We will Just keep whipping people until they finally comply with my world view. There are early adopters that love new technology, late adopters, and non adopters. Cars used to be designed for the general population to be able to use. Your grandfather or grandmother may not live up to your high standards. Reminds me of my chemistry teacher. Every time he’d get asked a question he’d say it is in the book. Look it up. Requiring looking everything up in the book may just illustrate a design flaw in the machine itself. Maybe why 90% of the technology goes unused.
1 Like
This might not have gotten much publicity outside of the NYC/NJ Metro area, but we had a recent tragedy on a car-carrier ship at Port Newark. The blaze got out of control quickly, two veteran fire fighters lost their lives, and it took 2 or 3 days to totally extinguish it.
The media was very quick to jump to the assumption that the fire was EV-related, but the shipping company, the Port Authority, and the local fire department all confirmed that it was a gasoline-powered vehicle that caused the conflagration.
IIRC that was in national news.
You missed the ship on fire heading to Egypt? Over 3000 cars, over 300 electrics. Verified that it was an electric that caught on fire. One dead. Trying to find a port to pull the ship to.
I am on another unrelated complex blog where a questioner frequently gets the response “just google it” instead of getting real help.
I don’t fault the guys who like to buy the latest and greatest, but they need to know that they are part of a test and may need to do a whole lot more than reading the manual. T he latest and greatest are things in development, and need to be tweaked at the minimum or redone from the ground up sometimes. Ask Tesla if there is a deep need for a dash pocket to be locked when the battery goes dead. Ask Tesla why the battery died when the car sits inside a garage, connected to its own huge charger. Unless people recognize that design is an issue, and thus the people make up work-around excuses, Tesla will not develop and grow. They need the feedback I remember how the Japanese cars came into the US and “explained” to the American makers that cars did not need to be unreliable rust buckets.
No, of course I didn’t miss it, but since somebody seemed to think that ICE vehicles were without hazards, I posted the info about the gasoline-fueled ship fire at Port Newark. The bottom line is that no vehicle is without some inherent hazards–including steam-powered ones–if someone is really hankering for The Good Old Days.
It’s not my world view. You give me too much credit. I’m just living in it. It’s constantly evolving. If the technology won’t work for the majority, it will die off. But the younger generations embrace it just like the generations that came before them embraced the modern technology of their day. I’m sure the folks riding horses looked at cars with disdain back in their day but the younger folks figured it was worth learning something new to get the benefits of it.
Not everything can be innately intuitive. At some point, machines evolve to have features that require some time to educate yourself on how they work. I just bought a self-inflating air mattress for the kids. It seemed straightforward but I read the manual that came with it. It had some information I wouldn’t have known had I not read the instructions. Probably saved me from destroying it at some point. It that bad design? Should everything we buy meet the lowest standard of intelligence to use?
Yes, cars sitting in garages not on fire do not make the news normally. Just another day. Doesn’t take away the two house fires we had this year from batteries. No house fires reported yet from lawn mowers. But hey, enjoy the ride, but wear a helmet.
According to cars.dover.com…
Key Electric Car Fire Statistics
- Electric-powered vehicles have the least risk of catching fire according to data from NTSB.
- Hybrid-powered vehicles are at the highest risk of catching fire.
- Battery-electric vehicles are only .03% likely to ignite, compared to 1.5% for gas-powered vehicles and 3.4% for hybrid vehicles.
- During 2018, vehicle fires caused $1.9 billion in direct property damage in the US.
| Type | Fires (per 100K vehicle) | Total Fire |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Hybrid | 3474.5 | 16,051 |
| 2.Gas | 1529.9 | 199,533 |
| 3.Electric | 25.1 | 52 |
Statistics can be misleading…
If a gas car catches fire, it can be deprived of oxygen and it will go out.
If an EV catches fire it will burn until there is no car left unless 30,000 gallons of water can cool it below the combustion temperature. It might set fire to nearby cars, houses or garages.
Yes, it may statistically be less likely to happen but when it does happen, the carnage (pun intended) is much worse.
Imagine an EV car fire in a parking garage… especially an underground garage.
2 Likes
Accelerating the switch to solid state lithium cells can’t happen soon enough from that perspective.
1 Like
Several points.
When I took my first test drive in a Tesla Model 3 I opened the door from the inside using the handle-lever in front of the window switch, which kind of a reflex thing. The sales person told me not to do that, but to use the unmarked electrical switch. She explained that the electrical way lowers the window a bit to allow it to clear the weatherstripping (I think my Audi did that), but the mechanical does not. BTW, now the switches are marked; I had bought decals for this and I explain it to new passengers.
The Model 3 warned me on the screen that my battery would need replacing soon (this was after more than three years of driving). I put in to have it replaced thinking I could have a problem and they reassured me that I had plenty of time. They sent someone to my house to replace it under warranty and it did not fail me; it took them about 20 minutes to replace it, IIRC. My Subaru battery, like most other cars, did not warn me about impeding failures, it just died. This man likely got warnings that he ignored. As others indicated, he could have used his phone to find answers.
There is no paper manual with the car. It is available on the screen and is searchable. I printed it out because I am so used to reading paper and find it easier, often. Anyone can download it from the Tesla site.
The manual is about 300 pages, not over a thousand as someone said.
My Subaru Ascent, which I liked, had seven separate manuals and two warranty manuals. I am sure the total pages were way more than 300.
Personally, I’d rather have a manually opening glovebox, but I think there other electric ones.
1 Like
Well the plot thickens as they say. There is no manual to read if the power is out. My Acura warns of impending battery failure though, so you don’t need an ev for that feature. I’ll admit I haven’t read the article and likely won’t. Just bouncing off of the people scolding folks for not studying manuals. Even airliners have paper manuals in the cockpit. Shouldn’t have to have a pilots license to drive a car.
Although slightly onerous, he could have checked the manual with his phone. he could go to the website, or he could have emailed himself the manual as a PDF attachment when he got the car. He could have put in an emergency service request via the app on his phone. You need the app to use your phone as a “key” and the dealer sets that up for you when you pick up the car. In fact, a lot of the prepurchase paperwork requires a phone, so he must have one.
2 Likes
Not everyone in that age group is proficient with a smart phone, there are two members of this message board that do not have phones.
The story states that his sister manage to open the passenger door with the Tesla application. I suspect neither one thought to research the internet for an emergency release mechanism. Many people are unaware of bypass operations in vehicles.
Over time you will find that even the “read your manual” people don’t know the basics like how to find accessory on the ignition switch or how to initialize automatic power windows.
1 Like
Orrrrr, maybe you are in a Cellular Dead Zone or very slow internet, parking garage etc etc… So the smart phone can not or will not down load a 300 page manual in those cases…
As a buddy of mine liked to say, your car don’t always break down in your driveway… lol
Remember not everyone thinks about these things or has a lot of common since…
2 Likes
Sure, it is true that not everyone has a cell phone, but if you drive a Tesla it is virtually essential. You can only open the car and drive it if you have a cell phone or the key card. In addition, if his sister opened the car with the app, she must have a cell phone. As I have gotten older, some of the technical stuff has gotten “more challenging” but many things still can be done. I think I am older than this man, BTW, and I do not feel challenged by my Model 3 (nor does my wife who is only about a year younger than I).
1 Like
+1
My Lexus NX plug-in hybrid is almost as technologically advanced as a Tesla, but I don’t feel intimidated–in the slightest–by its high-tech features.
Yesterday, I accidentally learned an additional feature of the vehicle. When I was exiting the vehicle on my way to Dental Surgery, I decided to leave my cell phone in the car because it could only serve as a distraction while I was undergoing that lengthy procedure. However, all attempts to lock the doors failed.
Then, I remembered that I had activated the “digital key” feature, which allows me to use the cell phone in place of my key fob. Even though the key fob was in my pocket, the fact that my phone was in the car was enough for the e-system to prevent me from–theoretically–locking myself out of the car.
By removing the phone from the car and placing it in my pocket, I was able to lock the car. Lesson learned!
1 Like
I hope the dental work was painless, as brief as possible and successful!
Thank you!
This was visit #1, with two more to go.
It wasn’t brief, but thanks to 3 shots of Novocaine, it was painless, and my discomfort last night was eased by a couple of Aleve tablets.
1 Like