There should be some kind of super easy to understand (also for small children and mentally challenged) instruction on how to open the doors if you're locked in visible in plain sight though. Or an emergy exit button or something.
this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2025
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This problem has already been solved. It’s called a mechanical door handle.
While I do agree with you, they were locked out, not in.
They got lucky and one door unlocked briefly and opened, but the issue was a failing 12 volt battery.
I’m sure several keyless entry vehicles that don’t have backup keys would be stuck with the same problem in the event of a full battery failure.
So it seems i should have read the article before assuming I knew what it was about.
Nah, there's a key hidden in the fob and generally the right most end of the handle comes off to reveal a key slot.
It's the weirder cars that have crazy methods to get in when the battery is dead from jump spots accessible under the car to keyed locks hidden inside bodywork like vents and whatnot.
You can power the 12V battery through externally accessible wires behind the toe hook cover. This is covered in the manual.
Everyone hates Tesla, but plenty of cars have “luxury” features like electronic handles with silly failsafes like this.
So my car is well old enough to not have this problem and I thus have no reason to know it, but would that fix a failing battery that won’t take a charge? Even enough to get the doors unlocked, I guess?
Actually now that I think of it, I believe that override just pops the frunk which gives you access to the 12V battery for replacement.
There are already third-party mods for Teslas so the doors can be opened mechanically, and they are selling well in the wake of several "driver roasted alive in Tesla because doors did not open" stories.
Take a group of people who grew up without the need for any technical skills, put them in a car that is wildly complex and this is what you get.
I'm no fan of overcomplicated stuff, but if you own something like this, it is your problem to educate yourself on how it works and how to deal with issues and failures or get used to being bent over any time you have to pay an adult to rescue you.
Also, I don't own a Tesla, but I looked it up and there should be multiple warnings on the display about a failing 12v battery as well as messages via the app. I'm going to guess that they were ignored in this case.
Of course, the owner "still loves the car!" to further drive home the fact that he's a moron.
I'm not disagreeing with anything you say but i consider this a design fail as well.
Take a group of people who grew up without the need for any technical skills, put them in a car that is wildly complex and this is what you get.
I'm going to guess you work in some form of tech. If not, perhaps you should seek a career change because techbros love your attitude.
Me? I'm the diametric opposite. My devices work for me, not the other way around. If they fail at this, they get trashed.
Automobiles have had their UX smoothed out and nigh-perfected. It takes an arrogant tech twat to think that they know more than every design engineer who lived over the past century.
I think a big part of the issue is that we really need to both update drivers ed requirements and enforce drivers ed attached to the transition from a certain year of car to a new one.
It’s wild to me that there’s no sit down conversation or even lesson with the purchase of a new car with the dozens of features they have. A lot of those features directly impact safety and several others can be a distraction.
Brand-new cars do come with owner's manuals, just like damn near everything else one buys. I suspect most buyers never read them though.
Most people will spend an hour a day or more, 7 days a week in their car. Even at a perfect 60 mph average, you’re looking at over 150 hours for every 10,000 miles. Maybe an hour or so of training to get you familiar with the car before you’re on the road learning how these features work for the first time and potentially endangering others isn’t a half-bad idea?
Makes sense. It how it was for our Honda purchase. They had a guy who's job it was to sit with you in the car for 40 minutes or so, and he went through every single function of the entire car.
Never said it was a bad idea. Just wanted to point out that even without any kind of vehicle-specific training, they do still come with a means for the buyers to educate themselves.
Regardless though, most cars aren't that much different from one another. The skills you learn in driver's education should be sufficient for most to operate the vehicle with minimal time spent familiarizing yourself with any particular vehicle. For whatever reason, Tesla felt the need to forego decades of standardization and do their own thing. You can see how well that's working out with their FSD disasters, people getting trapped inside them, and just the overall shoddy craftsmanship.
Even if I had never read the manual of my car. If I get a warning - as this thread suggests should, it have been there - I make sure to check the manual then and probably drive to a garage.
If you can't manually override the door it is unsafe.
If the manual override is hidden away well enough that you can't find it in an emergency, then it's unsafe too