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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
It's very hard to give this comment the benefit of the doubt - the obvious critical difference is not buried in the details, and it's disturbing to see it casually ignored, given the context.
The "critical difference" here is that in other cases the car wasn't manufactured by Elon Musk, the currently-designated Emmanuel Goldstein who needs to be the focus of a Two Minutes Hate every time his name is mentioned.
Edit: when a friend of mine locked her kid inside a conventional car a number of years ago, and the fire department broke the window, I assure you the incident did not even make the local news, much less go national.
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.
> 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.
> 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.
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.
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.
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.
> 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.
