Tesla warns owners that opening their doors or windows while installing a software update could damage the vehicle, so she stayed put.

According to the Tesla owner’s manual, “Vehicle functions, including some safety systems and opening or closing the doors or windows, may be limited or disabled when installation is in progress and you could damage the vehicle.” Janel chose to heed Tesla’s warning and did not attempt to open her doors or windows during the installation process for fear of damaging her vehicle, but this seems like a very dangerous oversight on Tesla’s part that she was able to be stuck inside at all.

The door mechanisms on the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y are electrically operated, and under normal circumstances are opened from the inside using a simple button to unlatch the door. Should the vehicle have no power, these models do have auxiliary manual cable release levers also found on the door panel, but Tesla warns against using the manual mechanism, citing that it should only be used when the car has no power. Janel said she was aware of this option but didn’t want to risk damaging her car, and she felt confident that she could stick out the heat.

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The Tesla owners manual states that the car will not initiate a software update if Keep Climate mode, Dog Mode, Sentry Mode or Camp Mode are engaged, but it fails to require vehicle occupants to exit the vehicle before the debilitating installation process begins. Tesla also recommends owners install software updates as soon as possible, which could cause some owners to feel obligated to initiate an update in a compromised environment.

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Janel said her car estimated the install would only take 24 minutes, but it actually took 40 minutes, which was long enough for her car’s interior to reach 115 degrees. In a follow-up video, her caption states that she was afraid to mess up her car by getting out during the installation.

So maybe she was not doing the smartest thing by choosing not to damage her car even when it was getting dangerously hot, but considering how expensive Teslas are and how easy it is to violate their EULA, I can’t really fault her as much as I fault Tesla.

  • @[email protected]
    10•3 months ago

    Not that it negates your statement, but my mother was always opposed to “bells and whistles.” She claimed that the more features there were, the more there was to break. We never had a car with windows that weren’t manually operated and our appliances were always the most basic. She didn’t live to see modern smart homes, but she would have been thoroughly opposed to the concept.

    I share some of her opinion, but I think more balanced (and I don’t think her position would have been sustainable in today’s world anyway).

    Edit: corrected a word.

    • @[email protected]
      3•3 months ago

      She almost certainly had seen her own Smart Home ads.

      example 2 example 3.

      Every decade or so, some company that wants to “vendor lock in” your whole home comes along with a new suite of appliances. Expect to see all those refrigerators with smart screens to be blank in ten years. At least some of those have raspberry pis that could be reformatted or harvested.

    • @[email protected]
      1•2 months ago

      I’m not one to oppose electric windows on a car, but I’ve certainly managed to avoid touchscreens so far (going as new as 2019 in my current/last Mercedes, even - unfortunately they ruined everything and went all-in on touch shortly afterwards).

      I’d rather spend the extra money on more horsepower or a better suspension than on a crappy infotainment system that only ever shows the Carplay loading message and then is replaced by Carplay.