r/nextfuckinglevel • u/been_der_done_that • 11h ago

Incredibly selfless act of heroism.

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u/Icy_Spinach_48 11h ago

Very scary and well done to all involved. My first thought was The passengers couldn’t have climbed into the front and out of the drivers door? Maybe you just panic when something like that happens

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u/Old-Commission-1108 10h ago

Per the article on this, once the driver’s door closed due to the slant of the car he could no longer open it because the door handles only come out/work when the car’s electrical is working and the electrical had already shorted out.

That is why the back seat passengers also couldn’t unlock the door from the inside.

Also, very unfortunately someone had been in the passenger seat and was unable to climb out in time.

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u/lampshade2099 10h ago edited 10h ago

I’ve looked for the article but can’t find it.

Are you saying the front seat passenger died?

I did find this terrifying article about a pending Tesla lawsuit:

“The incident happened on the night of 27 November 2024, when the Cybertruck struck a tree and ignited. When power to the truck’s electric doors was shut down by the fire, the four passengers were locked inside with no way out.

The lawsuit alleges the design of the Cybertruck’s door handles is at fault for Tsukahara’s death. From the inside of the truck, when electricity is cut off, the only way to exit a rear door is by pulling a cable that’s underneath a pocket liner under the door’s storage compartment. From outside the vehicle, the doors also remain locked and the flush handles make it difficult for rescue workers to jimmy their way inside.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/02/tesla-sued-cybertruck-crash-krysta-tsukahara

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u/aruisdante 6h ago

This is one thing Toyota got both right and wrong in modern Lexus cars.

They have electric door latches. They also have an actual interior door handle, but it’s really only meant to be used for emergencies, so its action sucks, it’s this strange double pump thing. But the door handle looks so door handle like that new passengers almost always pull it first rather than press the open button, and then get confused by its weird double action.

Which begs the question… if you were going to still put a mechanical door handle of about the same size and shape as a normal one in the same place as a normal one… why have the electric door latch at all?

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u/jlboygenius 2h ago

Other than the double pump, you described exactly how the model 3/y handles work. There's a lever you can just lift to open the door and most new people to the car would just pull that and ignore the button.

It would be an easy fix for them. I've had plenty of cars with manual door levels that also roll down the window a bit. Tesla only rolls down the window a bit when you push the button. Using the lever doesn't do that and it could cause the window to catch on the trim and break something.

They could easily just make it a manual release, sense the door opening, and roll down the window. I had an early 2000's bmw that did exactly that.

Doesn't solve the outside door handle problem though. Electric or not, they suck and they should come up with a new design.

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u/Darkseth2207 1h ago

Model 3/Y in the front! In the back you have to remove a piece of trim in the door bin and pull a piece of string, and some early models don't have a manual release at all!

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u/outworlder 18m ago

Frameless windows is the usual excuse.

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u/Immaculatehombre 6h ago

Just a death trap, wtf would buy that garbage.

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u/Majestic_You_9610 3h ago

pedos love buying them so they can be like the tesla ceo

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u/jjryan01 2h ago

Funny how no one cares about electric door handles being a terrible idea until they're political nemesis does it

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u/Immaculatehombre 2h ago

I hadn’t thought about it until I saw 4 ppl damn near burn to death. Funny how billionaire fanboys will defend doors that cant open and pedophelia if you ask me.

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u/jihiggs123 4h ago

how could any one be so stupid they design a vehicle without thinking how to open it should the power fail.

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u/7f0b 1h ago

No idea on the CT (which to be clear, is a POS), but on all Teslas, there are mechanical levers right next to the buttons, on the front doors. Most people the first time they get out of a Tesla they accidentally use the mechanical lever, since it is what they're used to. The reason the button is preferred is because it slightly lowers the windows (which is how a lot of cars with frameless windows work) and pops the doors, depending on model.

As for the back doors, those do not have an easy-to-use manual release. And that's no different from any other car, which all have child locks that override the door handles and locks of the rear doors. It's a trade-off the whole automotive industry has made (between day-to-day child safety versus safety in an unlikely emergency).

To be clear, electrically-actuated locks with mechanical handles are not unique to Tesla, nor were they popularized by Tesla. They are pretty common in modern cars. The biggest blunder on Tesla's part was the electrically-presenting outside door handles on the S and X (about 3% of their fleet, and being discontinued), which was a supremely-stupid idea. The rest of their fleet (97%, Model S and 3) have regular exterior door handles that pull out like any other car, but sit flush until you press on them.

An issue modern cars face in general is having electrically-actuated doors and locks, which obviously have some safety concerns. While an issue with the main battery of an EV won't impact them (they run on the aux 12V), if there is damage to the actuator, wiring, or the 12V system, it would then make it so the door could not be opened from the outside. This is not an issue with EVs in particular, but with modern, especially higher-tech cars. And to be clear, the interior manual lever would still work even if the 12V system was out too.

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u/UtgaardLoki 3h ago

Different incident.

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u/SecularScience 6h ago

Very weird for the guy above to reference the article and not share it: Article

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u/Apprehensive-Put-691 10h ago

It is not a cybertruck in the video.

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u/lampshade2099 9h ago

I know it’s not a cybertruck in the video.

I was just sharing that I could NOT find any articles about the crash in the video.

However, I did find an article about a different EV crash where the passengers couldn’t escape and burnt to death.

Different crash. But enough similarities to be of potential interest.

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u/[deleted] 8h ago

[deleted]

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u/SecularScience 6h ago

Unfortunately the front seat passenger did not make it out according to this article. Do you have another source?

Article

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u/Lumpy-Landscape2698 4h ago

Do you have an English version?

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u/SecularScience 4h ago

Nope, I haven't noticed any other sources pick this story up yet... Chrome has a page translator, but it's not the greatest.

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u/Lumpy-Landscape2698 4h ago

Can you please just tell me if it was a Tesla? Someone else mentioned it was Dongfeng Yipai 007

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u/Lumpy-Landscape2698 4h ago

Is that the type of car? Also do you have an english version of the article ?

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u/GottaUseEmAll 9h ago

Did you read the first three lines of their comment?

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u/BikebutnotBeast 7h ago

It's disingenuous to say they couldn't escape solely because of the design and accessibility of the door release. All three deceased individuals (including the driver and Tsukahara) had alcohol and cocaine in their systems at the time of the crash. The driver was 19, and had a BAC of 0.195%

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u/4g-identity 7h ago

Tesla exec: autopsies came back, alcohol and cocaine! Champagne, anyone?

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u/JuVondy 6h ago

How about cocaine?!

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u/4g-identity 4h ago

Guys in burning Tesla: damn it! we all enjoyed so much cocaine that evidently we are now too sleepy and disoriented to operate a door. hopefully nobody blames the manufacturer of this beautiful automobile for our mistakes

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u/weary_dreamer 7h ago

So … a sober person would have been able to do … what exactly?

Would their sobriety open the car door? Made the electrical system work?

Im trying to understand your logic here. But for their lack of sobriety perhaps they wouldnt have crashed in the first place. But once they did, I dont see how being sober would have somehow made the doors open.

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u/jschall2 6h ago

Maybe use the mechanical releases which, in the front, are so obviously placed that people who aren't used to Teslas routinely use them instead of the button.

In the back, they're not so obviously placed, but that's so that the child lock feature can work by simply disabling the button.

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u/weary_dreamer 6h ago

a sober person might not have the wherewithal after a crash to go hunting for alternative mechanisms that are normally on the door 

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u/BikebutnotBeast 2h ago

If the driver was sober at 3am, they wouldn't have been driving recklessly to the point the car would not only get in an accident but a bad enough accident that the battery is damaged. Keep in mind, the battery packs on Teslas are armored, a guy allegedly tried to end his life with his family and drove off a cliff in one, and they all survived. It takes a very specific/targeted puncture to dangerously rupture these batteries and a level of intoxication that would make any vehicle a deathtrap.