To their peril, the fields of architecture and industrial design increasingly prize novelty over function. Frank Gehry’s design for the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health—which was designed to treat people suffering from neurological conditions—famously made patients feel vertigo, nausea and disorientation.
Image: Monster4711, CC BY-SA 3.0
As for industrial design, it’s one thing to design a neat-looking, difficult-to-use hair dryer. But in the automotive space, adding novel features purely for cool factor can have deadly consequences. I’ve already written about two instances (here and here) in which needlessly new designs for shifters may have led to two deaths.
This week China has banned flush, electronically-operated door handles. First popularized by Tesla with their 2012 Model S, and subsequently copied by a number of manufacturers including Chinese ones, the handles can lose power in the event of an accident or battery failure.
While Tesla does provide mechanical overrides on the inside of the vehicle, their locations are unintuitive and concealed, prizing aesthetics over function. Look at their locations:
Model S, front seats
Model S, rear seats
Model Y, front seats
Model Y, rear seats
The burden is on the vehicle’s occupants to learn where these are. In the event of a crash, where you may be concussed, could you execute the three-step sequence for the Model Y’s rear seats?
Worse, there is no mechanical override on the outside of the vehicle. This means, in the event the vehicle’s occupants are rendered unconscious in a crash that has cut power, the exterior handles cannot be opened. While first responders should have equipment to break the glass and pull the occupants out, bystanders, who may be on scene quicker, will have no such equipment nor training.
China passed the new law following a series of highly-covered, grisly fatalities involving the Xiaomi SU7. Last year, in two different crashes the cars burst into flames. Power was cut to the doors, and neither the occupants nor bystanders were able to open them. A man and three female university students burned to death inside of the vehicles before first responders could free them.
The U.S., too, has suffered such incidents. Following a Cybertruck crash in California, three teenagers were unable to locate the hidden manual door releases, and burned to death inside of the vehicle.
Cybertruck, front seats
Cybertruck, rear seats
And in Texas, Angela Chao accidentally backed her Tesla Model X into a pond (reportedly confused by the shifter design; she’d made the ‘reverse’ error before). Unable to locate the mechanical overrides, she called friends for help. When first responders arrived, they were unable to open the doors, and could not break through the Model X’s reinforced laminated glass, despite trying for an hour. Chao drowned to death inside the vehicle.
Ironically, Chao was the sister of Elaine Chao, the former U.S. Secretary of Transportation.
China’s new law specifies that all car door handles must have a grippable open space of 60mm (2.36″) W x 20mm (0.79″) H x 25mm (0.98″) D and be operable even without electric power. Interior manual releases can no longer be hidden under carpets or panels; they must be clearly visible, labeled with permanent signage, and located within 300mm (11.81″) of the door edge. Manufacturers have until January 1st, 2027 to comply.