Design flaws caused a Tesla Model 3 to suddenly accelerate out of control before it crashed into a utility pole and burst into flames, killing a woman and severely injuring her husband, a lawsuit filed in federal court alleges.
Another defect, with the door handle design, thwarted bystanders who were trying to rescue the driver, Jeff Dennis, and his wife, Wendy, from the car, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
Wendy Dennis died in the Jan. 7, 2023, crash in Tacoma, Washington. Jeff Dennis suffered severe leg burns and other injuries, according to the lawsuit.
Man, imagine if Musk could just tell his fleet of cars to accelerate into the nearest utility pole or off the nearest bridge. He could just push that patch down to anybody he wants. Probably completely untracked.
Eh, he most likely could do that. Reason#253 why I wouldn’t buy a Tesla.
This is a reminder that if you own a car, get a window breaker/seat belt cutter tool, and keep it in an easy-to-reach location in your car. They cost less than $10. After a crash, doors can get stuck or they may be locked, and seat belts may be hard to disengage. These tools are not only useful for your own car. If any bystander had that tool, they could have assisted regardless of the car model.
Teslas have laminated side windows, so they break more like a windshield. They would still need to be cut away somehow after breaking them
Tesla tests in production. People die. This is super simple.
And “Special K” Musk broke the agencies regulating his products while at doge
Yep, and got all his active investigations quashed. Because nothing matters and what if it did.
Move fast and break people
Profit!
Yea I love EVs but wtf, stop making the handles recessed. It doesn’t add much to range and it only makes using the car harder. I have an EV9 and I hate the handles. Just let us push the handle to pop it out like old entertainment center glass doors.
If it’s a choice between having the car look sleeker and not killing a few dozen people, I’m sure Musk is going to choose the former.
There’s also no reason that it’s a software handle. The interior “handles” on the model 3 I’m led to believe are a button with no connection to the handle and there’s an emergency release buried somewhere in the back seat. Saving $0.50 per car just like GM. “The lawsuits are cheaper.”
The rapid acceleration is fun but the average person who’s trying to take off their sweater or reach for their water bottle or whatever in the car is going to accidentally jam the pedal down and kill themselves. I suspect all these “unintended sudden acceleration” are just someone mashing the pedal and not having the reaction time to lift off. Almost every gas car will give you time and audible indication to react. Electric cars - people carriers, with screaming toddlers and pets, not sporty ones - simply reach 100mph in 7 seconds.
Oh yes I agree, the acceleration without a way to limit it is crazy. At least with the EV9 I can set it to eco and not have an accidental warp speed but it’s still too much sometimes. Mine came with the boost feature enabled and no way to disable it. I refuse to allow my teenage son to learn to drive in it without a way to limit its torque. I am gonna go out and get him an old fashioned beater. EVs need a training mode that forces it to act more like a ICE car. Might get worse efficiency but it’s safer.
Perhaps an unpopular opinion but I think that the one-pedal kinda leads into this as well. You don’t remove your foot from the pedal to decelerate - in fact you keep pressure on it but less than while maintaining speed - and a twitch the wrong way makes it take off.
I am reminded that hand controls for driving are one-pedal, but they’re built backwards from the one-pedal in EVs. Push to stop, pull to start. That means that momentum pushes you into the brakes.
Wait, evs don’t have a separate brake pedal?
https://youtu.be/U0YW7x9U5TQ?t=195
They do, but many EVs offer a mode (“one-pedal mode”) in which lift-off enters regeneration mode, and it is possible to drive entirely without touching the brake pedal. I think most do a “blended brake” which means that pressing the brake partway uses regen and then pressing harder uses actual brakes.
Thanks for the info. That’s horrifying.
People can’t even drive properly with both pedals…
no, they have a brake pedal. One pedal driving just means the car slows more using regeneration and you less frequently need to brake.
they do. EVs just have regenerative braking built-in, so lifting your foot off the accelerator slows the car down considerably because the spinning of the motor is used to charge the battery. Several carmakers include various levels of regenerative braking as options.
In the Hyundai ionx 6, you can set the driving mode you prefer. Regular mode with accelerator and brake, and four different levels of regenerative braking, or a special mode that only uses one pedal.
You can also select the driving mode, so the extreme acceleration is only available if you choose “sports mode”.
There’s also no reason that it’s a software handle.
There is a reason. It would be easy to argue its not worth it though.
When you pull the door handle the glass window retracts below the rubber weather stripping, then the door latch unlocks and you open the door. When you close the door and it latches, the window moves back up into the weather stripping creating a tight seal.
Mustangs have been using a window-retract feature with mechanical handles since at least 2015 (S550 generation). I’ve had to open them with dead batteries and they opened fine without the retraction, though I’m sure it wears the rubber strip faster. I believe the Audi A5/A7 family has done the same for years. While frameless doors have been around for decades, the seal IS different on auto-drop doors to improve sealing. Regardless, as you said, “removing the mechanical handle” has a reason, and it’s incredibly easy to argue against. Like many other Tesla design decisions, it’s a cost-saving measure disguised as a functional necessity.
BMW has been doing this with mechanical handles for 30 years just fine.
GM killed a few Boomers in Corvettes. Roasted to death because they could not figure out how to get out of the car when the battery died. No one reads the fucking manual.
Ain’t that the truth.
People built this into the Smart Fortwo with a couple chips and wires. I can’t find a reference because it was about 15 years ago they did it, but it wasn’t complicated and the door latch remained entirely mechanical. I think that it was, in turn, a replication of another car’s feature which did this back in the 80s.
I think it’s 99% cost savings.
Tony stark did it in a cave. With a box of scraps.
it’s also safety, mechanical releases can open under strong crash Gs.
That is not a good reason, that is software built to compensate for a stupid hardware design
That is not a good reason,
I didn’t say it was a good reason. The OP said there was no reason. There is a reason.
You said there was no reason. There is a reason. You didn’t ask for a good reason. It’s also by absolutely no means unique to Tesla, despite how it is portrayed in articles like this.
Tesla isn’t the first manufacturer to use frameless windows by any means. Audi, Toyota, Honda, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Mini, and Subaru just to name a few, have all used them in various “luxury” or higher end models over the years. It’s perceived as luxury vehicle design, so it gets used quite a bit.
The handle not physically manipulating a latch also isn’t unique. Corvette’s have done this for years. Many recent vehicles from Lexus, Audi, Ferrari, Fiat, Lincoln, and Dodge again to name a few also use them, regardless of the flush exterior handle design. The handle design itself isn’t the issue with these deaths, it’s the electrical system failing. The flush handles causes issues with things like ice build-up, not being unable to open the door after a crash.
Articles like this always point to these issues, and act like they’re unique to Tesla, but they’re not. It’s the same as it’s always been, Tesla headlines get clicks, which drives interaction and sharing exactly like here, which all lead to increased advertising revenue.
Corvette’s have done this for years.
This is America, you don’t sue for any reason other than the company has a lot of money and will likely settle.
No I didn’t, I am not the person the previous post replied to
This is just ambulance chasing. If they made the door easier to open, then they would be suing on behalf of kids who fell out. The sudden acceleration lawsuits that decimated AUDI ended when Toyota put black boxes in all cars and could prove in court the wrong pedal was mashed. Telsa’s all have this data as well.
“If they made the door easier to open, then they would be suing on behalf of kids who fell out.”
That doesn’t seem to be a problem for the vast majority of cars with regular handles. There’s no excuse for Tesla’s shoddy engineering. I don’t have particular comment on the acceleration thing, because I agree that seems like it could just be due to depressing the wrong pedal. The door handles are a different matter. When the car first came out, experts were saying that this would end up killing people, and whaddya know — they did.
They should stop with all these funky handles. Took a BYD cab the other day and it took me almost a minute to figure out how to open the door from inside to get off.
I will never assosiatr Tesla with actual company name. Tesla (OG) did invent bunch of things. Company should be named Edison at least.
Another defect, with the door handle design, thwarted bystanders who were trying to rescue the driver, Jeff Dennis, and his wife, Wendy, from the car
I don’t get this argument. In most cars door lock automatically and don’t unlock in case of a crash. The bystanders wouldn’t be able to open the door in vast majority of modern cars. In Tesla you may not be able to open to door from the inside as well which is worse but I don’t know what defect they are talking about.
They are talking about the defect that will make the most money. All cars autolock and cannot be opened regardless of handle or not. This is why firemen just jam an axe and twist or use a Halligan.
