“Died” is a gentle way of saying “burned to death in a lithium fire while people watched in horror as the vehicle doors could not be opened”. How can these cars still be sold with this known issue?
this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2025
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Because America? GM had many die in models where the door could not be opened if there was a battery fail.
Tesla is just another shitty US car company.
"Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one."
This is not exaclusive to Tesla, this has been an ongoing issue for decades. Why haven't we banned electronic door handles? It's a deadly solution in search of a problem.
Imagine participating in the design, manufacture, and sale of something so obviously dangerous. How can they sleep?
Ah yes, classic corpospeak: "All our doors have manual releases. We are considering adding a mechenical release to our door handles."
Keep in mind, this "news" is generated by the law firm suing Tesla.
Can you open any car door in any vehicle from the outside in a crash? No.
Can you open a Tesla door when the battery fails? Yes.
Do owners read the manual and know how to do this? No.
Yeah, expect a passenger in the back seat to know which panel to pop off to pull a red thing to open their door. They could play a flight attendant style video on the screen.
How is that better than a mechanical door handle?
Especially right after an accident when they're dazed or panicky. There's a reason emergency exits are usually clearly marked and intuitive to use.
People want fully automated screen controlled soap cars with minimalist interiors. They see power locks and have a nerdgasm. The doors are not even the most dangerous aspect of a Tesla, it's the screen interface designed to distract. Look it up, Teslas cause more crashes than any other brand, and that's even with all the drunks driving Rams and Silverados.
If I saw a car interior with a large metal spike protruding from the dash, I WOULD NOT BUY IT. But America would fetishize dash spikes , buy millions, then sue when little Jimmy is impaled, because it's someone else's fault, always.
"No dash spike? Are you gay?"
At some point you just let natural selection take over
did you mean "every" instead of "any"? bc you can for sure open car doors from the outside in a crash, so you answering no to that question is simply wrong
Cars auto lock doors when moving for the last 20 years. You cannot open a locked door from the outside, try it.
the condition "last 20 years" proves my point tho. its a semantics thing, you say you cant open any car. but you just conceded that you can if its beyond 20 years old. so its better to say that you cant open every car door instead of any
How many people died in ~~Nova~~ rear end accidents?
Edit: it was actually the Pinto
Crown Vic looks around nervously
Are you thinking of the Pinto?
Yup! Thanks for the correction
The Pinto was singled out by one law firm in a class action, but all Detroit cars had the same dangerous gas tank design at that time.
GM killed 124 with an 80 cent ignition part in the Cruze. This is what happened:
GM actually ended on paper to avoid liability and is the New GM.
During the media coverage of the Cruze deaths, Cruze sales TOOK OFF. Y'all are idiots when you buy cars. "Hey honee, that Chevy death car looks pretty good..."
Now everyone is actually modifying pickups to flip over easier by lifting them. Something about a large mass of metal has a magnetic effect on people to drain their IQs.
That issue was overblown. Very interesting history is you care to look it up or watch a long video. Still, bad engineering choice.
I quite recommend the Swindled podcast episode on the Pinto:
https://swindledpodcast.com/podcast/124-the-pinto/
Warnings for blunt descriptions of horrible injuries and tragic deaths. And incredible corporate malfeasance.
No. You're confusing the ABC program about the AMC Gremlin, where they put a firecracker in the boot, with the Pinto. Ford admitted liability for the Pinto.
Say that again for the people who died.
19 for the entire run of the Pinto. That's out of 3 million sold.
Tesla overall is multiples of that. If you get rear ended, very high chance it will be a Tesla while a driver is swiping left and right to find a trivial setting.
Because overblowing safety designs in the media is the main tool of large law firms in the US to force a big settlement fast.
Remember AUDI and Toyota unintended acceleration? This is why all cars now have black boxes, because idiots mash the gas instead of the brake then claim their car was possessed by the devil.
Why is the EU not allowing Tesla to sell some models while US does? Why is EU going to ban screen interfaces? Are they stupid?