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Comment by dgarrett | Hacker News Reader

> In the rear, it's almost impossible to access the manual release in an emergency. You have to pull out a floor mat and then pop open a panel that requires a metal tool to extract, and then reach blindly into a hole to pull the release. And this process damages the car, so you can't really practice in a non-emergency.

Just so you know, this is improved the latest (2023+) Model 3. There is now an easily removable panel in the door pocket, with a yellow cable to release the latch.[0]

I still hope they improve the mechanism to not require this, but they did at least improve it a bit in the latest model.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1jhCz12SKM

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On every other car, you can open the rear door by just using the door handle. No need to remove a panel so you can pull a yellow cable to release a latch so you can open the door.

Can it drive itself?

I mean a lot of them can. But those design features are completely orthogonal. Nothing about "self driving" requires stupid and unsafe door handle design. Tesla has clearly fallen into the trap of thinking that making something futuristic requires changing even the things that work just fine and don't require futurifying instead of realizing that the best future improves the things that could work better while leaving other things alone.

Many of these cars can drive themselves better than Teslas can.

My Subaru may not be able to change lanes but it also won't run straight into a truck, police car, ambulance, tree, or wall like a Tesla will.

If they made my exact Honda civic but with an electric motor and literally no other “improvements”, I’d be over the moon. I don’t need a touch screen, “self-driving” feature, or _electric-only door handles_ - the biggest pain points of cars have been solved for a long time, and Tesla has taken their ability to build great batteries and motors and said “now how can we mess up the rest of what a car is?”

Well, they put a sign on the trash can that says “this is in fact on fire” so you know that they’re aware it’s a dumpster fire.

"Bu look, you found the notice didn't you?"

"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked file cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard."

There’s 5 to 10 unique things about Tesla, esp at that price point. But yes let’s focus on door handles and how they behave in an edge case of an edge case.

Right, you don't need doors to be easy to open in case of emergency. Because you are a good man, emergency never occurs to you.

Once again - edge case of an edge case. Emergency openings are there, but not perfect. Next.

The first edge case is a collision. What's the second?

A collision where you lose power. I mean, let’s be real - it’s just when the door loses power, or the switch gets damaged, or… I feel there’s plenty of times when a manual latch is preferable.

The Y also has the redesigned release (from the beginning, afaik).

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