You don’t even have to go that far. Imagine parked in direct sun when it’s 100oF out. You know, like now. No need for dramatic settings for this to be life-threatening. Now put a baby in the back seat.
In door pocket. At all times.
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You don’t even really have to imagine all that hard.
I’m surprised she wasn’t freaking out more.
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That begs the question of why devices need to be complex in the first place. Every car I have ever owned had a lever on the inside of the door that you operated to open the door. It’s not hard to do, and everyone who has ever been in a car understands this. I can’t see any reason why the Tesla design improves on that, but if Elno wants to add features so that the car has to have a backup mechanical door release, why not put that out in the open where it’s obvious?
If it ain’t broke, don’t Musk it.
But I’m sure the Muskrats will be happy to explain to me that I’m old and stupid and why it will be entirely my fault if I die in a flaming Tesla
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Didn’t you know you’re supposed to memorize the whole thing before driving off ?
ETA: I’m really enjoying the subtle victim-blaming and un-subtle condescension. Both are invariably excellent approaches.
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When both the main car battery and the smaller battery that feeds the onboard electronics die, the doors and windows automatically shut and won’t open.
Wait, what? How do the windows automatically shut if there’s no battery power to shut them?
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I think we know the answer to this.
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in fact, this situation is encouraged. tesla has a mode that runs the air conditioner when the car is off, and people believe you can leave a dog or child in the car safely.
i really don’t understand a car door without locks and handles.
is this just a tesla idiocy, or is this now the “modern way” tm?
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It’s likely a last-gasp protocol when the battery levels go beyond a certain threshold. More of a priority than first checking if someone is inside the car and reminding them about the secondary latch, apparently.
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And never in the glove compartment. 
Bingo
It’s innovation™. Are you some sort of Luddite?
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I had this exact situation a couple of weeks ago with a rental, some Kia POS whose every operation was controlled by either an impenetrable on-screen menu or button combos that would make a Nintendo master throw up their hands in frustration. It was infuriating. There were certain functions, such as the audio system, that I just gave up on and used earbuds and my phone instead.
ETA: But even in this “car,” I could open the damn doors without having to think about it.
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I’m sinking into a lake and the phone is telling me that Tesla is experiencing unexpected call volume and my estimated wait time is 10 minutes.
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I wonder how long it took her to wheedle the information out of the ERA support person. Yeesh!
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i mean this is my current ride ( wikipedia pic, but you get the idea )… so maybe? let’s say, i try.
i feel like this might be worth a read for some of the people posting today
it is not the fault of the user but rather the lack of intuitive guidance.
of course, that’s from an engineer… so it doesn’t really apply to musk.
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Rage bait.
They’re not “secret” they are right on the internal door handle right where your fingers rest with your arm on the rest. And well described in the manual.
New passengers always seem to open the door with this “secret” latch until I point out the electronic button.
Elon Musk has definitely destroyed the Tesla brand with his childish outpourings.
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You came back after five years to post this? Weird.
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so one of the ways to open the door damages the window? Excellent gambit, lord musk.
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Back in the 80s during EMT training it was made clear that the quickest way to get into any locked vehicle is to break the window, reach in and grab the door latch handle and pull, ignoring any alarms that go off because you’re saving a life. If that now won’t work anymore because of Tesla, which has no immediately obvious way to open it if the battery is dead, people are going to die while EMTs wait for the jaws of life device to show up and carve the victims out of their bricked car, or suffer additional injuries by being taken out of their burning car via non-optimal exit points.
There are (checks) about 500 models of cars on the roads, and if they all start having hidden and tricky ways to get into the car when it is disabled, it is not going to be pretty.
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The fact that not even the glovebox will open without being powered by an electric motor speaks volumes to the sense of entitlement this consumer culture, and Tesla, feed on greedily. I mean we had gravity-driven gloveboxes with dampened opening mechanism in the 70s or somesuch in case you can’t bear that damn hatch just drop open already, but this is Not Good Enough For Me anymore, apparently.
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Yes, the hard part for me has always been making sure everyone who gets in the car for the first time knows about the button you are supposed to use normally, because literally every single person has automatically grabbed the manual release to get out. Now, the release for the back seat doors, that one is really well hidden and I do want to mark that one so people can find it in an emergency. But it was also the first thing they told us about when we got the car in 2018 - so also no clue what they tell people now.
Sigh. I like my Model 3 and was quite happy when I first got it, but Elon Musk has really turned me off of the brand. The next car I get won’t be a Tesla unless they get a new CEO (and the way he’s heading, there probably won’t be a new Tesla for me to buy when I get to where I need a new car, as they will all be some weird attempt at a robotaxi or maybe a robot will just be expected to piggyback ride you to your destination, since that seems to be his current obsession).
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Another case of solutionism: just for the looks of it they decided for a complicated extra thingie that works as long as the weather’s fine, but come rain or snow or the system shuts down, then doing it the simple, straighforward way that God intended, you’ll damage your precious status symbol. Of course you can always opt for staying in the car depending on how holy and dear you’re holding your gaskets I guess.
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