- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
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Numerous Tesla owners say they’ve been trapped inside their EVs after they lost power.::Numerous Tesla owners say they have been trapped inside their EVs after they lost power.Teslas come with manual door releases, but they can be hard to find
I am flabbergasted about how little some people know about cars.
In a discussion about a potentially mandatory hardware cutoff button for EVs after the accident in China:
Do you know what a hardware cutoff does?
Such button would be mounted somewhere you can see and easily reach but normally don’t have hands there, like the dashboard.
Did you realize that you don’t actually stop dead when the motor is disconnected? You will start coasting, gradually slowing down (unless it’s downhill) and come to a halt in about a minute.
However, the software (or hardware, if the manufacturer is actually safety aware) will “notice” the cutoff and turn on brake lights (& hazards if they are separate), and inform you that you need to pull the button back up to reconnect the contacts. If you realize your mistake immediately, you can revert it in less time than it takes beginners to shift gears on some old cars (which is also a time when the motor is not engaged).
Slamming the brakes all the way should mechanically engage the brake pads regardless of whether the electronics works. If not, the car is not road legal.
Do you know what the ignition key does? It physically prevents the motor from firing any further if it is pulled.
Stop complaining about mechanical overrides to electronic systems! Any software engineer will tell you that they’ll happily be able to pull the plug if their computer tries to kill them!
The brakes in a Tesla are move powerful than the motors. If the guy in China had actually been hitting the brakes, the car could have never reached 150kmh. The chance of a simultaneous failure of the mechanical brakes, the electrical interlocks and the drive software is FAR less likely than the chance the driver was pushing the wrong peddle.
Maybe if you combine e-brakes and brake pads, I guess? Anyway, I agree that at >100 km/h, the brake pads should easily overpower the motor.