[jamesred]

The Falcon wing doors were a mistake. Not having a manual way to open the door is also a mistake.

I'm not sure if these people deserve compensation but there should be a way to open the doors manually without relying on hydraulics.

[21]

It's just another case of aesthetics coming before function or safety.

See airplane doors for a comparison: http://c8.alamy.com/comp/DK7AW8/airplane-door-cabin-door-on-...

Of course, there is no need to have such "ugly" or big notices, but certainly a small text "Remove cover here and pull lever to open" is doable.

[zkms]

That "carefully remove the speaker grill" is the chosen phraseology means that these are instructions meant for maintenance and service, not instructions meant for emergency egress. Furthermore, the latch release cable doesn't provide much leverage and access at all, given it's literally at floor level. It's also possible that the latch release cable requires a lot of force to pull (if you have to pull against springs or pull against frictional forces on contact surfaces of latches). These factors make me conclude that this system was never designed for emergency egress purposes.

However, these are not an inherent issue; it's certainly possible to store energy (compressed gas, auxiliary battery, springs, pyrotechnic charge) to provide a redundant opening system in case the main power supply is offline. Using stored energy to activate emergency safety apparatus (hi, airbags) is not a new thing in passenger vehicles. Hell, some cars have pyrotechnic cable-cutters that isolate all non-essential 12V/HV circuits with explosives milliseconds after a severe collision are detected (to avoid post-crash fire/heating and electronics damage).

To solve a eminently predictable post-crash problem with "take off a speaker grill that's on the floor (right next to a battery fire) and pull hard on a Bowden cable" is simply not acceptable and the state of the art in post-crash systems indicates that Tesla could have done much better.

[Jiig]

There is a way to manually open the falcon wing doors [1]. Granted it could probably be in a more visible location.

[1]: http://assets.teslastatic.com/2016_Model_X_Emergency_Respons... page 24

[Terr_]

Page 24, looks like you have to remove a speaker-grille and reach into some mechanisms behind it.

[rocky1138]

Did you read the article? It explains that there is a physical way to open the doors manually.

[haldean]

The manual way to open the doors is behind a speaker panel that you have to rip off to pull: https://imgur.com/gallery/jqfdV

It's true that it exists, but its intentionally well-hidden, and if you were in a flaming car you probably wouldn't think to rip off the speakers to try to find a latch.

[rocky1138]

It's in a stupid and inaccessible spot. The position should be made more obvious in future iterations of the vehicle.

[CuriousCosmic]

There is a manual lever in the lower part of the door by the speaker.