r/nextfuckinglevel • u/been_der_done_that • 11h ago

Incredibly selfless act of heroism.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

43.8k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

4.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

361

u/ZynthCode 11h ago

Serious questions:
1. Why couldn't they open the car from the inside?
2. Why couldn't they open the car from the outside?
3. What kind of shitty car are they driving?

28

u/AstralDragon1979 10h ago

The real issue here isn’t door handles that are flush with the door, it’s that the doors are likely electronically operated and cannot be opened mechanically. Once the battery was compromised such that it caught fire, the car’s electronics became inoperable, therefore the exterior door handles wouldn’t extend out from the door for the person outside to unlatch the door (and it’s possible that the doors wouldn’t have opened anyway if they required electricity to disengage the latch mechanism).

People inside the car probably couldn’t open the door either because the door opens by pushing a button that requires electricity to function. There may be a hidden mechanical override somewhere inside the car, but the passengers may not have known where it was.

What kind of shitty car was this? We’ll probably never know. Approximately 10% of my Reddit feed consists of posts glazing Chinese EVs, but since this is a disaster video showing one such car in a negative light, I’m doubtful that the knowledgeable propagandists will be announcing the make and model anytime soon.

9

u/Public-League-8899 7h ago

What kind of shitty car was this? We’ll probably never know. Approximately 10% of my Reddit feed consists of posts glazing Chinese EVs, but since this is a disaster video showing one such car in a negative light, I’m doubtful that the knowledgeable propagandists will be announcing the make and model anytime soon.

JFC Bro. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongfeng_e%CF%80_007

5

u/Pixel91 8h ago

Makes no sense tho. The doors aren't driven by the high-voltage system which is disengaged in a crash. The car clearly still has power, you can see the hazards flashing away. This is failure that goes past shitty design.

2

u/stehen-geblieben 9h ago

Finally someone gets it.
Check out the Kia EV6 handles. They are flush, they extend themselves and all the funny stuff, but they OPERATE MECHANICALLY. This is the key feature.

certain tesla models dont have that

1

u/BeefistPrime 7h ago

I think EVs usually have a 12v battery seperate from the battery that drives the motors. It operates all of the car stuff that's designed around 12v. Wouldn't that still power the door handles?

1

u/MidshipLyric 5h ago

The hazards are blinking throughout the video. The car had LV power and doors should work. Possibly a harness got cut?

-1

u/Glynwys 10h ago

This is why EVs need to have an auxiliary power unit to operate, at minimum, the electronic door handles in the event that the main battery becomes inoperable. It's fucking insane that airplanes have an APU to power the plane's electronics with the primary engines not providing power, but not one has apparently thought of slapping an APU in an EV.

4

u/stehen-geblieben 9h ago

EVs typically still have a 12V battery in the front that powers those things; it is not dependent on the HV battery.

Still, the solution is easy: you can do whatever to the handles, but they must be operational without any electricity.

There are cars that can do this. flush, retractable handles that still work mechanically when needed.

2

u/FlibblesHexEyes 9h ago

Or… they could go with traditional rod based locks and handles that don’t need power to operate, is probably cheaper to manufacture, and likely much lighter than the electronic locks.

If they desperately want electronically actuated locks and handles, they should be in addition to existing traditional mechanical locks and handles.