When a Tesla's battery dies, the interior can be little more than a giant oven for someone trapped inside, as one Arizona woman found out.
Renee Sanchez recently learned how quickly she owns one E.V can turn into a harrowing experience on a scorching Arizona day as the Scottsdale woman planned to take her 20-month-old granddaughter in her car seat for a trip to the Phoenix Zoo, she reported. KPHO-TV.
“And I closed the door, turned the car around, got in the front seat and my car was dead,” he said. “I couldn't get in. My phone key wouldn't open it. My card key wouldn't open it.”
The Tesla did the unthinkable for both mother and daughter: it locked the youngest girl inside with no way to get her out.
Sanchez called 911. Scottsdale firefighters responded.
“And when they got here, the first thing they said was, 'Uggh, it's a Tesla.' We can't get in these cars,” he said. “And I said, 'I don't care if you have to cut my car in half. Just take her out.'”
Firefighters took an ax to a window, first taping it to minimize flying glass.
As the process unfolded, the boy began to panic.
“She was fine for the first few minutes,” Sanchez said. “But as soon as the firemen came and all the commotion started and the windows broke, she started crying because she was scared.”
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Finally, the girl was released.
“After I knew I was safe, then the anger,” Sanchez said. “Then all the thoughts of, oh my God, this could have been so much worse.”
Although Tesla It's supposed to warn owners when the battery is about to die, Sanchez said, and was backed up by Tesla's service department, which received none.
“When that battery goes out, you're dead in the water,” he said.
He said he is reconsidering his faith in Tesla.
“I give Tesla props. When it works, it's great. But when it doesn't, it can be deadly,” Sanchez said.
Tesla has a method to get out of a car if the battery dies, but that's not much help when a child is the only one inside the vehicle, he explains. CarScoops. There is also a method to start the vehicle, but it requires knowing how to do it.
“They have to educate the first responders because they had no idea,” Sanchez said. “They were as much in the dark as I was.”
Electric vehicle expert Mike Klimkosky said first responders they must be educated, according to the fortune.
“It's the firefighters' responsibility to educate themselves,” Klimkosky said.
But Michael Brooks, the executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, said Tesla is to blame.
“It's not the firefighters' fault that Tesla chose electronic door latches that don't have adequate emergency safeguards,” he said.
“In the absence of a federal rule specifying how these vehicles must be manufactured, Tesla rarely chooses safe routes,” Brooks said. “They usually choose something shiny – safety comes last.”
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