
- orwin 1y ago
- pjbk 1y agoToday I drove past a new Tesla Model Y, still with a temporary paper tag. As I was passing by I immediately noticed some pretty heavy water condensation inside one of the lateral tail braking lights. I just rolled my eyes.
- raspasov 1y agoWow. If true that’s embarrassing.
- protocolture 1y ago"I had silicon valley interns reinvent the car from first principles, surely this wont have any consequences"
- bigstrat2003 1y agoIn fairness, it's good to be willing to try a different approach from first principles. It's very easy to get locked in by your preconceptions about what works, and as a result miss out on better approaches. The thing is, you also have to have the humility to admit that the new approach is not turning out to be better, and uh... Elon doesn't have that to say the least.
- protocolture 1y agoI agree to an extent. If the new approach shows some kind of merit, and that merit is not going to destroy one of your primary requirements, go for it. But doing it for no reason doesnt make a lot of sense.
- numbsafari 1y agoThey certainly move fast and break things.
- Gigachad 1y agoCybertruck owners are mentally lacking. That was obvious from the start.
- OutOfHere 1y agoYoung people just don't have the necessary life knowledge and experiences to avoid unsafe choices. The mental capacity often develops after some harsh life lessons, so long as one survives them.
- grogenaut 1y agoNote, linked article has no details. This sublinked article has some https://www.newsweek.com/3-dead-after-tesla-cybertruck-crashes-catches-fire-1992789 https://www.newsweek.com/3-dead-after-tesla-cybertruck-crash... It's completely unclear to me from this article if they failed to open because of computer control or mechanical damage. The car was on fire, I think, that's not exactly a trivial crash (though the 2nd article a fire chief says it didn't look like heavy damage to cause a fire) And they only got 1 of 4 out before the rest died? It doesn't take much to make a door hard to open or a lock fail to operate. They were also intoxicated. What scares me, as a new volunteer fire/ems, with these is how prone to fire they are and how hard it is to stop the fire once thermal runaway has started. Especially when you are trying to pull someone out. But as I said I have no idea from this article what happened, incredibly badly written. I'm not a fan of tesla but it almost feels like a 0 data hit piece. It's very hard to understand anything from this article.
- t1E9mE7JTRjf 1y ago[flagged]
- dreamcompiler 1y agoVastly more ICE cars catch fire every year than Teslas do. They get zero news coverage. But as you say ICE cars are also vastly easier to put out. We train on EV fires to spray them with water for hours because that's what it takes. Easier said than done when you have to shuttle water with tenders as we often do.
- lukevp 1y agoDon’t ICE cars mostly catch fire under the hood or the trunk area under the car? Vs. the entire floor of the car being an explosive and very hot fire? Seems quite a bit different. I mean it sucks if a car catches on fire and burns up but if no one dies it’s significantly less of a big deal.
- altairprime 1y agoTesla makes a pointed effort to withhold data at all costs, as demonstrated in a recent court case. Take care that their success in that regard does not unknowingly mislead your evaluations of safety claims against them.
- t1E9mE7JTRjf 1y agoThis article is from half a year ago. Why share now? Random or coincidence.
- benzible 1y agoNot sure but this was covered in a Slate podcast a few days ago as well: https://slate.com/podcasts/what-next-tbd/2025/09/how-teslas-door-handles-go-from-annoying-to-dangerous https://slate.com/podcasts/what-next-tbd/2025/09/how-teslas-...
- t1E9mE7JTRjf 1y ago[flagged]
- deeg 1y agoParents are suing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45458344 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45458344
- Maro 1y agoThings I would never do: • buy a car where the doors and not mechanical • buy a car with a huge screen in the middle • drink and drive • do cocaine
- dreamcompiler 1y agoTeslas have half mechanical door releases: If you're inside the vehicle it's easy to open the doors without power--at least the front doors. The mechanical latches in the rear doors are difficult to find. But the mechanical latches are not accessible from the outside, and they should be. That's why I call them half mechanical.
- jdadj 1y agoLots of cars have mechanical latches that automatically lock when driving over 10mph. I’ve heard a lot of complaints about the safety of non-mechanical doors. But are these auto-locking mechanical doors any better?
- orwin 1y agoThe autolock disengage either 5 seconds after the airbags, or when current is cut. I think autolock feature is mandatory in the EU, as keeping doors close during a crash help with structural integrity.
- alex43578 1y agoHow would an external mechanical release not result in every car equipped with it getting continually broken into? The Kia ignition fiasco was bad enough.
- maxbond 1y agoSeems pretty simple, the lock overrides the release, and when the vehicle detects a collision it unlocks the doors.
- jpalawaga 1y ago
- rich_sasha 1y agoMaybe he was holding it wrong.
- anArbitraryOne 1y agoSurely Elon would leave a backdoor open for himself
- Veserv 1y agoBut all you need to do to open the door mechanically is rummage around in the rear door pocket, remove the rubber mat, then pull the mechanical release cable: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/T4Rs2OQLrWw https://www.youtube.com/shorts/T4Rs2OQLrWw What could be simpler after getting into a crash? And there is no reason to talk about how people burn to death in Tesla's at ~4x the per-mile rate of the average car. I mean, Tesla releases intentionally deceptive statistics on their website [1] to convince you that you have ~8x the probability of getting into a fire in a non-Tesla and just intentionally not informing customers about the part where those fires are ~32x more likely to kill you. And that 4x excess fire death rate only results in like 4x as many excess fire deaths per year as the Ford Pinto; so really what is the harm? [1] https://www.tesla.com/VehicleSafetyReport https://www.tesla.com/VehicleSafetyReport
- oskarkk 1y ago> And there is no reason to talk about how people burn to death in Tesla's at ~4x the per-mile rate of the average car. Do you have a source for that?
- Veserv 1y agoHere is one of my posts on reddit with citations for 2022, the most recent year with ground truth NHTSA data as of that post: https://old.reddit.com/r/RealTesla/comments/1h6fzvr/tesla_bursts_into_flames_after_crashing_in_posh/m0lb1r6/ https://old.reddit.com/r/RealTesla/comments/1h6fzvr/tesla_bu... For the Cybertruck in particular you can see my post about their fatal fire rates from 8 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43039925 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43039925 Tesla Cybertruck has ~40x the vehicle-year normalized fire fatality rate of the average car and was responsible for excess annual fire deaths on the order of the excess annual fire deaths of the Ford Pinto.
- magicalhippo 1y agoAccording to Bowers while speaking to local Fox affiliate KTVU, a bystander had gotten out of his car and pulled the surviving occupant out from the mangled vehicle. From this[1] earlier article. I've heard plenty of stories of regular cars having their doors get stuck in crashes, due to the frame bending, and firefighters having to cut the vehicle to get people out. That said, seems[2] the electronic latches have been an issue for some time: On October 24, just after midnight, a Tesla Model Y with five people inside crashed into a guard rail on a Toronto street, bursting into flames. The car’s electronic door latches wouldn’t open, so rescuers couldn’t get in -- and the victims couldn’t get out. And it’s not the first time something like this has happened. Back in 2019, a doctor in South Florida crashed his Tesla Model S into a palm tree, and the electronic doors wouldn’t open. He was trapped inside and died. [1]: https://www.newsweek.com/3-dead-after-tesla-cybertruck-crashes-catches-fire-1992789 https://www.newsweek.com/3-dead-after-tesla-cybertruck-crash... [2]: https://www.azfamily.com/2024/11/22/deadly-crash-highlights-concerns-over-electronic-door-latches/ https://www.azfamily.com/2024/11/22/deadly-crash-highlights-...
- bchris4 1y agoIt hit a tree at like 70-80mph - no car is going to have doors that work properly after the entire frame is deformed like that, it’s not about the handles
- hhh 1y agoI was in a car wreck that hit a tree at 70mph in my mother’s Tahoe. I was able to open the door as a kid and just step out.
- lawn 1y agoGotta love the backseat drivers on HN who have no idea what they're talking about but still do it confidently. Hardly a surprise that the Tesla engineers come from the same breed.
- dzhiurgis 1y agoAt 110miles car splits in half. Source: my brother and a tree.
- Animats 1y agoSomeone is selling an emergency rope pull handle for Tesla vehicles on eBay.[1] That ought to be required via a recall. [1] https://www.ebay.com/itm/306430144366 https://www.ebay.com/itm/306430144366
- asfs4fsdfadf 1y agoHell I sometimes can't get into an Uber when it's a Tesla.
- OutOfHere 1y agoI have a hard policy to cancel any Uber that is a Tesla.
- nodeschool 1y ago> "Krysta tried to come up, sticking her head [out] from the back, I grabbed her arm to try and pull her towards me, but she retreated because of the fire." Weird way to end the story. I mean, what happened next? She died of the fire I presume? Stupid af to do drugs and drive, very sad for everyone involved.
- ChrisArchitect 1y agoStory from March, OP? More recent, today: Tesla Is Sued by Family Who Says Faulty Doors Led to Daughter's Death https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45456032 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45456032