ListNook

Direct_Witness1248 Mar 18, 2026 +315

So by making it "secure" and using dumb electric handles they literally made a death trap. Why do electric handles exist at all, so stupid.

315

Mikestopheles Mar 18, 2026 +150

This is the result of people knowing better than the experts. The biggest problem with innovators is when they don't want to deal with the edge cases in their innovations, where safety really **should** show down progress

150

AggressiveSkywriting Mar 18, 2026 +85

Ok but what if we ask a 50 something year old boy who carried a sink into his workplace to make the lamest joke.

85

Direct_Witness1248 Mar 18, 2026 +35

100% "Break things and move fast" (to get away from the scene) [I wrote it backwards by accident then realised I think its more accurate that way]

35

Unlikely_Tax_1111 Mar 18, 2026 +16

Well real innovators DO stop and look at edge cases. One or two edge cases could be an early indicator to mass issues in the future. For instance some stress fractures on your new aircraft material that appeared in only two frames...these would have to be run back and even OK frames would have to be pulled to test in the same areas.

16

Mikestopheles Mar 18, 2026 +21

Absolutely, hence *when*. One submarine operator comes to mind about ego overcoming caution.

21

Unlikely_Tax_1111 Mar 18, 2026 +10

That dude was a complete whack job and knew the risks but would rather die being wrong than live and admit he was wrong

10

Mikestopheles Mar 18, 2026 +23

Those are the ones running the industry and pushing AI on a weakening economy that can't handle the strain of both its massive resource sinks and the fundamental societal shifts required to obsolete entire sectors of labor. And I'd say the same thing about them

23

mdp300 Mar 18, 2026 +9

DING DING DING His whole attitude was "I'm rich and successful, of course I'm always right!"

9

Sideview_play Mar 18, 2026 +8

Even in the new rivian 2 there's this issue. Which is so disappointing because the company and the car overall seem pretty cool. But then they do this shit.

8

maddy_k_allday Mar 18, 2026 +3

Titan submersible has entered the chat 😅

3

Dr_Bombinator Mar 18, 2026 +60

We just handled a crash involving a Tesla. No serious injuries and everybody got out, closing the doors behind them, but now the car was literally impossible to open from the outside. Their stupid keycard didn’t work, their stupid app didn’t work, the door handles didn’t work. Tow truck guys had to break in and manually unlock from the inside just so they could get the damn thing on the truck, but it didn’t matter because the steering was totally locked anyway. F****** crazy, and this was a low speed front end crash. What happens when shit gets totally fucked in a crash and you’re unconscious inside and nobody can open the f****** doors or break your unbreakable windows?

60

The_Mellow_Tiger Mar 18, 2026 +26

Easy, you die. Ask Mitch McConnell's sister in law. She had driven hers into a body of water during a storm at night. She was able to call people for help but they couldn't get the doors open. It took first responders 20 minutes to get her body out.

26

iwantthisnowdammit Mar 18, 2026 +5

That case was extra special, she was completely pickled and afraid she’d get electrocuted by using the manual door handle.

5

The_Mellow_Tiger Mar 18, 2026 +14

Exactly, she was drunk and she panicked. The main thing is, in these cars in an accident you can't panic, which is damn near impossible when you're on fire or it's filling up with water. You're not thinking of where the manual door release is. Just that you need to get out.

14

iwantthisnowdammit Mar 18, 2026 -6

I understand your point, just a remarkably bad example. The front door releases are very straight forward. The scenario that is the primary flaw, is when the person is incapacitated and the help has to come from outside the car.

-6

The_Mellow_Tiger Mar 19, 2026 +5

I feel the opposite, it's a perfect and well documented example. Whether or not she felt she'd be electrocuted seems silly and I may have overlooked evidence of that. The point stands, she died because she couldn't simply exit the car. They say you wait until it fills up before you try the doors because water flushing in will shut them, or remove the headrest and use the prongs to bash a window out, or kick out the windshield. There has been news reports of fire fighters unable to do anything when a Tesla catches fire with people trapped in it; the reason being, when the batteries ignite the fire engines are unequipped to put them out. You can't douse water on a lithium based battery to put it out and they burn forever. I'd imagine with the vast emergence of EVs that mightve changed, or will be. But for right now with their door handles and shatter proof windows, Tesla vehicles are a death trap.

5

iwantthisnowdammit Mar 19, 2026

You’re mashing together different things. The manual front handle isn’t hidden on a Tesla, it’s the grab bar at the front of the window switches. The issue at hand in electronic door cars is that there is not manual handle on the outside.

0

sexaddic Mar 19, 2026 -9

Sounds like you guys haven’t read the manual to know how to get in. No different than if a car was locked from the inside with the windows up. Do your job, learn how to open the car from the outside. https://www.tesla.com/firstresponders

-9

SanityIsOptional Mar 19, 2026 +8

So I was curious and opened the Cybertruck document. Here is what it had to say about accessing the occupants from outside: >NOTE: If the door buttons do not function, open a front door manually **by reaching inside the window and using the mechanical release handle.** See Opening Front Doors from Inside without Power. That is the entirety of what was included on how to get people out of the car from outside without power. The section on dealing with a submerged vehicle instructs the rescuers to remove the vehicle from the water, and to orient it properly to drain the water. So....yeah.

8

sexaddic Mar 19, 2026 -2

How would you do it for a normal car?

-2

SanityIsOptional Mar 19, 2026 +3

Open the handle. You don't need power to do that in a normal car. Essentially teslas lock all doors when they lose power, they can only be opened from inside. That is the *opposite of safe*. If they were properly "fail-safe", they would default to an *unlocked* condition when power is lost.

3

Dr_Bombinator Mar 19, 2026 +3

I mean I could have just taken f****** jaws and spreader to it but it didn't feel necessary at the time, you know? I'm not searching for f****** hidden handles if someone's trapped inside *and I have appropriate tools* but I shouldn't NEED "appropriate tools" if there is nothing actually mechanically broken with the door, just a shitty ass computer declaring "you shall not pass". Also hilarious that the only recommended way to open the door is to enter the driver's front window, which we couldn't do because the F****** SIDE AIRBAG HAD DEPLOYED. Tow guys had to shimmy the passenger's side and break in that way.

3

DV8_2XL Mar 18, 2026 +12

For the same reason some people tried to build submarines out of carbon fiber even after being told it wasn't a good idea...

12

TheLegendTwoSeven Mar 18, 2026 +20

Elon thought electric handles looked cool, so he ordered that to be part of the design.

20

camshun7 Mar 18, 2026 +9

im wondering if people are still buying these monstrosities? im fairly sure they wont or have not been approved for eu/uk roads due to their insistence on not changing the fllush handle design and much pfrefer to let people die a terrible death, rather than look awful from a design aesthetic like the ceo they all should be shut down.

9

ArchdukeToes Mar 18, 2026 +12

Thankfully, they’re not road legal in the UK under any circumstances because they fail several fundamental requirements. I’ve only seen them a couple of times in NA and f*** me they look ugly.

12

count023 Mar 18, 2026 +1

there's a few around my region in australia, but we're an asian heavy local population, and if it's not a tesla it's a prius or other EV type vehicle, so not so much Tesla fanbying as just EVs overall. Teslas dont seem to be around much in australia even though they're roadlegal.

1

mulletstation Mar 18, 2026 +4

They had a $60k version and so many people orderd they then increased the price back up to $70k and have a 6 month waitlist on those versions now.

4

Constant-Bet-6600 Mar 19, 2026 +3

State Farm is no longer insuring Cybertrucks. They are just the largest car insurance carrier in the USA.

3

funky_duck Mar 18, 2026 +4

> im wondering if people are still buying these monstrosities? Consumer don't want them so Musk is having his own companies buy them to obscure the truth. They became "fleet" vehicles for SpaceX, etc., letting Musk control both sides of the negotiation. He also had SpaceX pre-buy a huge amount of them to get the EV tax rebated locked in even though the trucks wouldn't be delivered for months (if ever...).

4

OlderThanMyParents Mar 19, 2026 +3

Didn’t you read the article? “Because trucks are supposed to be macho. And the Cybertruck is maximum macho.” I take some comfort in knowing that the people who will be fucked over by this feature are the people who think Elon is some kind of god.

3

Direct_Witness1248 Mar 19, 2026 +1

Hahaha thanks for the chuckle

1

Blubbolo Mar 18, 2026 +9

To be fair, it was already a death trap.

9

FredFredrickson Mar 19, 2026 +2

But how do you "move fast and break stuff" if you're constantly being bogged down by silly things like the safety of your ~~test subjects~~ customers?

2

SanityIsOptional Mar 19, 2026 +2

People are more afraid of being carjacked than they are of being in a traffic accident. Which tells you everything you need to know about how good humans are at assessing risks.

2

Gellert Mar 18, 2026 +3

You're not wrong but in fairness there are manual releases for the doors, they're just hidden so you wouldn't know unless you read the manual and who the f*** does that.

3

ASmallTownDJ Mar 18, 2026 +12

I've seen die-hard Tesla fans trying to put the blame on the victims that couldn't get out for not familiarizing themselves with the vehicle, like it was their fault for expecting a car door to function the same way car doors have been for decades.

12

Gellert Mar 18, 2026 +2

Yeah, it's part of a broader problem I have with modern cars, like electric parking brakes.

2

Logitech4873 Mar 18, 2026 +2

What's wrong with electric parking brakes?

2

Gellert Mar 18, 2026 +4

You're reliant on electronic feedback. Lights, basically. Guy I work with came into work, parked up got changed, got called back up the carpark because his car rolled into another parked car. The parking brake hadn't properly engaged but still showed it had on the dash.

4

Logitech4873 Mar 18, 2026 +2

Ah. Well I can hear it engage (it makes a distinct sound), and I can feel the car tense up and stop moving. I think I would react if this wasn't the case. And my car would probably not be able to roll even if it didn't engage.

2

Kriegenstein Mar 19, 2026 +1

Auto or manual? If auto and in park it won't move, if manual why was it in neutral?

1

Gellert Mar 19, 2026 +1

F*** if I know, I wasn't driving it. That said, I only ever put my car in gear when parking on a hill.

1

acityonthemoon Mar 19, 2026 +1

Norman. That's who makes doors like that.

1

Gellert Mar 19, 2026 +1

Should've never let that little shit out of pontypandy.

1

supercali45 Mar 19, 2026 +1

This is Muskrat’s idea for sure

1

Thrownawaybyall Mar 18, 2026 -10

>Why do electric handles exist at all, so stupid. Door handles are shockingly bad for aerodynamics, and aerodynamics is the biggest factor to range. Range is still king in EVs, hence why things get removed. Some makers wanted to get rid of side view mirrors and rely on cameras instead.

-10

Henrarzz Mar 18, 2026 +26

>Door handles are shockingly bad for aerodynamics They aren’t. > Automakers claim hidden handles can improve a car's drag coefficient by as much as 0.03 Cd, but independent research suggests the real improvement is as low as 0.005 Cd. That translates to an energy saving of about 0.6 kWh over 100 km - a negligible amount for most drivers. > Worse, the motors and mechanisms needed for these handles add up to 8 kg of weight, which can easily cancel out any minor aerodynamic advantage https://m.arenaev.com/china_moves_to_ban_hidden_car_door_handles_over_safety_fears-news-5092.php

26

Thrownawaybyall Mar 18, 2026 +9

🤷‍♂️. I learned something new. For the record, I don't like the hidden handles.

9

Direct_Witness1248 Mar 18, 2026 +13

They could design a mechanical doorhandle that is recessed with a cover. And on the inside have a regular door handle. They could devise a periscope system with fisheye lenses to remove the mirrors. None of it has to be digital or electric.

13

pixeltackle Mar 18, 2026 +215

> “The body inside was severely burnt and was completely unidentifiable,” one officer wrote in his report. “You could see a pelvic spine and ribcage laying across the front two seats, mostly in the passenger seat,” another wrote. People who think they would think clearly and remember the hidden manual release for the door on a car they've only had a few months needs to re-read this a few times. There's no benefit to these doors, there are huge risks.

215

Spaghet-3 Mar 18, 2026 +135

The benefit of manual handles is we rehearse the exit process every day, multiple times per day. It becomes so second nature that you can open the door without even thinking. Which is exactly what you need in an emergency.

135

Drone314 Mar 18, 2026 +67

This can not be over stated enough. In an emergency it's the muscle memory that will save your life, and muscle memory is tempered by consistency and practice - everyone knows how to open a car door, why make it more complicated then it needs to be.

67

D74248 Mar 18, 2026 +25

There is a reason emergency exits on airliners, including the ones in the cockpits, are marked with big red letters and big red arrows. Your brain does not work well when you are on fire.

25

Several-Opposite-746 Mar 18, 2026 +53

It takes me time to think about where is the emergency blinker or cruise control that I use once in a while. Add flames, panic and a release mechanism I haven't given any thought for a long time and I'm toast, like literally.

53

PlateNo4868 Mar 18, 2026 +11

I took a Lyft and looked at the door handle and was like...zero chance I could remember this in the heat of the moment.

11

eldiablo22590 Mar 18, 2026 +17

Emergency blinker? In Boston we call those the "park anywhere" lights, they are used more frequently than directionals by the majority of drivers

17

GoblinRightsNow Mar 18, 2026 +5

A turn signal in Boston is just an admission of weakness.

5

Several-Opposite-746 Mar 18, 2026 +6

True enough. A lot of people don't realize that emergency blinkers nullify signs for No Parking / No Stopping zones.

6

pixeltackle Mar 18, 2026 +24

Agreed. Anyone who thinks they will be cool headed through an actual shocking emergency is overestimating their human abilities.

24

KissMeImMonday Mar 18, 2026 +22

"people don't rise to the occasion, they fall to the level of their training" Tough lesson to learn as your cybertruck starts spewing burning lithium all over the place

22

fevered_visions Mar 18, 2026 +5

and according to the article electric cars tend to burn faster, too

5

Looptydude Mar 18, 2026 +3

Heck, once I forgot how to turn on my high beams at my vehicle inspection. I rarely drive at night or in a place where they are needed, so it makes complete sense.

3

scotchdouble Mar 18, 2026 +23

They should be outlawed.

23

pixeltackle Mar 18, 2026 +22

As far as I know, China is the only country to ban this kind of electronic door release so far.

22

coconutpiecrust Mar 18, 2026 +27

I would never get anything without a manual door opening mechanism.

27

Logitech4873 Mar 18, 2026 -29

I mean, the Cybertruck has it.

-29

rustybeancake Mar 18, 2026 +23

Doesn’t help if you’re a passenger who’s riding in the vehicle for perhaps the first time, and nobody’s told you where the emergency release is hidden. > Riordan was able to rescue one friend from the front and then tried to pull Tsukahara, who was screaming for help, from the back, according to the complaint. As Riordan reached for her, they grasped hands, but the fire flared and they had to retreat. Riordan started banging on the back window with the branch, Dreyer said, and tried to peel away the glass with his bare hands. > “The fire was absolutely an inferno,” Dreyer said. “There was no way, humanly, he could stay there.” > Tsukahara, along with Dixon and a third friend, Jack Nelson, didn’t survive. According to autopsy reports, none of them had blunt force injuries from the impact of the crash. Instead, the reports note, they died of asphyxia from smoke inhalation and severe “thermal injuries”.

23

MortimerDongle Mar 18, 2026 +17

It doesn't have a manual door release that is the same as the door release you normally use, which is ridiculous.

17

aradraugfea Mar 19, 2026 +3

All so they can brag about how well engineered their death traps are. When your engineering results in a single death, it’s bad engineering. Flat out. We had a fool proof system for opening doors for hundreds of years. The systems HAD to be fool proof. Legislation written in blood and ash. Elon needs his clean lines and his engineers would rather make a car they’d never drive pretty for their boss than safe for their customer.

3

ledasll Mar 18, 2026 +4

At this point if you nuy svasticar, then it's natural selection in action

4

hamfinity Mar 18, 2026 +30

"Apocalypse-proof" as in you'll experience proof of the apocalypse while trapped inside

30

ckglle3lle Mar 18, 2026 +18

Once upon a time this would essentially end Tesla as a company, at the least, force a stop sale on Cybertruck and likely oust Elon Musk. We should really aim to build a world where accountability exists.

18

Theduckisback Mar 18, 2026 +92

Investors will watch this happen and them immediately buy more Tesla Stock because Elon promised humanoid robots and a Mars colony 10 years ago. What I'm saying is investors are stupid hogs that love to eat up whatever diarrhea Musk decides to shit out on any given day.

92

T_Gamer-mp4 Mar 18, 2026 +33

Tesla stock is like Nortel stock at this point. You aren’t investing in the company, you’re investing in the stock itself. And like most crypto schemes, the goal is to sell it all to a “bigger sucker”, someone who buys it for more than you bought it for. IMO the stock market needs a huge amount of reforms to stop it from being a c*****, but this will truly never happen until a mass American cultural change

33

ledasll Mar 18, 2026 +4

You make bread that will feed 100M people and you earn 1M, you buy shares of company that generates no value, then sell them and get 10M, so you have no motivation to make bread, but increase virtual numbers.

4

PrairiePopsicle Mar 19, 2026 +1

The stock market should not exist as it exists, period. Companies should be able to sell what is in effect a bond, and it should not be transferrable. Problem solved. (yes, this makes more questions and problems, just saying, f*** the c*****.)

1

ledasll Mar 18, 2026 +2

It's because they usually don't invest their own money, but from fund and you keep share price high, fund you admin are showing high value

2

funky_duck Mar 18, 2026 +1

> investors are stupid How can it be fair to say that when TSLA has gone up an insane amount since 2020? Is there a good reason for the growth? Nope - but the goal of investing is to get positive returns and TSLA has been good for that.

1

woowoo293 Mar 18, 2026 +69

Alienate potential customers by boosting radical conservative politicians. Hurt your business model by supporting a President who slashes EV spending. Murder your customer base by trapping them and burning them to death. Bold moves, Cotton, let’s see if they pay off.

69

Chillow_Ufgreat Mar 18, 2026 +17

You left out the faulty FSD that frames you for murder.

17

Logitech4873 Mar 18, 2026 +3

What do you mean by this?

3

kazerniel Mar 19, 2026 +2

Not sure what OP meant, but there were numerous reports of FSD disengaging seconds before a collision, so that the company can claim that the car wasn't in FSD mode when it happened...

2

Logitech4873 Mar 19, 2026 +1

That's a thing people say, but it's lying by omission. Yes, FSD will often disengage before a crash. Obviously! If the conditions for FSD being enabled are not correct, it will disable. The same goes for any other level 2 autonomous system. AEB will still be engaged, and the car may still automatically brake. Disengaging isn't the problem. It's obviously in everyone's best interest that if the system doesn't understand what's happening, it turns off and returns control to the driver. No, Tesla will not consider FSD to not be involved if a crash occurs seconds after disengagement. IIRC, Tesla has a grace period of 5 seconds here. If the driver cannot react in 5 seconds after disengagement (which blares a loud alarm), they are not paying attention at all.

1

Slanerislana Mar 19, 2026 +1

I don't know his exact intent with the comment but I assume it's something in the line of to use FSD you must accept to Tesla's TOS to ever be allowed to turn it on and in those terms it's extremely likely there's some language that puts any responsibility of an accident on the driver and not the software (like you must be ready to take over immediately if our software does some extremely stupid, like aim at pedestrians) So if FSD caused a pedestrian accident or any accident really you're responsible, probably even if you took action to control the vehicle within milliseconds of the software making its mistake.

1

surfnfish1972 Mar 18, 2026 +4

Just seems to help his stocks , se are cooked!

4

whitemiketyson Mar 18, 2026 +2

He's worth 800 billion dollars. I'd say it paid off.

2

Wonderful_Fox_7959 Mar 18, 2026 -2

Trump slashing EV spending is a good business model for Tesla since it will affect its competitors who were closer to catching up to them

-2

mgdmitch Mar 18, 2026 +12

It could be strongly argued that the only reason Tesla currently dominates the US EV market is because of US Government Protectionism. Heck, you could say that about most American car companies. I'm a firm believer that the reason US cars are awful is that the US government protects them from a lot of competition.

12

NevEP Mar 19, 2026 +1

Chicken tax, Mercedes builds Sprinters in Germany, ships them barely disassembled, they land in the Charleston port to be shipped to the factory 20 miles up to be reassembled but now they circumvent the tax. It's been around since the 60s. Toyota used to ship pickups without beds for this reason.

1

mgdmitch Mar 19, 2026

Are you claiming the only barrier to the US automotive market is the chicken tax? That's cute.

0

TwoPoundzaSausage Mar 18, 2026 +12

Objectively speaking, a 1998 Toyota Corolla is a far superior vehicle to anything Tesla ever made.

12

Logitech4873 Mar 18, 2026 +2

How so?

2

mgdmitch Mar 18, 2026 +72

I love the irony of Musk saying he wanted flush, touch controlled door handles was to make the car beautiful....on the ugliest vehicle ever produced.

72

raptorjaws Mar 18, 2026 +17

fr. it's pretty telling that the ones i see driving around my city all have a vinyl wrap on to cover that stupid ass stainless steel body

17

Slanerislana Mar 19, 2026 +3

also even if you find the stainless steel look appealing it is basically impossible to keep it looking good when it's not stored away safely in a cupboard like your pans are. Turns out flicking tiny stones at it, birds shitting on it, pollen residue and everything else that comes with being exposed to the elements means you're basically required to wrap it unless you want it to look like shit within the first year.

3

Punished_Prigo Mar 18, 2026 +15

I hate being anywhere near these things on the road. I don’t trust the vehicle or the judgement of the person driving it

15

rnilf Mar 18, 2026 +66

> “Trucks should be manly. They should be macho,” Musk told podcaster Joe Rogan in an October interview. “And bulletproof is maximum macho.” - > One in Harlingen, Texas, happened when a Cybertruck struck a fire hydrant, burst into flames and burned for hours. The other involved a Cybertruck towing a wood chipper in rural Colorado that caught fire and nearly started a brush fire – it took 30 firefighters to put out the blaze. I disagree, Elon. Trucks should be able to withstand hitting a fire hydrant without bursting into flames, Elon. Trucks should be able to tow a wood chipper without bursting into flames, Elon. Trucks should not trap people inside with a malfunctioning electronic door handle, Elon.

66

seriousbusinesslady Mar 18, 2026 +29

hey fellas, is it gay to wreck your truck and NOT die an agonizing death in an inferno? or burning to death after a fender bender to own the libs

29

Direct_Witness1248 Mar 18, 2026 +7

The way you say it is reminding me of the GTA Online Doomsday missions which feature "Avon Hertz" and his maniacal AI robot. Its a parody of Elon Musk, and only gets more relevant. It released in 2017 so was quite ahead of its time.

7

WorldofLoomingGaia Mar 18, 2026 +1

[ Removed by Reddit ]

1

PaulsRedditUsername Mar 18, 2026 +1

It's the most manly way of rolling coal.

1

CubitsTNE Mar 19, 2026 +2

Being the coal is the only way I roll.

2

montemanm1 Mar 18, 2026 +7

They are idiots, but they don't deserve to be trapped in a burning dumpster

7

DrooMighty Mar 18, 2026 +15

I wish there was a way to ban these things, originally because of how ugly they are and how much I despise Elon, but now we can add genuine concern for the safety of anyone driving one. Nobody deserves to get cooked alive like that, even if they do drive a douchey truck and financially support a balding impotent South African man child.

15

AggressiveSkywriting Mar 18, 2026 +12

And they're not just a danger to people driving them. Yeah, I did not sign up to have the lives of my family on the road be part of that dork's dangerous beta test powered entirely by divorced, angry manchildren.

12

Interesting_Tea_6734 Mar 18, 2026 +20

I wish ride-sharing apps had a "no Tesla" option. I only ended up in one once, but had to have the male driver let me out at my destination as I couldn't figure out how to exit on my own. Not a comforting situation.

20

Logitech4873 Mar 18, 2026

You couldn't figure out the button even after being told how to use it?

0

Blackdragon1400 Mar 18, 2026 -9

I’m sorry you couldn’t figure out how a door worked, it must have been traumatizing for you.

-9

Historical-View4058 Mar 18, 2026 +20

Modern-day Ford Pinto

20

Koladi-Ola Mar 18, 2026 +53

That's a slight on the Pinto. Pintos were at least affordable, reliable, useful transportation. The CyberDumpster is none of those things.

53

GetsBetterAfterAFew Mar 18, 2026 +12

Pintos were also so ugly they were cool, especially if you were around at that time, my mom said people liked the look of it, obviously she said a lot of people thought it was ugly. Very similar to the way the Corvair car which ironically was improperly labeled as unsafe at any speed.

12

Koladi-Ola Mar 18, 2026 +9

My sister had one, which she called the Explodaphone (after the Muppet Show instrument), and my friend had a wagon version, which didn't have the dangerous fuel tank problem. The coolest one, though, was the [Cruising Wagon](https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1977-ford-pinto-cruising-wagon).

9

seriousbusinesslady Mar 18, 2026 +6

>The coolest one, though, was the Cruising Wagon. oh shit that thing FUCKS.

6

Bent_Brewer Mar 18, 2026 +3

Yeah. I always liked that one.

3

gmkeros Mar 18, 2026 +5

Pintos never were as dangerous

5

Wonderful_Fox_7959 Mar 18, 2026 -7

It’s not Pinto bad isn’t?

-7

MortimerDongle Mar 18, 2026 +7

Far more fire deaths per car sold than the Pinto

7

datCASgoBRR Mar 18, 2026 +10

It's actually worse

10

Kendall_Raine Mar 18, 2026 +11

It's nuts to me that they tried to tout this thing as having bulletproof glass and shit. But you don't want a car's windows to be unbreakable, that is a huge safety hazard. The kind of people who drive cybertrucks aren't exactly living in poverty-stricken crime hotbeds either. They don't need bulletproof glass. They need a car that won't be impossible for first responders to get them out of when they crash the f****** thing.

11

personofshadow Mar 18, 2026 +4

But they are the type of people that either think the bulletproof windows makes them 'badass' or are easily convinced that antifa will get them if they don't have their own idiot tank.

4

Logitech4873 Mar 18, 2026 +1

They never claimed bulletproof glass.

1

Kendall_Raine Mar 19, 2026 +1

Then what was he trying to prove with [this?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udxR5rBq_Vg) Car glass that doesn't break would be a bad thing, whether he used the specific words "bulletproof" or not.

1

Logitech4873 Mar 19, 2026 +2

That the glass is tough. Just correcting you on the "bulletproof" claim, which isn't true.

2

tomtermite Mar 18, 2026 +3

The PRC, under the new regulations, has mandated cars will only be allowed to be sold if they have a mechanical release both on the inside and outside of their doors. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp37g5nxe3lo

3

Lemesplain Mar 19, 2026 +4

“This machine kills fascists.”

4

pongomanswe Mar 19, 2026 +3

It is the dumbest car ever made (and I include Homer Simpson’s The Homer in that) and was launched at a point in time when we knew full well how crazy Elon is. I would never set my foot in one and have no sympathy for people who do.

3

surfnfish1972 Mar 18, 2026 +5

Never should of been allowed on public roads. How about the scumbag move of Beta testing FSD on the public?

5

brmarcum Mar 18, 2026 +6

“If you are a parent and your teen has this car…” You’re. A. Bad. Parent.

6

marzipan07 Mar 18, 2026 +3

This is as much a failing on the so-called government safety regulators who allowed these designs to happen. If someone has been in a collision of such magnitude that the vehicle's airbag deploys, much less catches fire, they might not be in a state of mind to remember and perform a multi-step process to open a door. It needs to be one or two simple steps and that's it. I have a bone to pick with auto safety regulators going back to today's headlights that are either too bright or not angled properly. I don't know which it is, but, as the safety professionals, they ought to know and should be enforcing it.

3

SteelBox5 Mar 18, 2026 +3

I despise Tesla as much as the current US administration.

3

Angry_Walnut Mar 18, 2026 +3

They essentially seem as if they were designed with the intention of trapping people inside.

3

ApprehensivePay1735 Mar 19, 2026 +3

As long as there's no kids in the car if a cybertruck catches fire nothing of value is ever lost.

3

vox_populi75 Mar 18, 2026 +7

I have started to refuse any Teslas when ordering an Uber or Lyft.

7

Logitech4873 Mar 18, 2026 -1

Why not use normal taxi services instead of these shady ones?

-1

sealosam Mar 18, 2026 +4

How tf is "bulletproof" glass being allowed to be installed on consumer marketed passenger vehicles?

4

pocketMagician Mar 18, 2026 +6

The contradiction that is the fragile male superbadass needing a pretend tank to own the libs rated high with shareholders

6

acsmars Mar 18, 2026

You know you can just buy an armored car right? They’re expensive 3rd party rebuilds, but they’re perfectly legal.

0

sealosam Mar 18, 2026 +4

Yeah and they're are not mass marketed to the general public for driving to the family picnic or going to grandma's house. My question wasn't so much about the legality for the owner, it was an inquiry about basic passenger vehicle safety regulations that automakers are required to abide by.

4

Logitech4873 Mar 18, 2026

It's not bulletproof, and was never advertised as such.

0

SisterShiningRailGun Mar 18, 2026 +7

You couldn't pay me to get into one of those things. I stopped taking Uber because so many of them are Teslas and I didn't even want to ride in a regular Tesla.

7

Slamantha3121 Mar 18, 2026 +3

These things are a menace to society! I can't believe they are allowed on the road!

3

personofshadow Mar 18, 2026 +1

They're probably not in some places outside of America.

1

Blackdragon1400 Mar 18, 2026 -5

What exactly do they do? Cause all the articles about crash safety have been debunked as far as I can tell.

-5

Jae_Rides_Apes Mar 18, 2026 +4

Natural selection at work.

4

Honeycove91 Mar 18, 2026 +3

I am going to assume the two folks that downvoted you are Tesla Cybertruck owners and I will go ahead and openly challenge them or literally anyone upset by your comment to provide a better example of Natural Selection in the modern day than this exact situation.

3

Logitech4873 Mar 18, 2026 -2

Deaths in a Cybertruck are still extremely rare. Calling it natural selection is a bit weird when were talking about a handful of crashes, and mostly passengers.

-2

MichaelHunt009 Mar 18, 2026 +1

Cybertruck? Na, I'm holding out for the 2027 IED model.

1

DaveVdE Mar 19, 2026 +1

Is this about a real crash or Tesla stocks?

1

ketamineonthescene Mar 20, 2026 +1

I feel terrible for these people and their families. But not as terrible as I would feel if they weren't driving Cybertrucks.

1

phosdick Mar 20, 2026 +1

A very sad consequence of buying a car from Musk, an alleged man whose high praise for the vehicles was couched as... >“Trucks should be manly. They should be macho...” “...And bulletproof is maximum macho.”

1

gottatrusttheengr Mar 18, 2026 -16

Now that fuel prices are whack and legacy automakers are withdrawing from EVs, media is back to drumming up hysteria around EV fires like good ole 2018.

-16

Direct_Witness1248 Mar 18, 2026 +13

Tsk tsk you didn't read the article.

13

gottatrusttheengr Mar 18, 2026 -15

Oh I did. Several things are conveniently glossed over, exaggerated and sensationalized, some quick examples. The bay area crash is reported "for reasons unknown". The reason is plenty known, the driver was a drunk kid who plowed into a tree per CHP. This IMO is straight up egregious reporting meant to insinuate some malfunction in the truck caused the crash. Article spent a good amount of real estate blabbering about the amount of water needed to extinguish fires and the potential for reignition which is common to any BEV or PHEV, not some unique cyber truck or Tesla quirk. Laminated windows are again not an exotic Tesla feature. They have been commonplace in premium/luxury cars for decades now because of superior sound damping which reduces driver fatigue. This was also sensationalized by media when Chao's sister drowned in a Model X. Neither is stainless steel. Standard hydraulic rescue tools make short work of the thin exterior steel panels on the cyber truck. The actual frame is still aluminum. If your rescue team wasn't capable of cutting through a cyber truck door you'd be screwed in a standard aluminum car door too.

-15

Direct_Witness1248 Mar 18, 2026 +11

We must have read a different article because those were not the main points at all. Nice cherry picking with the drunk driver, but why the accident occurred isn't the point at all, its about the higher rate of safety issues and fatalities compared to other EVs. They didn't say laminated windows were exclusive to Tesla. But seeing as you bring it up, do you know for a fact that the CT windows are the same as the other ones you are referring to? I don't remember those cars being marketed as "bulletproof".

11

gottatrusttheengr Mar 18, 2026 -9

The article's point is that these fires and fatalities are the result of unique design features and uses all of the above sensationalized information to support that. Which is why their relevance needs to be disputed. The door panels are bullet "resistant" to some low power handgun size munitions. The windows are not. A true bullet proof window is about an inch thick. In the gunfire tests they never showed the window resisting firearms. There's only 2 auto glass OEMs that make the vast majority of auto glass used in the US, Fuyao and SG, Tesla is no exception and gets their standard formulation. There is no magic bulletproof glass in a passenger car thickness format.

-9

Direct_Witness1248 Mar 18, 2026 +6

Why did you think I put bulletproof in quotes... Talk about wasting real estate. I was expected a sensationalised article when I opened it, but it seems to be more data driven. I must have missed the part about how much water was used, don't remember seeing that. Maybe we did read a different article.

6

gottatrusttheengr Mar 18, 2026 -3

Yes, it's also the same laminated windows used by BMW, Audi or Lexus. So it really should be something that any rescue team is prepared for. There's almost zero data driven discussion in the article. It doesn't even establish a baseline fire rate for gas cars, with or without collision involved.

-3

towishimp Mar 18, 2026 +11

What about the part where it's nearly impossible to get out of the burning car?

11

gottatrusttheengr Mar 18, 2026 -6

Impossible according to what? I can demonstrate egress within 15 seconds in any Tesla vehicle from any passenger position with electrical power cutoff. The doors and handles are not the problem. The problem is that high speed collisions frequently jam door pins and locking mechanisms, on any car or any brand. We've had Jaws of life and other hydraulic rescue devices for decades, for this exact reason, and it affects all cars.

-6

towishimp Mar 18, 2026 +11

Okay, impossible was an exaggeration. But finding a concealed emergency handle is an order of magnitude more difficult than yanking the door handle. >I can demonstrate egress within 15 seconds in any Tesla vehicle from any passenger position with electrical power cutoff. Sure, because you're informed and not panicking. Easy to write that on the Internet, not when you're involved in an emergency. Why are you stanning so hard for Tesla?

11

gottatrusttheengr Mar 18, 2026 -4

The driver/front emergency release is not concealed, at all. It's directly in front of the window switch and is the largest item on the entire door control panel. The rear release being underneath a labelled rubber mat is a more debatable topic. The tradeoff here is likely to prevent a small child from pulling it, so it functionally would be same as any other car with child lock enabled. But the only crash and fire in this article where rear seat passengers were involved was the drunk driver crash. The question you should ask is, why are journalism standards subpar for anything EV or Tesla related? How much of your news media consumption is funded by fossil fuel interests and dealerships?

-4

towishimp Mar 18, 2026 +3

>The question you should ask is, why are journalism standards subpar for anything EV or Tesla related? How much of your news media consumption is funded by fossil fuel interests and dealerships? It's really not that complicated. Musk is a lightning rod, so people hate his company. Tesla also has made some pretty awful choices when it comes to safety, as the article points out, for no other reason than "Elon thought it would be cool." Did you notice that the article was mostly about Teslas, not EVs in general?

3

evocativename Mar 18, 2026 +6

Make all the sorry excuses you want, none of them change the fact that the Cybertruck has 10x the likelihood of having a fatal fire **compared to a Ford Pinto**.

6

Logitech4873 Mar 18, 2026

What's the source for this?

0

evocativename Mar 18, 2026 +1

The underlying data is public, but AFAIK it was first reported on [here](https://fuelarc.com/evs/its-official-the-cybertruck-is-more-explosive-than-the-ford-pinto/)

1

Logitech4873 Mar 18, 2026

Yeah because the fuel arc thing is famously pretty damn terrible haha. It's a blog source, and it's based on 2 crashes and a suicide bombing. Yes, they included the trump hotel suicide bombing. Needless to say, 2 crashes do not make for very good statistics. Now that the CT has been out for longer and sold way more units, it's probably possible to figure out the statistics a little bit better. Should be easy enough as every Cybertruck crash is international news.

0

evocativename Mar 18, 2026 +1

They aren't the source of the numbers, and the number of Cybertrucks sold since then aren't enough to meaningfully matter - even if the number of fatal fires since then were *zero* it would still be >10x worse than the pinto. Use your brain for critical thinking, not for desperately flailing to justify handwaving away information that hurts your feelings.

1

Logitech4873 Mar 18, 2026

> They aren't the source of the numbers, and the number of Cybertrucks sold since then aren't enough to meaningfully matter The amount of CTs sold today are about 60K units, which is almost twice of what was sold when the article was posted. But you're right that this doesn't matter, because the crash data is too low. > even if the number of fatal fires since then were zero it would still be 10x worse than the pinto. Do you genuinely not see the issue here? A mass market vehicle that sold millions will have accurate statistics available, while a low volume car can have its statistics altered extremely by just one crash. Two high speed crashes is obviously not enough data to make any accurate claims about statistical safety of the truck. Ideally you want a few dozen events for it to be statistically significant. With low volume vehicles, you'll usually just never get enough data for this. With only 2 events, the uncertainty in the true rate is so large that the estimate is not statistically meaningful. Look up the Poisson model. Imagine if you have a coin that you suspect is biased and will land heads more often than tails. If you flip the coin only two times, you still have no idea if the coin is actually biased.

0

evocativename Mar 18, 2026 -1

1. If you assume the number of Cybertrucks has doubled since then and there have been zero fatal fires since then, that takes it from almost 20x as deadly as a pinto to almost 10x as deadly as a pinto (and you might note my statement was 10x not 17x), which I think qualifies as "not meaningfully different. Hence my statement. 2. [It *is* statistically significant](https://www.someweekendreading.blog/cybertruck-vs-pinto/). See, you're doing exactly what I was saying you **shouldn't** do - mental gymnastics because reality hurts your feelings. So, to reiterate: > Use your brain for critical thinking, not for desperately flailing to justify handwaving away information that hurts your feelings.

-1

TwoPoundzaSausage Mar 18, 2026 +2

Some drunk dude in my town ran over a fire hydrant, too. Except his car didn't burst into flame and cook him alive.

2

Hilda_aka_Math Mar 18, 2026 -2

ever think that might just be the ones that were going against the fuhrer and complaining about the failure of the ”truck”?

-2

Inside the fiery, deadly crashes involving the Tesla Cybertruck

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