If there’s a lesson I can impart to all of you today it’s that when you strap yourself into any vehicle of any kind for the first time the first thing you should do is to learn how to quickly get out of it. This is true for trains, planes, submarines, race cars, and especially for newer passenger cars. Modern cars and trucks often have power door handles and, when those fail, you might find yourself trapped in an emergency situation.
This advice is mostly for regular people going about their regular days, but I suppose it also applies to would-be criminals. A story from Miami this week caught my attention because an alleged car thief found himself caught with his hand in the figurative cookie jar. Though, in this case, the cookie jar was a new C7 Corvette, and his hand was his whole body.
You can see it all play out it in this video from Miami news station WPLG (embedded below or linked here if the embed doesn’t work):
In the video you can hear Julio Solano, the owner of the car, walking up to his C7 Corvette and finding the alleged car thief rooting around below the steering wheel.
“My brother, this is not your car, this is my car,” Solano says.
“Can I get out?” the man pleads, as he sits up behind the wheel.
“No you can’t get out, we [are] calling the cops.”
This is a little sad if I’m being honest. Stealing is wrong and you might find some schadenfreude in the fact that a possible crook got caught in the most embarrassing way possible, but the guy in the car doesn’t seem like an experienced criminal (we’re not naming him because he’s apparently a first-time offender and, according to the report, homeless). The cops arrived shortly after and Solano was able to film the police opening the door and arresting the man.
I’m not sure how he got into the car and locked himself in, though there’s a clue in the Corvette’s owner’s manual:
Young children who get into unlocked vehicles may be unable to get out. A child can be overcome by extreme heat and can suffer permanent injuries or even death from heat stroke.
We’ve asked before if anyone even likes these power door handles, as they create a huge risk both of accidental damage and of people being trapped in cars. If you’re reading this because you think it’s funny a potential crook got popped, keep reading because it might save your life if your car loses power and you need to get out of it in a hurry.
Here are instructions for the Corvette, from the manual, if you’re curious:
The door release is on the floor under the seat on both the passenger and driver side.
What if you’re in a Tesla? This is probably the most common car with this issue and, because of the popularity of these vehicles with Uber drivers, the one you’re most likely to be in the backseat of. If you’re in the front, the design is fairly straightforward, but it’s much harder for rear passengers as demonstrated in this video:
As Tesla points out, opening the rear door in an emergency requires removing the little mat in the door pocket. The guy in the video suggests just climbing into the front seat in an emergency, though that’s not always an option.
So, there you go. This alleged car thief found out the hard way that modern cars can easily trap you inside if you don’t know what you’re doing. You get to find out the easy way by reading a blog post.
Just remember to look for the release the next time you get into an unfamiliar car.
I thought electric door release buttons were a crazy dangerous system back when the C6 first introduced them in the Corvette. I’m shocked to learn today that they have continued using them to present day with the C8.
That’s a C8, not a C7. You can tell because of the way that it is.
The more you know! Thanks for the tip!! I hear they changed where the engine is or something?
C7 Corvette? Ah well, it’s not like a car website would know the difference between a C7 and a C8 Corvette. They do look incredibly similar after all.
“the guy in the car doesn’t seem like an experienced criminal (we’re not naming him because he’s apparently a first-time offender and, according to the report, homeless)”
He’s experienced now. Stop codling shit bag criminals.
“We’re not naming him but heres a picture of his face.”
I don’t like power door handles. Getting caught that way is pretty funny.
Dude was caught in the act, and you are not a prosecutor or have a legal obligation to fake presumed innocence. You don’t need to use the word “alleged” throughout.
when you’re publishing for public consumption, with or without charging for content, it’s not a good idea to start forgetting the “alleged”. This subject will probably never see the article or have the means or need to take action, but libel laws do exist.
I’m still trying to envision a scenario in which I would want to rapidly evacuate from a submarine. I guess if it’s already on the surface and quickly performing an uncontrolled descent?
It happens all the time during an overhaul in a drydock. Sometimes drills, sometimes someone had to pull an alarm.
“I’m still trying to envision a scenario in which I would want to rapidly evacuate from a submarine”
A reactor breech, seawater in the batteries, you just found out the sub is made of discount carbon fiber, the predictable aftereffects of burrito Tuesday, fucking Todd won’t stop playing Barry Manilow,..
The list of potential reasons is endless. The real question is why would you go on a sub in the first place?
How can you arrest me for stealing your car when I wasn’t able to steal your car? Solid argument. Let me go!
I like the “For what?” he did. Umm breaking into my car with the intent to steal.
Oh, you are going to trash it? Insurance will cover that add more charges.
after being forced into knowledge about some things on the internet, I don’t like the thumbnail from that last video
Towards the other end of the technological scale, I’m finding of late that more of my first-time passengers are confused by the manual window cranks in my vehicles and have been trying to use them to open the doors.
I haven’t had that happen but when we had a car with manual windows and locks the kids we carpooled with circa 2013 were fascinated by the cranks but never locked the door because they were accustomed to power locks. Putting modern kids in a 2CV would be interesting
Or 80’s Wartburg, for several reasons, but esp. the doorhandles: round plastic things, literally door knobs, that you have to slide backwards, after you first figure out their function. As they are quite high up on the door, you would think they were window-related, and being round, it would make sense to rotate or pull. Even though there is a hint: a groove/channel in the door.
My parents told me that when I was a couple of years old (like 33 years ago now) the first time I got into an old truck with crank windows, I was so perplexed as to how to roll the windows down. Once they showed me and I figured it out, I wouldn’t stop putting them up and down.
Man. I am the opposite of you. I thought power windows were a novelty. My parents would yell at us to not run them up and down because we would “wear out the motor”. I didn’t own a vehicle with power windows until 2008 when my 95 Chevy S10 was replaced with a 99 Jeep XJ.
Wonder how this advanced door handle technology works if you launch the car into a lake. I think nowadays euroncap gives points based on this scenario, but in practice? How does the car know that the doors should be unlocked, when wet? And do they all unlock, every time, 100 %, when they get wet?
”Please yank the cables hidden in the secret compartment, then try to push the doors open and instruct the rear seat occupants on the correct procedure.”
Driver after landing in lake: “Can you get the 1,856 page manual and find the chapter on how to exit the vehicle? It’s in the glovebox.”
Passenger: “It won’t open!”
Driver: “Oh, shit, yeah, we have to open it through the touchscreen and that just went out!”
Passenger, panicking: “Break a window!”
Driver, escalating the panic: “We can’t, it’s triple laminated glass for sound insulation!”
[Ping Ping Ping]
Passenger: “What the hell is that?!”
Driver, accepting fate: “I can’t tell because the screen went out, but I think it’s the water entry alert. In case the water up to our chests wasn’t obvious.”
Passenger, outright grateful to be dying: “Screw this world and everyone in it.”
Wait, I’ll download the PDF of the manual – crap, my phone’s wet….
This happened to a woman several months ago. Her Tesla accelerated into a pond, and she couldn’t get out. Her husband is a Tesla stan, so he didn’t press an investigation. At least one article questioned whether the electric door latches failed, so she couldn’t get out.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/03/14/a
If this is Angela Chao you are talking about, she was super drunk at the time. Her BAC was .233. Probably why her husband didn’t push for an investigation.
She probably would have been able to get out of a normal car, however.
I agree on both accounts.
If you know her BAC there is no point for her husband to suppress an investigation.
Allegedly he didn’t press for an investigation into Tesla, not an investigation into her death more generally. I didn’t mean to imply that he was trying to hide her BAC but that it’s really hard to make a case against Tesla when the driver never should have been driving in the condition they were in, even if the outcome would have likely been different in a normal car.
The only thing that matters is whether it can be shown her death was likely the result of door that wouldn’t open due to an easily preventable design flaw. If she was blacked out when she hit the water and stayed that way till she drowned that’s one thing but if she died trying to claw her way out that’s on Tesla.
What advantage does this electric door release BS confer? They still need to make a manual release, so I don’t see how it’s cheaper, not to mention liability when someone dies (does the owner’s manual disclosing this danger absolve them of responsibility if some kid is intent on winning hide-and-go-seek and dies?). Is there some large population of jackasses demanding this, threatening to not buy the car without it?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/06/11/texas-man-dog-die-trapped-corvette/71053474/
Wouldn’t be the first time someone died due to this design.
Not to mention Mitch McConnell’s sister-in-law.
There is no advantage at all, besides allowing the automaker to brag about being advanced and disruptive in another way
If I were the thief, I bet I could come up with all sorts of things to do inside that car to get the guy to let me out before the cops showed up.
I’m sure he had his phone, if he signed onto a porn site and pulled down his pants, I’d open the door immediately.
If I was the owner, I’d ask the thief if anybody knew he was there. “No? Then hold on, I’ll be right back with some police grade zip ties and a sawzall”.
Sure just pile on the charges from the arresting officers. Good plan.
More like a concept of a plan …
Why must we reinvent the wheel for the sake of being different and cutting edge? God, I’m an engineer but also a late adopter of tech (maybe my 25+ yr industrial maintenance and reliability career). I prefer simple, proven systems that work every time. This is beyond a “Mercedes Benz answer to a Chevrolet problem” and simply obscene.
I call this kind of thing ‘reinventing the wheel, and making it square’. It is something new just to be different, and is worse in every way.
This is Patrick Star stupid, Philip J. Fry stupid, Ralph Wiggum stupid, and Tow-Mater stupid all rolled into one. No electronically-controlled doors EVER!
The owner should have pulled up a chair and made awkward small talk with the guy while waiting for the police. If he hates small talk to kill time as much as I do it would be pure torture.
See the problem for me would be it would be more torturous for me than for the dude trapped in the car. Now pulling up a chair and just staring awkwardly, now that I could do!
Yo dawg, that’s a C8
You know it’s bad when the stupidest thing about this isn’t the attempted thief being caught in the car.
These idiotic electronic buttons and bullshit are dangerous. Bring back door handles that never should have gone away in the first place.
While door handles are obviously more important and a legitimate safety concern, while we are on the subject, bring back glove box handles! Too many new cars have the stupid glove box release only available via touchscreen and it’s just stupid. People need to stop doing things in the name of innovation that just serve to make life more difficult for everyone.
That’s definitely a C8, not a C7. Electronic door buttons like this are incredibly stupid.
Agreed. But at least they have never killed anyone. Oh wait…
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/06/11/texas-man-dog-die-trapped-corvette/71053474/