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[–] 50 points 4 months ago (5 children)

Fires that entrap passengers are a well-documented and recurring problem with every model in Tesla’s lineup of vehicles, but Cybertrucks appear to have a disproportionate number of known deaths. Safety experts have told the Guardian that the truck’s unique design amplifies the deadly issue. The vehicles come with high-density laminated windows that are harder to break than regular car windows, making escape and rescue difficult when doors won’t unlock. And the trucks are built with materials not commonly used in the industry, like stainless steel, which can complicate the work of emergency responders. The Cybertruck is also the first Tesla model to entirely eliminate door handles on the outside of the vehicle.

First, "unique" design? It's an ugly callback to the wedge-shaped cars of the 80s. It looks like a DeLorean model that refused to render properly, and the dev just went with it.

Second, the decision to exclude door handles is fucking mental. It's a mundane feature that cars have had since the Model T. If they wanted to make a pickup, its handles should resemble those found on a typical pickup. If it's "aesthetics" they're after (which shouldn't matter when it comes to a pickup), some of the best looking cars have had no problem including door handles into its design.

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  • [–] 39 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    The reason to eliminate door handles that Tesla and others typically give is aerodynamic efficiency. Granted there are other bigger aerodynamic problems. gestures at the rest of the fucking truck

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  • [–] 12 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    aerodynamic efficiency

    For internal door handles?

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  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago

    That's just nonsense justification they came up with after the fact. Ferraris have door handles, so clearly they're not much of an issue.

    Anyway the car isn't going to exceed 80 miles an hour anyways so aerodynamics barely comes into it.

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  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    The improvement removing the handles is there, but negligible. Especially considering the safety implications. Didn't China ban flush door handles for safety reasons?

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago

    Didn’t China ban flush door handles for safety reasons?

    Yeah, but that literally just happened last month and doesn't take effect until January 2027. It's not like they did that years ago because they saw it coming.

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Fires that entrap passengers are a well-documented and recurring problem with every model in Tesla’s lineup of vehicles

    How is this a perfectly valid statement about the worlds richest man's car company without us beating him to death with hammers/ seeing how many of those baseball sized steel balls he can handle?

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago

    “Unique” here refers to the fact that every other car is built pretty much the same way in as much first responders are concerned, and that makes them predictable and fairly easy to get out of while cybertrucks are strong enough and door-handleless enough to be incredibly dangerous(while also not being strong enough to do most of what they promise).

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