Hacker News Reader

Comment by rsuelzer | Hacker News Reader

Isn't Tesla touch handle doors? Not sure who else has them. Not sure what benefit they add anyway. I'd imagine there is some sort of manual override for when the 12v system dies and you can't get into the car?

View on HN

My guess (based on living on a dirt road which gets everything in a vehicle coated in a layer of fine clay dust) is that it reduces the number of water/dirt ingress points so the door lock lasts longer.

I've had to take the door panels off two vehicles now to clean dirt out of the locks to get them working again.

25 year old cars with mechanical keys do fine on dusty roads.

How about my 19 year old car with a mechanical key, which happens to be one of the vehicles I mentioned having to clean?

Sounds like you had a run of bad luck rather than something systemic.

There's a manual override to open it from the inside, the only way to open it from the outside in that situation is to recharge the 12V battery.

There are also terminals accessible from the front to power the electronic hood latch from an external 12V source to access the battery.

Let's hope it doesn't happen in a blizzard. :)

So convenient if your battery dies in the middle of nowhere.

Not all of them. Model Y's and I think 3's you push on the big spot and that pushes the lever out to grab. I think it might only be the higher end S and X models that have the handles pop out electronically.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com