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Comment by AlexandrB | Hacker News Reader

I find this to be a weird perspective because EVs, and especially Tesla, seem to be focused entirely on fluff. That's one of the reasons they cost so damn much compared to ICE "economy" compacts.

Things like "pop out" door handles and steel body panels are fluff. A steering "yoke" is fluff. Side glass that can withstand a steel bearing is fluff. Constant (broken) FSD promises are fluff.

Features like a HUD or stalks on the steering wheel would make a driver's experience better and more comfortable. The former they never added, the latter they removed (probably to improve margin).

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> Side glass that can withstand a steel bearing is fluff.

Quite the reverse, actually—it's an anti-safety feature.

The last EV I drove was a Renault Zoe, as they're available for hire from the street with an app.

It is a normal, small, city car. Windscreen wipers on the usual stalks, knobs and buttons for climate control, etc. In part because it lacks some electronic safety features (lane-departure warning, automatic emergency braking) it has a very poor safety rating.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Zoe

> Side glass that can withstand a steel bearing is fluff.

This one I actually think would have been somewhat useful, presuming it was cheap enough to actually use. I don't throw steel bearings at my car, but I would imagine that strength probably carries over to stuff falling out of trucks, rocks being flung by tires, etc.

It's not world-changing, but it would have been useful.

Good luck when you drive into a lake and can't break your way out like that dead billionaire

Do you regularly drive your car into lakes? I would legitimately be surprised if I ever know a person that this has happened to never mind if it ever happened to me.

There was a wealthy lady that was driving drunk I believe in the news who put her Tesla into her pond by accident and drowned b/c she couldn't get the windows down and the doors to open. Her biggest problem was the alcohol though.

Friends could not save her b/c they could not break the laminated glass. We have safety hammers in all of our cars for that reason.

I’ve never had nor heard of anyone having an issue with a foreign object breaking a side window. Is it common?

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