A cautionary tale: 72-Year-Old & His Dog Die In Hot Car After Power Locks Malfunction

[RVTravel]

A corvette cockpit is very small too. At 72 years you are not as flexible to move around. Sad.

 

[highdesertranger]

electronic gizmos, bah. this is a sad story that never would have happen in an older vehicle with manual door locks. on our ranch the newer fords will not open with the inside handle if the doors are locked. they do still have the knob you can pull up, but they are hard to get ahold of. I hate electronic gizmos. I say this as I am typing on my laptop. go figure. highdesertranger

 

[ZoNiE]

I think the vette's windows are frameless, so they move down a bit when you open and close the doors? My wife's old Lexus ES300 did this. In that car it was nearly unnoticeable, but in others it is obvious. Perhaps they got stuck or didn't move, and he didn't think to shoulder butt the door to open it?

I would've kicked the F*cker open, or the glass out, but that's me.

Just so sad.

 

[ccbreder]

http://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...sion/2733969-my-driver-s-door-won-t-open.html

It is a known problem on the Vette forums.

That information on the forums is opening the doors from the outside. This guy was inside the car. Story still smells funny.

 

[GotSmart]

That information on the forums is opening the doors from the outside. This guy was inside the car. Story still smells funny.

[font=verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif]"so I assume it's not a battery issue."[/font]

[font=verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif]That is from the first post on the thread.  Other posts address the issue.  In other words, the battery problem is taken for granted.  As are the issues of the pads corroding, the switches not working, and the number of problems taken for granted by people wanting the status of having a Vette!  [/font]

[font=verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif]kind of reminds me of discussions about the newer full size motor homes.  [/font]

[font=verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The problem was a failure of the battery connection, causing a complete failure of all electronic parts.  Everything on the newer Vets is electronic.  The manual door latch is located on the floor in a basically hidden location.  Another design flaw from GM.  Kind of like the keys that turned off because they had a large slot where people put them on the key ring, and added a lb of other keys on the same ring.  More than 100 people known dead from that little recall.[/font]

 

[Canine]

I would've kicked the F*cker open, or the glass out, but that's me.

Just so sad.

Being in a Corvette is like being in an airplane cockpit. Anyone who can wriggle around to kick out a window is pretty dextrous. Kicking a window out is very hard. I doubt a 73-year-old man could do that assuming he could move his stiff, old body in that awkward position. If the window wasn't all the way up, he may have had some sort of chance.

 

[East]

Damn, this is just depressing as hell. I wouldn't want to own any vehicle that refused to open from the inside with the electronic locks engaged. My 2000 E150 does open from the inside with the locks engaged. It doesn't do that auto lock crap when you start driving either which used to annoy me so much in my Monte.

 

[LeeRevell]

My 2005 Grand Caravan does 'autolock' at 18MPH, but I can still open the door merely by..... opening the door. I too would not have a vehicle without this feature, for exactly the reason this old gent had. Sometimes we tend to make our machines TOO danged 'smart'.
The autolock feature, like the 'child safety locks' on the sliding side doors, can be deactivated on my overhead control panel. I have almost all the 'automatic' stuff that I can deactivated.
Same as I have always deactivated all the annoying auto features in a computer..... auto-correct, auto word select, spell checker, grammar checker, etc. (Though this laptop seems to not give me this ability to do this. Win8.1, <sigh....>)

 

[cyndi]

  I have almost all the 'automatic' stuff that I can deactivated.

 And if the car had no power, what would happen? Everything goes to default? Which is what?

I agree. Our stuff is way to smart. And this is the plan, to make us into a bunch of non thinking sheeple.

But, I digress...

 

[LeeRevell]

 And if the car had no power, what would happen? Everything goes to default? Which is what?

I agree. Our stuff is way to smart. And this is the plan, to make us into a bunch of non thinking sheeple.

But, I digress...

<Chuckle.....>  If power drops out......   it ain't gonna work no how!  So what's the difference?  

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I think what cyndi is asking is: What is the condition of the settings when the power is restored?  Does it return to the factory defaults or retain your settings?

-- Spiff

 

[LeeRevell]

Some reset and soe don't. I have to reset the clock and radio. And sometimes the AC. But the programmed things like lights and locks stay as I set them. Likely depends on the vehicle.

 

[cyndi]

<Chuckle.....>  If power drops out......   it ain't gonna work no how!  So what's the difference?  

Yes. that was my point, exactly.

 

[HarmonicaBruce]

The shame of it is no doubt lawyers will get involved. The car is a 2007, and I've never heard of this happening. How likely is it that someone will get in car, and lose power while they're in it with the windows up? I'm sure there are stickers on the car that say to read the owner's manual, but lawyers don't care.

 

[LeeRevell]

That's why you always want a manual safety override for any electric gizmo that could cause a life threatening problem. Or drive a vehicle without the dangerous electronic gimcrackery.
I say that as a guy who has worked with electric/electronic systems since high school - some forty-odd years.