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A comment on A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're Built. Parent comment

Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by blinkingled on Monday February 05, 2018 @07:44PM (#16313583)
>manual mechanism for opening the rear doors from the inside

Brother of my close friend literally burned to death in a Hyundai with no manual override for unlocking/opening doors. Granted he had modified the car's stereo system with custom speakers and the roadside mechanic did not do a good job with it which caused short circuit/fire. But had he been able to manually open the doors he would still be alive today. And to think Tesla is all batteries that have strong chance of starting a fire - ugh.

If car body construction tech was new you could cut Tesla some slack but given all of these issues have been fixed by pretty much all manufacturers years ago - I have no sympathy for Tesla there.

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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by emmelaich on Monday February 05, 2018 @10:10PM (#16314161)
That's horrible. I have an enduring fear due to the lack of manual window winders. Harder to open a door in water than wind down a window.

Related - a woman was stuck in her Audi Q3 in 41C (106F) heat. (Australia, 2003)

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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by blinkingled on Monday February 05, 2018 @10:33PM (#16314262)
Yeah window winders too - they should have a knob that drops the window down someplace not accidentally accessible. That should be easy enough to do without adding any significant bulk.
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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by toomanybeersies on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @12:29AM (#16314620)
You can buy window breaking hammers (like they have in public buses) if you're concerned about not being able to get out of your car in a crash.
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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by kevingadd on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @01:05AM (#16314712)
They're extremely cheap and some of them also come with a blade for cutting seatbelts (inside a notch so you won't accidentally cut yourself with it). Definitely a life-saving tool worth keeping in your car.
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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by zuppy on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @03:28AM (#16315058)
And there's even a small spring loaded version, that can be carried with the keys. Look for resqme.
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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by rimliu on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @03:11AM (#16315017)
You can also take a headrest of the front seat and use its prongs to break a window.
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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by bcraven on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @04:25AM (#16315202)
https://www.snopes.com/car-headrests-emergency-escape/

They're not designed for that, but some can be used in a pinch. Best not to rely on them!

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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by function_seven on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @04:16AM (#16315178)
Not a bad idea, but are those prongs hard enough? I thought window-breaking tools have a ceramic or tungsten (?) point on them to start the glass fracture.

I'm not going to test it, but I imagine myself desperately bouncing the metal prongs off the inside of a window.

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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by allendoerfer on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @06:40AM (#16315609)
You have to hit the edges of the side windows, they are the weak spot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i5rycLJ3D8&feature=youtu.be...

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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by function_seven on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @11:55AM (#16317503)
Thanks. I always thought that you had to hit on the actual edge of tempered glass, which is impossible on a rolled-up car window.

Looks like near the edge is good enough.

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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by inferiorhuman on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @12:33AM (#16314637)
> And to think Tesla is all batteries that have strong chance of starting a fire - ugh.

A gasoline car has plenty of flammable material as well.

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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by blinkingled on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @07:50AM (#16315910)
Right, but the batteries are more vulnerable to starting a fire in collisions than gasoline. I think there were cases of Tesla car batteries starting fire on impact.
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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by SmellyGeekBoy on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @09:31AM (#16316384)
I hate to be "that guy" but... Do you have a citation for that, by any chance?
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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by ce4 on Thursday February 08, 2018 @01:50AM (#16330654)
Here's footage of the burning Rimac Concept One when Grand Tour's Hammond crashed it [1].

A Tesla burned down after a crash in Austria last year [2]

1: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T4sDy-zdV2o

2: https://www.golem.de/news/elektroauto-tesla-model-s-brennt-a...

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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by inferiorhuman on Thursday February 08, 2018 @04:15PM (#16335657)
In what way is that more vulnerable to fire than a gasoline powered car in a wreck? Cars catch on fire all the time.
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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by rhinoceraptor on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @09:59AM (#16316572)
AFAIK, Teslas just use huge arrays of 18650s. And it's well known that lithium cells can catch fire if they are crushed or pierced.
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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by inferiorhuman on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @01:11AM (#16322566)
> AFAIK, Teslas just use huge arrays of 18650s. And it's well known that lithium cells can catch fire if they are crushed or pierced.

Ah. So it's like gasoline then?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISJdZD8POi8

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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by rhinoceraptor on Thursday February 08, 2018 @02:39PM (#16334927)
Gasoline still requires an ignition source to catch fire. Lithium cells can spontaneously ignite when they experience physical damage.

I'm not saying electric cars are safer or more dangerous in the event of a crash (because I don't know the answer to that), just that batteries can and will catch fire.

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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by blinkingled on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @11:17AM (#16317203)
No, but it's fairly common knowledge that li-ion batteries are at fire risk on overheating and collision/impact(ref: Tesla fires). That's not to say Tesla didn't firewall the car enough to prevent fires from reaching in the cabin but it's still not a good idea to be locked in there when batteries are burning below.
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Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by inferiorhuman on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @01:10AM (#16322563)
It's pretty well known that gasoline is a fire risk... that's kind of how ICE engines work. Lithium-ion batteries come in a variety of different chemistries and some, e.g. LiFePo4, are not much of a fire risk at all.

So, yes, if you puncture the lithium cells you may put yourself at risk. You're also at risk if you puncture a gasoline tank (worse if you're talking something like hydrogen).

Note: Tesla does not, AFAIK, use LiFePo4 cells. Additionally one of the big challenges is that LiFePo4 cells are less energy dense than other lithium chemistries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMARDvMz62A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p21iZVFHEZk

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