Tesla driver and two kids burned alive because rescuers can’t open electronic doors: reports
https://nypost.com/2025/09/19/world-news/tesla-driver-and-two-kids-burned-alive-because-rescuers-cant-open-electronic-doors-reports/Open linkView original on lemmings.world490
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I sure wish ride-hailing apps would let you specify "no Teslas".
Obviously some people don't have much choice where there isn't anything else, but if they have the choice, I never understand why anybody would pay that amount of money for a taxi. If possible, you can also avoid those capitalistic companies by using local transit.
My local transit agency has trains and buses, but no Teslas. They are also charging exponentially less than a taxi that's backed by equity firms. And much safer than cars. All cars.
Public transit is basically non-existent for most of the United States.
Do you mean on the entire territory or just in cities? Because some states have an urbanization percentage of around 90%. I.E.: most people live in cities or suburbs.
New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, San Jose, Austin, Charlotte, San Francisco, Seattle, Jacksonville, Denver, Washington, Boston, Detroit, Portland, Baltimore. That's like 35 million people, that have no public transit? I can believe that public transit is shitty in some of those cities, and most certainly in a lot of the suburbs, but all of them? Do people hail Ubers in rural areas?
I've been watching some American YouTube channels about transit, like Miles in Transit, and one Adam that goes to national parks using public transit, and it appears that there is at least some public transit in the US. But just like where I live, people are dependent on cars and prefer to call a taxi than take public transit.
There is public transit where I live, because I moved here for this reason. A bus from the airport (soon to be a metro, finally) is $12 CAD and it includes all other forms of transit in the city; trains, metros and buses. An Uber ride from the airport to downtown is between $20 and $40 CAD. Yet, people hail their private chauffeurs and continue to claim that "there's no public transit".
Public transit in LA sucks. It probably does in other cities that I haven't tried it in as well, but just being an urban area in the US doesn't mean that there's decent public transit.
Public transit in the US was purposefully gutted to force the adoption of cars, with many transit lines being replaced by highways or car centric infrastructure.
The Boston metro (more of a light rail), referred to as the T, is rated as the 3rd best public transit system in the US, despite the frequent fires and breakdowns caused by a lack of maintenance on vehicles that haven't been replaced since the 70s or 80s due to being majorly underfunded. 100 years ago, the T was twice the size it is today, and a connection of one of the lines in Boston proper is now done by shuttle bus.
The number one and two spots in quality public transit are held by the bus lines in Seattle and Washington D.C., respectively. Public train lines effectively don't exist as there are no government owned tracks in the country. Amtrak, the public train line, has to run on freight rail under contract with the various companies that own the rails along the way and is never on schedule because they have to stop and let freight go by due to said contracts. All the companies that were started to bring high-speed rail to the US were bought up by car companies or the fossil fuel industry and immediately shut down. The cities of Boston and NYC at one point had planned to build a direct high-speed rail connection between the two cities that would have dramatically cut down travel time compared to any other form of transit, but that never went anywhere.
My hometown has a few bus lines with maybe ten stops each and no connecting stops between them, and a single coach line that's a direct stop at Logan Airport, which is probably 2 hours away depending on the traffic (probably an hour and change if you were to drive yourself instead). If you want to get anywhere else, your options are taxi services, rideshare, or driving.
Public transportation is so bad in the US that cars are culturally seen as a major sign of independence and the ability to choose for oneself. Getting your driver's license is seen as a major growth point because it's often the first time that people have the ability to go wherever they want without getting a ride from their parents.
You’re gonna say no public train infrastructure exists in the DC metro area?
I can ride a train from Baltimore to dc if I want.
I can cross DC with the metro, a public train system. Is the #2 ranking not including the trains? The DC metro system is busses and trains
Note this map doesn’t show Virginia Rail or Maryland or Amtrak service connections, this is JUST the dc metro rail map.
There are proposed light rail connector lines in MD.
FWIW it’s not nothing, going to other major cities in the country is a shock though.
Yes, it's bad almost everywhere. D.C. is surprisingly good, and I've heard NYC is good too. Those are the two exceptions. Everywhere else: at best it exists but sucks. It's nearly impossible to use as a reliable service, like you need for getting to work or whatever. It may be possible if you really need it, but you'll have to sacrifice a lot to use it. It may be acceptable to use on vacation or when time isn't an issue.
Minneapolis is okay for public transportation. The light rails are great, but bus travel falls way off only coming every 15-35 minutes depending on the route. The 35 minutes for a bus makes reliability very very hard, even when you plan around it so taking it to work wouldn't be feasible without planning to get to work 0-30 minutes early
Even in places with somewhat decent public transport, it's still more convenient to drive a car.
even if there was, a car is usually more convenient. plus PTthey dont extend to tech jobs that are outside of cities where they need indsutrial areas. so a car is a must for these jobs.
imagine living in a place with reliable public transportation
When my train doesn't come, they use Twitter to give us Uber vouchers that don't cover my ride home. 🦅🇺🇲👊
not reliable enough, since no fast railway system, which has been lobbied against by car industries. semi-decent within city limits, but many jobs(tech ,biotech, are not close to public transport). musk use his hyperloop scam to stop calis fast railway, long enough for trumps 1st term, elaine chao to block it.
I'd like that very much but I live in Canada and it's very shitty here too. Our trains are worse than those in the US. I've moved in a city where I do have public transit, but it's deteriorating in other parts of the region. Places where I could go before are now inaccessible. It's difficult to go see some friends in other towns. People saying that I don't know what I'm talking about, and carsplaining, when I grew up in a rural village in Canada. And all those replies about "BuT CaRs ArE a NeCesSiTy In AmErIcA" just for suggesting that people might want to avoid car sharing apps funded by equity funds and billionaires instead of just the occasional Tesla, are pretty funny.
So where I'm at. I bus to work. When I get off there is a decent chance the bus is no longer running. I can try to order a taxi and pay 30-50... if they show (been an issue for longer than I've lived here) or I can order an Uber, which is between 9-13 if it's not randomly "surge". Which I can just walk those 2 miles. I would absolutely love a "no tesla" option
But I'm assuming you would also absolutely love better public transit, right?
You're just making up an imaginary scenario where that's going to happen though. The person just wants to get home.
I'd also love teleportation and a bottomless purse. I also vote for better public transit and that passed years ago. Alas it still seems as likely as my other wishes. I would still love a "no tesla option" too. None of these are changing the other want.
I use Lyft because I am disabled and I cannot walk up and down the hill the mile to the closest transit stop. And yes, it is insanely expensive.
Local transit has downsides. Crime, inconvenient waits, loud music, loud phone talkers, etc.
plus crazy people, homeless people stinking up the bus, unsanitary where they spit or vomit on the train from time to time. also of matter of principle some riders that cant afford rising fares, will just fare evade, this isnt a problem for people who can own teslas that ride public transport and can afford the fares. last year, in the west coast they went hard on fare inspections.
Do people who can afford a Tesla need to work shitty Uber jobs?
The last time I called for a ride, the driver was in a Tesla. I'm not familiar with the Tesla models, but I'm guessing it's the cheapest one. It was so narrow in there. Definitely not comfortable to have three people (who aren't overweight) in the backseat. It was a bit of a shock compared to my Outback, which is much roomier (I didn't drive because we planned to be drinking).
Also, it had this screen in your face even in the backseat playing ads or whatever that I was trying to ignore. And it didn't feel premium. I don't know why anyone would want that car.
I had read about people not knowing how to use the door handles on a Tesla and I still had trouble using them.
I'd rather not die in a fire in some shitty ass car being sold by a neo-Nazi.
no, they are usually that can afford a HCOL area lifestyle(a nice house bay area, seattle, or any of the expensive blue counties), if you see someone driving uber, they might have Spent above thier means with tesla. i once followed Ytubers, where one idiot bought one used above his means, just to mooch of some other "friends" tubers he had"
Oh look, the thing we said would happen has happened. Again.
It happens in other cars too. And batteries burn. The outer door handles are no different than any car's locked doors.
From the article:
I have one I know exactly how they work. To be clear I think Musk is a fool and I would never buy a tesla again because of his Nazi ties. But the statement in that article about handles is wrong/simplified/misleading. On the outside, the handles lay flat; but almost all car's outer handles will not be usable when a door is locked. On the inside, the doors have electric buttons to open that could be disabled in a crash. But there are easy to use manual handles too. They are obvious and people use them by default until you tell them to use the electronic button (which prolongs the life of the window gasket by lowering the frameless window a bit before opening). In the back, there are manual overrides but they're hidden; however this is no less safe than having the child lock on for back door which is a normal feature for cars.
Yes Teslas have that too. They have a redundant power to the doors to minimize failure. But we're talking about the case where that fails, no?
The commenter said there was a benefit...
prolongs the life of the window gasket by lowering the frameless window a bit before opening
Whether that is worthwhile is another issue.
Every time anything goes slightly amiss with a Tesla, the media play it up because people like you who hate Tesla want to read about Tesla failure, so it drives engagement. Many many other cars have accidents where people get stuck in the car. There are other cars that have frameless windows and electronic handles, but you never hear about them not because they're any safer, but because no one cares about them.
The handles on the model 3 and Y are absolutely different than those of other vehicles. On the inside there are mechanical handles in the front only, and it's fairly easy to be unaware of their existence, they blend in too well. If the power fails in the low voltage system then the only way to get the rear doors open from the inside is to lift up the liner in the door pocket and pull on a small steel cable that unlatches the door.
I have two kids and have never needed child locks. How distracted while driving your kids are you?
I have one, I know exactly how it works. Yes the back door system is stupid, but no worse for safety than any car with the kid locks on the doors.
The emergency internal handles in the front are exactly where you think they'd be. If I don't tell people how to open the door with the button, they pull the emergency handle. Of course if someone is used to pushing the button and it doesn't work, they might panic, and forget but if they're unconscious it hardly matters.
You realize you are just trying to convince yourself you have a safe car, right? I know you need a big ego to want a tesla in the first place, but its okay to say you learned new information and want to change your mind.
Well yes. And I know trying to explain these facts in a room of Tesla haters isn't going to get anywhere. I certainly wouldn't buy another Tesla because of Elon, but I really think the car itself is quite well made.
I feel pretty safe in it. Ego has nothing to do with it. When I bought it a number of years ago, it seemed like a good way to be better for the environment, help propel innovation and have something fun and different. I certainly will never buy a Tesla again because of Elon, but I think the car's pretty good. I feel much safer in it than in our Mazda 2 that would be squished like an empty pop can in a collision between two SUV's.
In summary, never buy a Tesla.
The CEO is a bona fide nazi, and the board will stop at nothing to pay him a trillion dollars.
The vehicle will incinerate you at a time of its choosing.
Holy fuck this is all arguably not hyperbolic, satirical, nor seen as extreme.
Too ridiculous for fiction. Except P.K. Dick I guess.
PKD would've been like
I was thinking a little bit of Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
It was only mild to moderately unnerving to compose it.
Makes you wonder if this is just another case of deregulation driving up its body count, or if a certain Nazi is acting out his oven fetish.
If he can somehow manage to skyrocket the value of the company from 1 trillion to 8 trillion.
Trump: I'll get the money printers going, we'll make that $1 Trillion into $8 trillion in 6 years, 4 years ahead of schedule!
This has happened before, and nothing seems to be done about it. 🤷♂️
If a person has so little self preservation as to buy one at this point, maybe this is free market regulating itself?
Its not like the kids had a choice...
Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize the kids baught the car.
What? Thats my point that the kids didnt buy it?
R/woosh
Break resistant glass to keep the rich people safe from the homeless means the hammer will take time to open up a hole.
This is how I know, 100% no shadow of a doubt, TSLA is being highly illegally manipulated.
All in TSLQ and still waiting, maybe forever.. bottom line is either reality prevails and I make a LOT of money, or shit is rigged so bad we have no future anyway.
Godspeed to you. I was convinced of the same thing a couple of years ago and lost my ass shorting that stock. Turns out, the market can stay manipulated for a long fucking time because there's no regulatory body that actually gives a shit.
As the old adage goes, the market can stay irrational for longer than you can stay solvent
Ain't that the damn truth.
You're really all in on shorting Tesla?
I know in principle all stocks are meme stocks, but there really truly are no fundamentals to back up its recent prices or any reason to expect that they’ll have the growth they need in order to deliver a respectable EPS at that price.
Five years ago they were at the bleeding edge of technology, but now they’re getting overtaken by both China and European makers, their self-driving keeps steering people into oncoming traffic, the Cybertruck has been a huge failure, and also half the world absolutely fucking hates Musk since he went full mask-off Nazi. There just isn’t a path to the 120% market share they’d need to warrant a $1.4T market cap.
Yeah Tesla is definitely a shit company and doesn't deserve the market cap they've been afforded. I just keep having flashbacks of Michael Burry and Bill Ackman losing tons of money shorting Tesla for the exact same reasons... And that was years ago.
bill ackerman where have i heard that name before, he kind of deserved it
Well, I guess there is the expectation that Nazi corruption and leaked govt data will help TSLA massively. How do you think about it?
What is TSLQ? Is there a short etf for TSLA? Sign me up if so!
Inverse 2x TSLA.... tesla go down 10%, etf go up 20%
No brainer move, but unfortunately there are no brains left in the market. Two kids burned, unable to be rescued from a Tesla on fire - door handle design flaw.... stock goes up. Miss earnings? Stock goes up. More insider selling, lawsuits, staff departures....you guessed it, up.
Until, it's down.
How do people buy these things. I've seen entire car ranges written off for decades, for way less than, might lock you in and burn you alive. I don't get it.
Can anyone offer a good faith explanation of why they thought electronically controlled doors would be a good design choice?
Because American consumers are obsessed with pointless gadgetry, and bullshit sells cars.
I hate electronics in cars.
Efi and abs. Thats all anyone needs. Roll downs, manual, no screen, no digital gauge shit.
Sadly thats illegal to build now. And why cars cost so much.
I don't mind electronics out of hand, but I don't want my car to automatically be a data source for the manufacturer and remote control should be impossible, or at the very least something the owner can disable.
Unfortunately, neither is true of my 2019 Chevy Volt. Maybe my next EV.
I've been wondering about the viability of using the modem in my Jeep, it would be cool to see what it does on a test bench with some spare sensors sending test data.
If I decide to keep the car (been debating trading it for an older truck), I'm definitely removing it at the least, but its hardware I bought and I love playing with old discarded hardware.
Electric windows are fine. And digital gauges are also fine... after all, they are all fed by the computer anyway. And you cant get away from the ECU because its require to meet emission regulations. And a display screen is nice to show more information about the car thats not possible otherwise... but all the infotainment crap... yeah that nonsense can go.
Touch volume control and digital on/off is the stupidest shit ever
Hey, don't blame it on the customers. Blame it on the developers competing with each other to constantly keep innovating new ideas to one-up each other. And then they force these new technologies onto the customers because there are no other options, even if older models were more logical & functional.
Are all American EV cars designed to lock doors like that?
Of course not.
It's not just American consumers these electric vehicles and many like them are popular the world round.
Moreover, how long will it take for US auto regulators to ban them the way China already has?
That article states just this month that they are looking at banning them not that they already have banned them. Do you have information that they did already ban them?
Also after reading over the full article I can't get over this one sentence right here....
On NPR they were saying it's pretty much a done deal to ban them by 2027 but I just grabbed the first link I came across. Also tbf they weren't excluding you from having electronic openers, they just were requiring them to have mechanical backups.
it seems the door handles on other evs, seem so flimsy, and could easily jam or not work.
cool factor first
safety third
but first, the goddamn news
Pretty sure it's unironically just that it looks futuristic and is cheaper or something. It's one of those things where there's not too much to it, it's just a dumb design.
But have you considered how much cheaper they are to make? 🤔
also the retractable door handles, which i dont like. seems many EV have copied that feature.
Honestly you can get the same esthetic look with some engineering. Just have two half to the door handle, the bottom pushes inwards with light pressure from your fingers and the the top pulls outwards when you pull from below.
LOOK AT THAT
No electronics involved, same look and "aerodynamics", and you won't die in a fire trapped inside your vehicle.
Poor kids :(
Is it because rescuers couldn’t open the doors or because the victims were in a death trap designed by a moron?
Dont forget the windows are also laminated, so you can't just shatter them.
Sounds very safe..
That is true, but laminated side windows are not unique to Tesla. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a28422725/car-windows-glass-aaa-unbreakable/
Do other unbreakable windows also come on vehicles where people routinely can't figure out how to open the door?
I think it's the combo of the two that's (preventable) problematic.
I like throwing shit at Elon as much as most people, and correct me if I'm wrong but, Tesla cars were being produced before he started putting his dirty fingers on everything. AFAIK he was not involved in the design of the first cars, as he was only one of the investors at that time. He got much more involved when he became CEO and probably designed the cybertruck, but not the cars.
Musk is the one that has enforced keeping the electronic retracting door handles because he likes the sleek appearance. Multiple Tesla engineers have tried to get rid of them or design some kind of failsafe and Musk just ignores them.
Tesla was designing cars before Musk seized control. The Roadster was the first car they shipped. But here’s the thing: "The first Tesla Roadster was delivered in February 2008 to Tesla early investor, chairman and product architect Elon Musk." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Roadster_(first_generation)
Standards exist for a reason. Sometimes low(er)-tech is better and you don't need to reinvent the wheel.
Ah so that’s why they’re paying Elon billions. Such business acumen. Such fantastic products.
Well, he is getting away with it. The How and Why doesn't matter to shareholders, as long as he keeps doing it.
He is not selling products, he is selling the idea of products or straight up bullshit: robots, mars bases, self driving, superior pickup trucks, robottaxis, hyperloop.
The products he is actually selling are not that profitable.
If a Tesla sets itself on fire, does the FBI still consider that terrorism?
Terrorism is only when you hurt the Führer’s feelings or don’t sufficiently fellate the memory of one of his nazi pals.
Only if it burns conservatives
No, but the FCC might cancel it's show.
So if I'm understanding correctly, the windows on this car were made of transparent aluminum, not glass.
whatcouldgowrong
(my actual conclusion is that a dude didn't even attempt smashing a glass window with a metal fire extinguisher.)
remember his robotaxis automatically identifies and locks on to children like a missile, and runs them over.
I hate fly-by-wire. I always will. It's just bad.
We used to prank the guy in HS who's parent bought him a BMW by putting a laminated card between his pedal cluster and the contact.
It's trash.
Drive by wire - where the accelerator pedal is connected to the throttle electronically - is separate from these electronic doors with hidden and nonintuitive "emergency" interior release handles.
There's nothing wrong with a drive by wire accelerator.
I see your point but more complex systems use fly by wire. The question here is there the mitagations when things go wrong. The shuttle was compleatly fly by wire, apart from the Undercarriage as there was no way to retract if they where accidentally opened in space.
I think drive by wire is pretty good. When I was learning stick, the car would regularly increase the accelerator to keep it from stalling.
How did these cars got approved in the first place? It boggles me to no end - there are strict safety requirements for seat belts, airbags and doors for cars to be greenlighted for sale to the general consumer
Some ideas are considered too stupid to legislate against before someone does the stupid thing.
The world continues for a few centuries without them and then suddenly there are warning labels to "not to operate heavy machinery" on bottles of sleeping pills.
Door handles that don't work in an emergency are the engineering equivalent.
It's easy to make a door handle that always works, it takes effort to make a door handle that sometimes works. It's a special kind of stupid.
I can't imagine how bad a Tesla would be without the legislation in place to force their hand and make them safe. This problem slipped through the net.
bribes
Nobody thinks of this until it goes wrong. The rest of the industry has developed long checklists so they are not sued - and they are still sued all the time but much less than they could be.
Yeah EU needs to ban them for sure.
I saw a Hyundai the other day that has these recessed door handles and I remember the reason Tesla gave for them is that they improve aerodynamics, and therefor 'fuel' efficiency... but I wonder if the weight from the additional motors and such needed for these handles negate any gains seen from improved aerodynamics?
Check your fuel economy driving with the windows cracked, and then with a bag of sand in the trunk. I’d bet on the windows being less efficient.
Good point, though I would be surprised if well designed handles would really cause that much drag.
I've obviously never tasted this in a wind tunnel or anything, I just don't think the mileage gained would balance out the lives lost.
I think i remember reading the handles gave something like 0.5%-1% extra range, but it's been a long time since I looked into it.
Back then when they started doing it, eeking out every single % was pretty important. I'd say its less important now as things have gotten more efficient and batteries have gotten better.
I did nazi that coming woaaOOOOOOoooohhhhh flappy arms :O
And lack of equipment needed to bypass that setup, like a saw and jaws of life
"Rescuers" in this case refers to a dude running a paint shop running over with a fire extinguisher
The article doesn't say, but I'd assume EMS hadn't arrived by the time they all died
Do electronically locked doors fail open or something? How is this different from a locked door? I would guess that breaking the windows is normal for first responders.
They're not electronically locked; they're electronically actuated. When you use the "handle", it basically sends a request to the latch motor to Pretty Please open.
There's apparently a manual emergency release like... in the door panel on some of the models.
That sounds more like a problem for occupants trying to get out, rather than emergency crews getting in.
It's both. The emergency handle is only on the inside and even without the car being smashed can be hard to find, and it doesn't help anyone OUTSIDE the car to open the door either. I say "can be" because every car is fucking different with their shitty manufacturing process.
The front emergency handle is easy to find and most people will use it if you don't tell them not to. It's the rear seat one that's hard to find, or non existent on older models.
Locked doors don't help anyone on the outside either even if they're manual.
Yeah, first responders would break the window and drag the occupants out.
But from the article that nobody read, this was some guy from across the street and the car was already on fire. If he'd been able to pull the door open, he might have been able to drag somebody out. Even if the chances are that they were already dead, given it looked a pretty good crash.
I'm trying to think of a way the doors could open in the event of a crash without the frame being compromised. I suppose a time delayed trigger in the event of a crash where the airbags and seatbelts are triggerd the doors will open automatically. However it's more complex and depending on how its implemented my still need power.
Maybe they could just use normal door handles.
Yeah, but the mentally deficient k-addict in charge thinks that's "notncool enough" and wants fancy fly-by-wire doors.
Designing an electronic door handle isn't fancy, it's cheap. Fancy would be a functional mechanical door handle that opens without power under adverse conditions by anyone that has seen a car door built in the last 100 years. Real luxury and good design should be so safe, reliable, and intuitive that you (the user) never have to even think about it
But those can cost pennies to manufacture! Pennies!
Multiply that by the cost of a million unsold cars and it soon adds up!
i seen this other EV BRANDS, personally they dont look good on the doors, and it seemed so flimsy
If a crash is serious enough to kill the power to the doors, its probably not something you'd be able to do by the time the car was completely stopped, and opening the doors while the crash is in progress seems like a bad idea?
Assuming they want to stay with electronic handles, they could add batteries to each door, a small cell with enough power to pop the door open that is kept charged by the 12v system during regular use. If the door itself is so messed up even that gets wrecked, they probably aren't opening the door anyway due to frame damage.
I've seen talk about making the mechanical release the same button as the electronic one as well.
Yea that's why I'm saying some form of time delay so it can be assumed that the crach has stopped. But that's assuming that mechanism still works.
This Author is a TERRORIST for Hurting ELON Musk's feewings!
Guys, what is this shit? Do you want a clickbait news article for every death by malfunction to jerk off to? I detest Elon as much as everyone else in here. But this schadenfreude leeching to dunk on him is a pretty weak character trait.
How about dunking on a car manufacturer who designed things in a way that gets people killed, repeatedly.
But this is fake news. Picking scary anecdotes to make Teslas seem more dangerous than they really are. They are pretty safe, look at the statistics (sorry, I'm from Germany).
Again: Fuck Elon Musk! His cars are expensive, high-tech, next level but as safe as any other vehicle. I personally will never ever buy one. But that's no reason to act like screaming pitchfork idiots in here.
Fair point
Shit. First responders don't carry a Sawzall?
In this case the first responder was just some guy working at the corner store. He only had a fire extinguisher, but for basically any other car brand that would have been fine: open the door, drag people out, spray the fire, good enough probably.
But these people were in a Tesla, which requires electricity to open the doors (or a hidden manual release that can only be used from inside and involves several unintuitive steps)
Fair enough, I just read the headline and saw the picture of people in yellow vests. If you want me to read the article I'll need another coffee.