Always a last resort to consider. Needs a bit of dexterity, but in an emergency, kick the back seat windows out.

 

Interesting just been down the rabbit hole of the Mercedes QR rescue cards (I assume all manufacturers do it there is a QR code on all door posts and the filler flap which brings us the cutting points etc on the vehicle) and also a more detailed rescue note for the rescue services.
From it have learnt that in an impact the automatic locked doors are unlocked and if there is 12v power just touching the retracting handles will cause it to pop out it and indeed that is the same in ordinary life if the car is unlocked, and if it can also be pulled out manually by sliding a plastic lever (one of those trim removal tools) or a credit card and it will pull out…..
There are two methods to disengage the high voltage system to one of the passenger side with a friendly pull apart switch and on the other a wire clearly marked which you cut in tow places…..
Very interesting stuff and no doubt many if not all cars on the European market are pretty similar as no doubt it is constructors and safety regs that have to be met.
For laminated glass Mercedes clearly say the usual window hammers will not work and you need a Halligan tool which is a much larger thing which I doubt could be used in the vehicle effectively but a quick google search shows it as being pricy and all the sites I saw were aimed at the pompiers!

 

For laminated glass Mercedes clearly say the usual window hammers will not work and you need a Halligan tool which is a much larger thing which I doubt could be used in the vehicle effectively but a quick google search shows it as being pricy and all the sites I saw were aimed at the pompiers!

The Halligan (colloquially "hooligan") tool is used to punch a starting hole in the laminated glass, then a glass saw is used to cut the glass. That's what they taught me to do to a laminated windscreen if we want to cut the car roof off. The glass saw is small and amazingly quick at cutting laminated glass, perhaps because it's multiple thin sheets of glass bonded to (easily cut) plastic?

The hooligan, on the other hand, is a near-meter-long multi-kg muti-purpose piercing, prizing and smashing tool. Won't fit in your glove box, hard to wield inside a car, and good luck explaining it to les flics if you get pulled over for some reason.

 

An increasing number of EVs have laminated glass in the side windows, to reduce noise levels. I wonder if these windows can be smashed in emergencies, and how easy it is to do so. Regarding retractable for handles, I have read newspaper articles reporting many instances of emergency services being unable to rescue people from burning Teslas because the door handles have remained retracted, and having to watch them die. I have never seen mention of this happening with any other brand, so perhaps everyone except Tesla has included effective fail-safes.

Also, Regarding the 'don't crash' comments:
a) No matter how safely you drive, you can still get taken out by an idiot doing something stupid, such as driving through a red light, or overtaking around a blind bend;
b) There have also been quite a few well-reported incidents where a Tesla's electronic driver aids have taken over and steered a car off the road and/or accelerated it suddenly and excessively, with the driver helpless and unable to override it - again, I haven't heard of this happening with any other brand.

If you choose to think that's just anti-Tesla hate, that's your prerogative. I wouldn't have bought a Tesla anyway, because I don't like the user interface, but if that weren't the case, these accident reports would have persuaded me to avoid them.

 

Would small explosive chargers in the door handle solve the issue, some Mercedes have them on the bonnet so that a pedestrians head does not impact on the engine block and of course they are in the airbags, that is a way surely to just pop them out in the event of an electrical failure?

 

Would small explosive chargers in the door handle solve the issue,

This is verging on the ridiculous. I don't like to think of myself as a Luddite but hidden and magical doorhandles are a solution in search of a problem. Trying to work around it with yet another thing that pushes your car closer to being written off in a minor shunt is not the answer.

 

Flush handles look sleek but aren’t practical in emergenciesspeed matters most.

 

IDK, doors won’t open in a few imaginable crash scenarios with or without concealed handles: smash the windows!

 

theres no smoke without fire , the chinese makers are seriously in the future considering to stop the cool ( to many peeps especially my kids ) looking door mechanism due too safety risks ,poor reliability , expense and negligible performance benefits, just sayin . I am not a tech person but if the 12 volt batt shuts down for whatever reason does the door locking mechanism lock up/shut off as well . I recently had a first time situation where my 18mth old 12 volt B shut off or lost power ( luckily on my drive ) and couldnt get into the car till i found/ released my physical key inside fob , that was not plain sailing as it took multi attempts to open my drivers door .

 

you normally have a pop at me , but i dont give a flying fish . If ev is involved in a crash does the the 12 volt B shut down completely or has/keeps enough to power central locking circuit/ mechanism ?

 

Depends if either the battery or any of the 12v wiring is damaged Or cut, highly likely in a frontal impact. So relying on it not being damaged is rather hit & miss & trusting to luck.

Although I thought cars built n the last 10 yrs had inbuilt systems to unlock all doors in any impact?

 

In the event of me being the first to a car that had crashed or was on fire, I wouldn't have a clue how to open flush door handles.

 

I certainly wouldnt be thinking "oh wait I've got a credit card in my wallet"

 

I always thought that the emergency services preferred the 'normal' handles that they could get glove covered hands into and yank as opposed to the 'answer to a problem that never existed' set of different handles we have now.

 

From my time (many years ago) in the fire brigade, even regular handles and gloves were an issue. If the car was not on fire and the door seemed to be stuck it would be the 'jaws of life' rather than messing around trying to force a door to open by its handles.

 

New take on the issue is this a Tesla only issue or do other cars have the same inbuilt problem? I m going to try and open mine manually tomorrow as suggested in the mercedes video….and also try to figure out what happens when you pull the door lever on the inside……

Tesla probed after reports of children trapped in cars

US safety regulators are probing Tesla's electric-powered door handles, responding to reports that they stopped working, leaving children trapped.

www.bbc.com

It reads like a Tesla problem, where the 12v battery died and the electronic-only exterior door handle can no longer operate the doors.

I think all other manufacturers have mechanical backup built into the exterior door handle.

But I don't think this probe is related to OP's ban on retractable door handles.



After reading so many ways a door handle can work, this rings true:

Seems like a lot of different ways to open a door. Now try and remember which one is correct whilst standing beside a burning car trying to evacuate the occupants.

In an emergency, find a really hard sharp object and hit corner/edge of the window.
Carry a window hammer in your car regardless of how your door works.
Simple.

 

It reads like a Tesla problem, where the 12v battery died and the electronic-only exterior door handle can no longer operate the doors.

I think all other manufacturers have mechanical backup built into the exterior door handle.

But I don't think this probe is related to OP's ban on retractable door handles.



After reading so many ways a door handle can work, this rings true:


In an emergency, find a really hard sharp object and hit corner/edge of the window.
Carry a window hammer in your car regardless of how your door works.
Simple.

I’ve also got an auto centre punch (it’s spring activated with just a push) just n case. You can’t swing a hammer easily from inside the car, nor underwater, the centre punch requires so little effort it will always work, hammers usually come with a seat belt cutter, also very useful!

 

New take on the issue is this a Tesla only issue or do other cars have the same inbuilt problem? I m going to try and open mine manually tomorrow as suggested in the mercedes video….and also try to figure out what happens when you pull the door lever on the inside……

Tesla probed after reports of children trapped in cars

US safety regulators are probing Tesla's electric-powered door handles, responding to reports that they stopped working, leaving children trapped.

www.bbc.com

 

This is the way...

These are the handles on the BMW iX. They never freeze, have a clear pocket to pull the door to making opening the door easier, are aerodynamic, lighted for easier use at night, and have no moving parts making them the perfect evolution in door handles.

Also, any person to have ever used them, without ANY guidance, have managed to intuitively operate the button on the inside of the pocket to access the vehicle.

BMW sometimes does some dumb things and over-engineer things into oblivion... This though I think is the best thing they have EVER came up with.

 

If there are no moving parts how do they release the door?
If they are electrical then surely if in a "burning car" with an electrical failure they won't be operable (just like the electric handles on the Cybertruck)

 

Awesome, Chinese cars will look shit so fewer people will want to buy them driving prices down for everyone.

Gaz

 

Seems like a lot of different ways to open a door. Now try and remember which one is correct whilst standing beside a burning car trying to evacuate the occupants.

 

Don't some flush handles push in and hinge at the front end, so the rear half can be grabbed??

 

Yes. The non motorised handles on the Ioniq 5 need to me pushed in at the front, which pushed the rear part out to be pulled to operate the door. A lot of people struggle with the design, but once they know how it works, it's easy. Obviously if the driver or passenger was incapacitated in an crash, then opening the door would require the person outside to know how the door handle worked.
I'd still want the I5 to have flush handles though, as it fits in with the style of the body perfectly.

 

I think Tesla’s original thought was that their panel gap tolerances should allow you to get a hand in and lever the door open. Perhaps as they’ve tightened things up over the years they’re forgotten to rework the safety systems to account?

I do agree with China’s stance here though, and it shouldn’t take too much to design in a mechanical backup to flush handles.

Again with the interior door releases, they should have a mechanical backup built into the primary mechanism. You shouldn’t need a course to know how to open a door in the event of emergency. Again shouldn’t be hard to implement.

 

I think Tesla’s original thought was that their panel gap tolerances should allow you to get a hand in and lever the door open. Perhaps as they’ve tightened things up over the years they’re forgotten to rework the safety systems to account?

I do agree with China’s stance here though, and it shouldn’t take too much to design in a mechanical backup to flush handles.

Again with the interior door releases, they should have a mechanical backup built into the primary mechanism. You shouldn’t need a course to know how to open a door in the event of emergency. Again shouldn’t be hard to implement.

I agree about the mechanical side of things (why have them easily accessible in the front but not the rear in a Tesla for example, it does seem odd to build them as part of the storage area rather than th handle itself) but what happens in the event of a crash that the doors mechanisms are damaged so they don't work, what then, wheres the backup of the mechanical backup?

I think the best solution is as mentioned, emergency glass hammers installed in every car as standard. I never thought about that but I've bought some following this thread.

 

@Splendid Systems , you should talk to your people.....Enough said: 🤣🤣🤣

 

I’m in the Jaecoo/Omoda garage atm but not got the balls to photograph a door handle 🤣

 

Does this affect planes and trains too?

 

More China flexing its muscles. As It happens, I dont like them.

 

This comment makes no sense if they are attempting to make cars safer int he event of an accident.

 

Easy way around all this is don’t crash, job jobbed

 

Or get the train/bus…

 

Let's have a sanity check: Of all the people who are killed in car crashes, how many of them will have died due to burns, and how many of those because they couldn't be rescued from the car?

A Swedish study found that around 5% of passenger vehicle crash deaths involved fire. However, death actually from burns or smoke inhalation (rather than crash trauma) accounted for only about one-third of these, or roughly 1–2% of all car crash deaths.

Car crash fatalities associated with fire in Sweden - PubMed

Car fires are a deadly postcrash problem. Reducing this risk would be primarily a responsibility for the automotive industry. A multifactor approach could be considered as follows: risk-reducing design, insulation, reduced flammability in motor compartment fluids and plastics, and automatic fire...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Car makers could (and probably already have) add a feature that door handles pop out in a crash situation.

 

All these modern sleek or flat door handles are poor ideas in my opinion. Apart from any downsides in an accident, they introduce extra failure modes and are more difficult and less intuitive to use, for negligible benefit. The old style door handles on my ID3 are much better than the aerodynamic ones on my ID4.

 

The ID4 are mechanical and you can put your hand underneath and pull it out like a normal door handle to open it, rather than using the electric touch sensitive way. Just yank up hard and it'll come out.

Seems like the best option, more aero but still able to open it like a regular door handle, same with the Model Y and 3. Flush but still the same as a regular protuding door handle when it comes to wanting to have something to pull on to yank the door open with.

 

What happens to basic central locking systems then if there is no power? Surely if power shuts off in a crash (and the car will know it is in a crash) there is some sort of failsafe which releases the system?
Mercedes door handles can be manually pulled open by a simple credit card as shown in this video….am pretty certain the rescue services know this (and Mercedes produce rescue cards for the services) but of course bystanders will not.
One assumes that there is a simple mechanical override for the interior door pull as well as even ICE can have the problem of lack of power….

 

One assumes that there is a simple mechanical override for the interior door pull as well as even ICE can have the problem of lack of power….

There does have to be, but it doesn't have to be the handle - which personally I find somewhat ridiculous! In Tesla's it's hidden away in a variety of different places depending on the model, and I bet no dealer has ever bothered to demonstrate it to a customer...

I believe in the Tesla M3 and MY, the back doors cannot even be mechanically opened, unless you remove some trim and pull a piece of cable. I don´t really understand how that ever got homologated.

Ah you got there before I refreshed the page! Yeah, no idea how it can possibly be legal to have a car where there's no mechanical door release easily accessible from the inside...

 

I've seen a few cars that have been in accidents where the air bags should have deployed but haven't gone off for some reason.

Emergency glass hammers with built in seat belt cutters are less than a tenner, every car should have one fitted ready for emergencies.

 

I delivered a new byd seal yesterday and there was a window breaking device clipped into the centre console as standard.

 

Was this reason that Mercedes refused to fit deadlocking door locks at the cost of 'better scores' for theft prevention

Better dozens of stolen cars than someone burning to death that may have been saved.

Sometimes in the past 10 years or so it seems they changed their mind on this - perhaps they are happy with their failsafes in the event of a crash?