Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by recursive 137 days ago
> It's an even more irrelevant consideration for consumers, who could save far more fuel by changing how they drive.

These are not in conflict. The energy you save from drag stacks with the energy you save from "learning how to drive".
2 comments
hshdhdhj4444 137 days ago
Yeah, but making opening doors a puzzle to solve is an incredibly terrible trade off.

And that’s before we consider the other aspects of these door handle designs that make the cars a death trap.

link
recursive 137 days ago
The death trap claims come from the internal affordance, which seems to be totally independent from the exterior one.

I have a car with a "novel" handle situation. (Ford Mustand Mach E) The door is operable from the inside with a dead battery. Maybe this particular one isn't as challenging as some of the other designs, but calling it a "puzzle" definitely overstates the case. I think it took me maybe 4 seconds to figure out the first time.

link
kevin_thibedeau 137 days ago
The Xiaomi SU7 has notably threatened the lives of many of its occupants because rescuers couldn't open the doors from the outside after power loss from a crash or fire. This car is partly responsible for China's new safety regulation banning flush handles.
link
kube-system 137 days ago
They add a tiny bit to the efficiency and/or range, they look cool (e.g. serve a gee-whiz marketing purpose), and safety evaluations in the markets where they still exist don't penalize them -- up until now they've had very little against them.

Maybe as legal and reputational backlash spreads the pros will not outweigh the cons. But someone designing a car a decade ago, marketed towards early adopter types, would have had no reason not to.

And I say this as someone who hates these handles designs personally.

link
AlotOfReading 137 days ago
I'm not presenting it as a conflict. I'm presenting it as a revealed preference of how much consumers actually try to optimize fuel use. There's significant reductions to be had completely for free (or even with savings by purchasing smaller, cheaper vehicles). And yes, the savings from flush handles are too small to show up in the MPG number.
link