[seanmcdirmid]

The axels are directly connected to the motor(s). To have a free wheeling mode, you’d have to disconnect them somehow, and I’m not sure how you would do that at all, definitely not without lots of extra parts. That problem isn’t unique to Tesla’s.

[Yaggo]

The electric drivetrain, including the motor, is in free wheeling mode by default, i.e. it has not much mechanical resistance, at least not enough to keep the car from rolling. So no need to disconnect anything. That's somewhat unique "problem" of electric cars, and it's the reason why it's critical to automatically apply the parking brake if the car may lose all the power.

[pengaru]

The motor will simply turn freely without power, there's no need to disconnect them. Tesla is literally going out of their way to prevent the neutral equivalent from being accessible.

But should we really expect anything else from a company so desperate to eliminate steering wheels from its cars?

[Toutouxc]

In the case of emergency, the car can either lock the brakes up and die, or do nothing and die. There's no other option, there's no mechanical backup, no braking pawl, no gear to shift in. Do you consider "being unable to secure the car in one place" the safer option?

[pengaru]

Why is there not a hand lever pulling a cable attached to the rear brake calipers? There's nothing about an EV precluding this mechanism we've used forever.

[Yaggo]

I don't think most modern premium cars have parking brake systems with hand lever anymore, even ICE cars?