[kube-system]

That is an unhelpful quote. Yes, some cars have electronic parking brakes. It is quite common on new cars today. But they typically require being affirmatively commanded to change between their applied and unapplied states. Nothing about the general existence of electronic parking brakes explains why this particular vehicle would have one engaged mid-turn.

[krisoft]

> Nothing about the general existence of electronic parking brakes explains why this particular vehicle would have one engaged mid-turn.

Did you notice the part that it run out of battery mid-turn? It seems that the brakes are designed to fail safe in case of a battery failure. I see how someone could argue for that as a design choice. The fact that there is no way to emergency release them without power is more questionable.

[pulvinar]

Sorry, but it doesn't make sense why a Tesla would apply the parking brake when the big battery dies, since the separate 12V battery would power the brake mechanism. If that 12V also happened to die at the same moment (highly unlikely), the parking brake would have been stuck in the released position, not applied.

And 9 hours? They could have called one of those tow trucks who haul away an illegally parked vehicle in a matter of seconds.

[peteradio]

"Fail safe" is slamming on the brakes on a power failure? I heard a funny story about a guy who was used to chewing while driving and he'd open the door a crack to spit. Apparently some cars engage brakes if a door opens and he was driving his son's new Jeep going 50 mph.

[kube-system]

Other vehicles don't work this way. That's why it seems to be a strange design choice.

[ndsipa_pomu]

It seems the wrong choice to me as a handbrake can be emulated by shoving some bricks under the wheels, and a non-movable vehicle could cause serious issues for other people.