Technology Gone Terribly Wrong

[Exavior]

The sales person is supposed to do that anyway as part of the sales process....and even if they didn't all new cars come with what we like to call "the mystery book"..Its in the glove box and it explains all the features of the car, and how to operate them.

all that aside, I dont care how old or young you are, if your stupid enough to get locked inside your own car, you really do deserve to die there.

I have never had them explain that stuff to me, so I wouldn't say they are supposed to do that. I do agree with you about the stupid enough to get stuck in your car part

According to the article, the owners manual was inside the house, so they didn't have access to it. Not that they should even need to read the manual in order to know how to operate a standard automobile door handle.

That said there is nothing complex about the locks to start with so if they couldn't figure them out they must need the book.

 

[AFD]

I'm a firm believer that, especially in the front seats, pulling the handle should open the door. Period. I don't care if the the car is on, off or doing 120mph. The damn door latch should operate if you pull the handle.

The Mazda 3's owner manual has a warning stating that opening the door latch should actually open the door..

https://www.mymazda.com/MusaWeb/pdf/manuals/2014_MAZDA3_OM.pdf

 

[rudy]

People in their 60s are not prone to "dementia." Get that out of your head right now.

And this was confusing enough to mess with not just ONE person, but BOTH of them.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love tech. And I'm all for being [H]ard. But when you need to be a tech enthusiast to understand your car's door locks we have gone WAY over the shark tank.

When a couple who is merely in their 60s can't figure out how to get OUT of a car we have a major, major problem with cars... not the couple who got confused.

It doesn't matter whether WE find it easy or not.

I'm a firm believer that, especially in the front seats, pulling the handle should open the door. Period. I don't care if the the car is on, off or doing 120mph. The damn door latch should operate if you pull the handle. And there should always be mechanical operation that doesn't require power. Period. It's a DOOR. It doesn't need, and should never need, a dozen electronic layers of crap to function.

Ask yourself honestly what do you think is more likely to kill more people. A door that requires you to unlock it first, and above there is a picture of this door it is VERY standard for any car built in the last 15 years. Or some kid or person accidentally opening a door at 70 mph on the highway. IMO there is a way higher chance of someone especially a kid accidently getting killed because they opened a door while a car was moving than the above scenario.

If you read the article this was a story of an unbelievable amount of stupid events all aligning vs someone accidentally pulling a handle in a car. A they some how left the car unlocked - 2 people, B they somehow got in it without keys - again two people, C they somehow took the manual out of its usual place and left it in the house, D after doing all this they some how get in the car and lock it. E they cannot find the unlock button sitting right out in the open right on the door, F they somehow cannot break the windows. More people win the lottery than have that many stupid events in a row take place. They didn't need to be a tech enthusiasts all they had to do was find the unlock button that was right near the door handle where it is on every car.

 

[evilsofa]

I'm a firm believer that, especially in the front seats, pulling the handle should open the door. Period. I don't care if the the car is on, off or doing 120mph. The damn door latch should operate if you pull the handle. And there should always be mechanical operation that doesn't require power. Period. It's a DOOR. It doesn't need, and should never need, a dozen electronic layers of crap to function.

I suppose you don't have kids of a certain age. Also, the door in question:

 

[AFD]

They didn't need to be a tech enthusiasts all they had to do was find the unlock button that was right near the door handle where it is on every car.

Iirc, my 2010 Mitsubishi for USDM with electronic locks will mechanically unlock the driver's side door just by pulling the interior handle. Think the passenger and rear doors are different, and will remain locked if the safety lock override switch is enabled.

Not sure why this would be drastically different on a 2014 NZDM Mazda, and after reading through the manual, I'm not 100% sure that it is.

 

[tikiman2012]

We present the new Darwin Award Nominees. Congratulations.


That should have been the title.

 

[QwertyJuan]

I suppose you don't have kids of a certain age. Also, the door in question:

Ummm.... those are almost identical to the one's on my Cruze. You just pull the little lock above the handle and voila. Actually I think my 2000 Cavalier and 2002 Buick Regal had similar units. There are a lot of unanswered questions here. I think this would be similar to someone saying they put their k-cup in their coffee machine and couldn't get it opened to remove the k-cup.

 

[TechLarry]

My Escape has all this. I just open the damn door. I don't get it...

 

[BladeVenom]

they are in their late sixties. that's not easily done at that age. those things are made to withstand a few puny kicks...

Side windows are tempered glass, strong, but one little scratch and they completely shatter. If she had a diamond ring, she could have broken the window effortlessly.

 

[evilsofa]

Ummm.... those are almost identical to the one's on my Cruze. You just pull the little lock above the handle and voila. Actually I think my 2000 Cavalier and 2002 Buick Regal had similar units. There are a lot of unanswered questions here. I think this would be similar to someone saying they put their k-cup in their coffee machine and couldn't get it opened to remove the k-cup.

There is no little lock above the handle. Look below the handle, and you'll see a button with lock icons on it.

 

[MrCaffeineX]

I'll stick with vehicles, pre-2005, thanks.
So convienient it will save us from ourselves. Literally.

I prefer pre-1995 because the computers can be removed

 

[jiminator]

There is no little lock above the handle. Look below the handle, and you'll see a button with lock icons on it.

if you look on the right side there is a section that is a little bit greyer than the rest of the trim. that is the mechanical door lock. The button below engages it.

But really the story makes no sense because the car should have opened upon pulling the lever. I know that can be disabled for passenger seats in back but does not make sense for the front.

As for breaking a window you have to know how. you can smash one easily if you have something with a point, but much harder with a blunt side of a tool.

 

[QwertyJuan]

There is no little lock above the handle. Look below the handle, and you'll see a button with lock icons on it.

You are wrong. Yes there is. THat little black piece that is above the chrome handle? THAT my friend is a MANUAL lock. I suppose you thought it was part of the "design"??

You grab that with your finger and pull towards yourself. Voila... doors unlocked.

 

[sfsuphysics]

I'm calling bullshit on this whole story.

The kicker of this is if the key fob was outside the car, and they got into the car the doors had to have been unlocked, not one door but two doors, so they would have had to lock the doors themselves... manually in order to get "locked in", cars do not lock their doors automatically when you close them except maybe if you put it in gear and drive away. So either they were stupid enough to accidentally lock not one but two doors and not realize how to open the door in which case they really shouldn't be driving a car, or this whole story is fabricated.

On another note, they were locked in the car for 13 hours because no one heard them honking due to fireworks? 13 hours of fireworks? Shit I want to go to New Zealand!

 

[QwertyJuan]

I'm calling bullshit on this whole story.

The kicker of this is if the key fob was outside the car, and they got into the car the doors had to have been unlocked, not one door but two doors, so they would have had to lock the doors themselves... manually in order to get "locked in", cars do not lock their doors automatically when you close them except maybe if you put it in gear and drive away. So either they were stupid enough to accidentally lock not one but two doors and not realize how to open the door in which case they really shouldn't be driving a car, or this whole story is fabricated.

On another note, they were locked in the car for 13 hours because no one heard them honking due to fireworks? 13 hours of fireworks? Shit I want to go to New Zealand!

I agree with everything you said. They are either mentally disabled OR it's a fake story.

I wish someone could verify if the doors open by pulling the handles? (anyone here with a new Mazda 3??) I know my Cruze with virtually identical looking locks will. First time you pull nothing happens. Second time you pull you feel it "grab" inside and the locks open.

 

[jiminator]

personally.... I think it may be some shit like they had a suicide pact and the other member freaked once the first went unconscious. they then made up the rest of the story to cover it up.

 

[jacuzz1]

Seriously? Is it really that easy to nick a Ford - cool. I'll just get my coat hanger...


Those people saying "Smash the window" - read the ArsTechnica article and it says they tried smashing the window with the car jack, but clearly no strength in the 60 year olds. (Not quite sure how they got their hands on the car jack from inside the cabin....)

Panic and age can do weird things. Some of my older clients are really fascinating as to how they react around technology. This is another example of Technofear. There is a generation of people in their 50s and above who grew up without computers and they are still playing catch-up. We may all sit here and push every button we see, but there is an older generation that is scared of pressing any button "in case it breaks something..."

54 here an have been building computers , using them, working on advanced tactical air craft components since the 80's . My father is 80 and has every tech gadget on the planet for personal computing and a mobile office in his Buick. Age has nothing to do with it. These people are either just plain stupid or in the minority with regard to being so technologically inept as to be in such a position.