According to the Tesla owner’s manual, “Vehicle functions, including some safety systems and opening or closing the doors or windows, may be limited or disabled when installation is in progress and you could damage the vehicle.” Janel chose to heed Tesla’s warning and did not attempt to open her doors or windows during the installation process for fear of damaging her vehicle, but this seems like a very dangerous oversight on Tesla’s part that she was able to be stuck inside at all.
The door mechanisms on the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y are electrically operated, and under normal circumstances are opened from the inside using a simple button to unlatch the door. Should the vehicle have no power, these models do have auxiliary manual cable release levers also found on the door panel, but Tesla warns against using the manual mechanism, citing that it should only be used when the car has no power. Janel said she was aware of this option but didn’t want to risk damaging her car, and she felt confident that she could stick out the heat.
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The Tesla owners manual states that the car will not initiate a software update if Keep Climate mode, Dog Mode, Sentry Mode or Camp Mode are engaged, but it fails to require vehicle occupants to exit the vehicle before the debilitating installation process begins. Tesla also recommends owners install software updates as soon as possible, which could cause some owners to feel obligated to initiate an update in a compromised environment.
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Janel said her car estimated the install would only take 24 minutes, but it actually took 40 minutes, which was long enough for her car’s interior to reach 115 degrees. In a follow-up video, her caption states that she was afraid to mess up her car by getting out during the installation.
So maybe she was not doing the smartest thing by choosing not to damage her car even when it was getting dangerously hot, but considering how expensive Teslas are and how easy it is to violate their EULA, I can’t really fault her as much as I fault Tesla.
Tesla is dumb for not making sure the software checks for temp data and if the vehicle is occupied. She is dumb for starting the update when it’s hot outside and not at night when the temps are cooler. I mean, can’t they remotely start the update or schedule it so nobody is in the car when it kicks off?
She definitely shares the blame here, but if my car can detect that there’s someone in the passenger seat not wearing their seat belt just by detecting the weight on the seat, Tesla can do the same in the driver’s seat when it wants to do an update.
I’d say the bigger issue is opening the doors being dependant on a computer.
The manual and electronic releases should work together interchangeably. (ie using the manual release should have no ability to damage the door…)
The manual release damaging the door is definitely part of the issue. Tesla has made it pretty clear that if you intentionally do anything to the car that causes damage, it’s breaking the ToS.
Yes but you see they have to pay a developer and a project manager to do that.
I remember all the people removed because VW made you get out and lock your car for major OTA updates. I’d park my ID.3 for the night, lock it and initiate the update - and yet we were some kind of mindless knobs for not being able to do it while sitting in the car (some tesla people can really group-hate, you know?)
A car designed for idiots failed to make a feature of their car idiot proof leading to an idiot potentially harming themselves.
How about a manual open door lever ?
The one that the company that built the car specifically said using would damage the mechanism? That manual door lever?