China’s banning hidden door handles.
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I think I’m going to go with this is a good rule.
Good. I still can’t see a single good reason why Tesla had to use door handles like that, except a stubborn “We’re going to be different just to be different.”
It is a good rule. Sleek design is one thing, and can be good. But those hidden handles is just stooopid.
That’s how I feel about those doors that open straight up to the sky (gull wings?). They might look cool, but what happens when they don’t work?
This:
She drove her Tesla into a pond and couldn’t get out after the electrical system died.
Looking them up they have some potential issues, but nothing as bad as the Tesla. And have actual benefits, like being able to open the door when something is closer to the car than a conventional door would allow.
Also, unlike Musk and his Tesla some effort was actually put into dealing with the potential problems with the design.
I fully agree with the engineering and crash safety benefits of stylistically obvious door handles that mechanically release all door locks and latches.
But it is “convenient” that China is de facto banning the only non-Chinese made EVs in the world’s largest and fastest growing EV market.
Not too different from e.g. the USA banning non-V8 engines just as the Japanese began making serious inroads against the US auto industry back in the 1970s. Which the Feds didn’t actually do. But which was talked about with a straight face as a necessary safety feature since the Japanese econo cars didn’t have enough acceleration for safely merging on US freeways.
According to the article Ilinked, the Tesla-style door handles are going to be banned for all vehicels, foreign and Chinese.
It’s also convenient for the Chinese that Musk makes terrible cars, so they don’t actually have to choose between economic protectionism and plain old safety & quality. A weird sort of serendipity, there.
I’d certainly expect that.
What surprised me was learning that some major Chinese manufacturers had adopted a similar style.
The story of the Tesla door handles AIUI is that when Musk was shown preliminary sketches of what was to become the Model S, the artist just drew in the door handles as flat rectangles. Musk liked the sleek look so much that he insisted the actual handles be made to look like that. And they’ve been trouble ever since, along with Tesla’s ridiculously automated door-opening system. All the safety issues aside, Tesla owners in cold climates have reported the handles freezing over in winter. There may be a lot of cool stuff in Teslas, but there’s very little attention to practicality.
So yes, I agree with China’s ruling. Musk will probably have a snit and refuse to ship any more Teslas to China. He doesn’t really care much any more and wants to concentrate on robotaxis and his stupid Optimus humanoid robot instead.
Eh, I can imagine a segment of Chinese consumers wanting their EV to be as Tesla-like superfuturistic as possible and giving as much thought to collateral consequences as American buyers do.
When I lived in ice country I had an early 2000s BMW 325. The door handles were the conventional sort you could get your fingers around. And to open the door you pulled the handle straight out from the vehicle with a slight upward angle. Which pretty well matched the natural approach angle of the arm of an adult. Very easy, very mechanical, very intuitive.
But in any decent ice storm they’d freeze over solid and you could not get in. The keyhole would also ice over completely. The car did have electric unlock if your fob battery and car battery were in good shape.
manys the night I got done with a trip at the airport parking lot and spent 10 minutes breaking enough ice off the door to get into the car to start the engine to finally begin the window defrosting / cabin heating process.
Bottom line: mechanical doorhandles are not freeze-proof either.
The Chinese EVs I’ve been in copy Tesla as closely as possible, down to these doors.
That would of course be a stupid thing to do, which is why I wouldn’t be surprised if he does.
Well, that’s not related to the exterior door handle design.
If anyone’s interested, my Jaguar iPace also has “tesla” door handles. I think they’re pretty cool, but I don’t live in the land of ice.
I thought the problem with Tesla door handles is that they are difficult and non-intuitive to operate if the power to the door handle is out.
The flush exterior door handles lower the CoD, probably by .00001% but they do make the car more aerodynamic. It’s the interior Tesla door handles that should be banned, & it looks like they are
there have already been fatalities because if the vehicle loses electrical power, like after a crash there’s a super sekret squirrel way of removing a panel & pull the hidden handle to open the door. I know about it generally but not the specifics & would hate to try to look them up while the car I’m in is on fire.
It sort of is, though. Stuff like handles and latches for cars should be mechanical and not dependent on the car’s electrical system to function, if only for safety reasons.
One basic problem is that they are difficult to see, especially in low lighting. Think of Uber and Lyft and Grab.