Arizona toddler rescued after getting trapped in a Tesla with a dead battery | The Model Y’s 12-volt battery, which powers things like the doors and windows, died

ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 677 points –
Arizona toddler rescued after getting trapped in a Tesla with a dead battery
theverge.com
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If only we had the technology to open doors without power. One day, perhaps.

But how do you integrate a subscription fee into analog doors? You can‘t enshitify that!!

Oh that's easy, just make it a one time release switch. You gotta replace the door battery after using it.

Door opener fluid. It's a canister of fluid that you have to pump into the door to open it in an emergency. Then you get a replacement canister from the dealer for $150. I recently found out that that's what passes for a "spare tire" anymore.

They do they both for cost and for weight savings to try and hit CAFE standard while only selling oversized CUVs.

Make small cars.

We want them, they’re fun and better for everyone.

The only subscription fee Tesla has is a $10 and you don't need it to open the doors.

So you're saying they designed it stupidly for no reason? Gosh.

Yes, that's correct.

Here too. You dared to post correct info that appeared to go against the groupthink. And even though you're agreeing what they did was stupid (which it is), it isn't enough; you're now part of the "other" tribe.

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I like how you were downvoted so heavily for posting correct information because there was a hint you weren't shitting on Tesla hard enough.

LOL it's been hilarious to watch people imagine all these horrible things about Tesla since Musk outed himself.

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The fact a car was approved that doesn't have a manual way to open doors from inside and outside and start it is ludicrous. That's basic-ass level shit. NHTSA is asleep at the wheel.

Other comment says there is a way from inside, just not outside (which doesn't help with a young kid/toddler/baby is the inside passenger of course).

Either way, glad this is "only" a huge embarrassment, and not a dead kid.

Or the foresight to have a small backup battery unit used exclusively for emergencies like say when the battery goes out or when someone reverses their car into a lake. The fact these are such death traps shows just how bad the US is when it comes to giving a flying fuck about people over money.

And all the while Elon is touted as some kind of super Lex Lutherian genius.

Honestly if I wrote a fictional book with some of the shit he's done and how the world looks at him publishers would throw it back in my face as being the most unbelievable POS they've read in the past 20 years.

have a small backup battery

As far as I understand, that 12V battery was that backup...

Nope it's a separate battery used like in a normal car to power the low voltage stuff so you don't have to use high grade power lines to run the windows and doors

During the pandemic my car sat in the garage until the battery died. After 7 hours of charging it, turned on the car and found the hybrid battery was almost full.

I get why the high and low voltage systems are separate, but damn that was one of those "Really!?" moments...

It's much much much cheaper to use the same 12V systems that other cars use.

Kia/hyundai solved this by having a disconnect on their (li-ion) 12V battery. When the voltage gets low it completely isolates the battery. There is a button inside the car that reconnects it right before starting the car.

The 12V is not a backup, it's the sole battery used to power electronics.

Not anymore, they've updated the platform to be 48v (which they shared the docs with the rest of the industry) and are using lithium batteries in both systems instead of lead acid. They're supposedly supposed to last the lifetime of the vehicle instead of having to be replaced every 4-5 years.

https://electrek.co/2023/12/07/tesla-shares-48v-architecture-with-other-automakers-to-move-the-industry/

https://insideevs.com/news/656775/tesla-switch-48v-voltage-system/

  1. That's only the Cybertruck

  2. The 48V battery will become "the sole battery" for the electronics so nothing will change in that regard. They're not connecting 400-1000v batteries to the electronics.

The point I was trying to make is that the model y switched to 12v lithium batteries in late 2021 that are supposed to last the lifetime of the vehicle (from the 2nd article). The 12v lead acid batteries you are used to seeing in every other car made since the 1960s usually only last 4-5 years.

I would bet that the model y from this story is either a 2019 or 2020 model

And what part of that were you referring to, specifically, when you said "not anymore"?

I still dont like something that is electric powered making it so you cant get through a door. If there is a short, the battery dies (which it will someday) or generally bad parts could potentially lead to a preventable death. Cars were made so keys (or key like) can open the door no matter what. And especially in the heat everyone is going through in the US.

There is still a mechanical latch but it is on the inside and is well-hidden.

It doesn't look hidden to me, I expect I'd probably use that by accident myself.

Front seat? Sure. Back seat? Nah. You have to remove paneling, pull a tab up, then pull a cord forward. That is a three step, non-obvious and non-intuitive way to open a door.

Or, climb into the front seat and open the front door.

Or, all doors should have an obvious mechanical backup that doesn't require that.

Agree to disagree, I suppose. It just looks like a piece of trim to me.

Lol its not hidden at all.

LOL ok

If you owned one you'd know i guess. The M3 has un hidden regular door pulls on the inside both front and rear doors. Idk about the Y.

I know it's cool to hate Tesla, but wrong is wrong, despite the downvotes.

I do own one, ya doofus.

Then how the fuck do you think they're hidden doofus. Every second passenger tries to pull them.

Ya I hear you. I don’t even like driving modern cars because they are all electrical and the pedals feel like video game controls. But nothing in the Tesla is built well. I fully believe it possible to build a full proof battery backup and not just hook up a random 12v that probably suffers from the same abysmal QA as the rest of the car.

There is a manual door release that works without power, but only from the inside. She had just loaded the child in their car seat, shut the door then went to the driver door to get in and couldn’t open it.

The doors are on the 12V side of the system, you can use jumper cables to connect an external battery from another vehicle (including ICE vehicles) to power the door under normal circumstances. But with a kid trapped in the car in AZ, I wouldn’t wait for that either.

It a pretty rare combinations of circumstances, but there’s something to be said for manual keys still used on other vehicles with keyless entry.

How would you connect the battery with jumper cables if you're locked out?

There’s a manual release that can be used to open the hood from the outside even if the vehicle has no power.

It’s a safety feature for first responders, as also under the hood is a loop of wire that can be cut to permanently disable the high voltage curcuts prior cutting open the car with saws.

Or charge/jump the 12V battery without having to remove the body panels.

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