So the driver had the accident on purpose to coincide with Tesla's financial details, then CNBC dared to report findings from the NTSB on the day they were released, closely timed to another Tesla financial report. The NTSB must be in on it too.
And when corrections are made, they should declare them with the same level of broadcast as their initial report. Having a correction posted down on their website vs the initial broadcast on TV, is not right.
teslamotorsclub.com
This is the old NYT trick of posting a bad story with big headlines first page above the fold and then mention a correction on page 16 a few days later. They have managed to get millions killed with this little trick over the years.
No, I don’t wear a tinfoil hat, lol. I was merely pointing out the timing and degree of the media coverage, and when it comes to stocks, CNBC can move the market. Put another way, before earnings, the short money, and other interested parties were still on the FUD bandwagon. 6 months later, a day after earnings, with two more production plants coming online and an order backlog, I sense an “if you can’t beat them, join them” attitude. Even Cramer‘s on the Tesla train. He kind of does that when all time highs are reached. I added a lot to my position when the stock went down 14 points after hours, and it paid off. the smart money came in the next day. 30 percent margins ? They killed earnings. Just in time to predict success Cramer. I’m sorry there was a fatal accident involved, but you didn’t see ME on TV blabbing about it. There were other less publicized fatal accidents that day In April, and pretty much sure they weren’t on purpose.
This post was linked to today, and it was interesting that the local news in the SF Bay Area ran a story several times of cars with driver assist systems crashing into a white car in the rain, which is becoming a "thing" here.. Several brands of cars were shown crashing, and not one was a Tesla. Hmmmm... maybe they couldn't get it to crash. No mention at all. Sort of seems like anything good about them is excluded, but no drama, no news. Who want's to see a car not crash on the news, except..... everybody. I think all car crashes should be on a dedicated channel, called, say, Rubberneck. Such a channel might improve traffic flow.
Link to story about other driver assist systems? I haven't seen that or a similar story.
I think the word "hidden" says it all. I drive an X and I'm pretty sure it would be very easy to never find your way out of the car in a serious accident. I was in a serious accident once where I had a concussion. I was trying to release my seat belt on the left. The seat belt buckle was on the right. There's no way I would be able to find or even remember the process of releasing Tesla door latches in a serious accident. Sooner or later this stuff is going to catch up with Tesla and it is going to cost them big bucks! Does anyone here remember the Pinto gas tank issue? It was the watershed case for accident liability.
If you're going to install a safety release mechanism - at some cost - why hide it? What's the point then?
You mentioned the number one reason to keep it hidden, especially for the rear: kids. Kids would be attracted to a red handle that was easy to pull and they don't care what is written on it.
Sure, regulators can force it, but given there are a bunch of vehicle types where it's difficult, if not impossible, to exit the rear seats in an emergency (without somehow reaching the front), regulators obviously have not seen it as something to address or mandate.
For cars where kids are not a concern, the reason is likely to prevent possible damage to the door trim when using the emergency release. Many of the cars using electronic releases have frameless windows (one of primary reasons for using an electronic release in the first place) and the manual release will not drop the window down to clear the trim. So you have to be extra careful when using the manual release. The Corvette C6 is no exception:
The old Model Y manual says you can open a rear door manually but also that you cannot. Odd.
If they are sitting on the floor, the car's not likely moving, so that eliminates the major concern child locks are intended to address, which is kids opening the door while the vehicle is moving. The main thing is they won't be easy to find and pull when seated.
But for an emergency release, you don't want to have something that requires that much effort. All of the Tesla hidden release methods are easy to accomplish as long as you know about it and it does not require breaking anything. See above again for why they hide it.
Sure, they could add another sensor to the mechanical latches and then tie that into the window dropping, but that adds another layer of complexity to the design to something that may never be used in the life of the car and increases the chance of failures (like how a lot of German cars have all kinds of complex switches that break as the car ages).
AFAIK, even when they use laminated glass, they typically leave one or more windows standard tempered. I know in my 2021 Model 3 only the two front side windows are laminated (and it was more for noise mitigation), while the rear glass is tempered. It's easy to check which windows are laminated by looking at the markings in the corner.
Nothing to stop a kid from pulling the manual release while in motion, kids ride unbuckled all the time. Sure it's bad parenting...
I didn't say Tesla's hidden releases are hard to pull, I said they could consider unhiding them and making them secure. Secure does not mean hard to pull. Think of a fire pull in a building or a handle behind a cover. Easy to pull but secured from unintentional pulling. Again I'm not suggesting any particular style, just a concept of having an emergency release that is secured but easy to use. This does not exist in cars, but maybe it could.
I didn't say add an electrical sensor did I? I said design a mechanical release that doesn't cause damage.
Good to know some rear windows may still be tempered, for now. I expect that to change as laminated offer many advantages and will probably be fitted to rear windows soon to give rear passengers the same level of protection and sound comfort. They have but one drawback - risk of entrapment in rare cases of fire and water, well also risk from fine glass shards.
If you are letting your kids ride on the floor while the vehicle is moving, you have safety concerns much worse than an emergency release being pulled.
Sorry, maybe I'm not making it clear, but I'm talking exactly about a handle behind a cover you have to break (like building fire pulls) being too much effort in a car, given the confined space, versus the methods Tesla have.
Pretty much not possible as long as the windows are frameless and rely on the window dropping for sealing (which is a very common frameless design). I'm not sure if it's possible to design a mechanical way to drop the window, but that sounds like something that may interfere with the latch working in an emergency (easy to have a sensor not interfere with that, but much harder if there is extra mechanical linkage). For an emergency mechanical release, you want it as simple as possible to ensure it always works, that's why all of them pretty much just pull a release cable.
The move to laminate is to satisfy FVMSS 226 (which all cars after 2020 pretty much have to meet) which requires preventing people from being ejected from the sides of the vehicles in an accident where the windows may break. However, it can also be met with other means, like side curtain air bags that block the windows. Tesla appears to have met that requirement with the air bags, given they still use tempered glass on the rear side windows in their 2021 models.
