A Mistake in a Tesla and a Panicked Final Call: The Death of Angela Chao - From WSJ

[question everything]

McConnell's late sister in law. She drove her Tesla into a pond and could not be rescued on time. From the story:

A driver has about one minute to get out of a car sinking into water. When vehicles were made with more manual mechanics, a driver could crank down the window to get out, though it would still require a clarity of mind often elusive in an emergency. In newer cars, like the Tesla Model X vehicle, the driver might have seconds to push the button to roll the window down before the water level rises too high. After that, the only mode of exit would be by breaking it, say auto safety experts.

That is terribly difficult underwater and can be even more so when trying to bash through tempered glass or sturdier laminated glass, which most car companies use today. Those are the two types of glass that Tesla may have used in its 2020 Model X, according to company documents. Laminated glass, in particular, is lauded for its safety qualities, such as preventing a driver from being ejected during a crash; however it is nearly impossible to break underwater, according to testing done by the American Automobile Association.

https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/angela-chao-death-texas-tesla-safety-c435daa0?st=qk4737ufq7ax6n9&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

(free)

We have been carrying these hammers in our cars for many year



but it appears that they may not work with this new kind of glass...

[Old Crank]

1. The two glass types are radicaly different

Tempered glass, usually used on side windows, breaks into small fairly regular little pieces. You see these ont eh road side when some one has broken a window to get in. Most house patio windows are tempered. the glass won't cut you if you bash into it and it brakes.

Laminated has a sheet of plastic between 2 layers of glass. That makes it hard to go trhough it on impacpt. If used on side windows those glass breaking devices will not destroy the layer of plastic enough to get through. Why you also don't want to use it on patio window or house windo glass. You can sustain major cuts from the large shards left over.

Using laminated on car side windows is not a good thing.