[timw6n]

This isn't a Tesla-specific point but this article does highlight some of the downsides of cars (both ICE and electric) becoming more high-tech.

In an older car, even if there's an engine failure, it should be possible to get the car into neutral and either let it roll or propel it with the starter motor to the side of the road. Similarly the brakes will still work, although they'll be very heavy once the assisted-braking is depleted.

Once everything is electronic and drive-by-wire you lose this redundancy - I've heard of new Range Rovers, as one example, being very difficult to tow because if the electrics fail then it's impossible to take it out of gear and to remove the parking brake.

[egeozcan]

I heard that the Range Rovers need a tow vehicle equipped with a crane because it's impossible to move them. It's one of those "happened to a friend of my friend" stories so it may be not 100% correct.

Even if it is true, as the technology advances, I think it is normal that it needs different and more complicated tools for support.

[msisk6]

Nearly all flat-bed tow trucks here in the US have a winch. Be it a dead Tesla, broken Ranger Rover, or a wrecked car with it's wheels pointing in different directions, the winch will just drag the car up the ramp.

[rdl]

You should be able to put dollies under the wheels individually (jacking or lifting with the tow vehicle), even if the axles on a car are utterly seized, and then drag it onto a flatbed in the normal way. Not quite a crane, but still obnoxious.

[huhtenberg]

> propel it with the starter motor

Name a car that supports this. Genuinely curious.

[timw6n]

Just put the car into 1st gear and keep cranking the key and it'll lurch forwards even if the engine won't start.

It's not exactly healthy for the starter motor but can be useful in emergencies for getting the car over to the shoulder or out from the middle of a junction.

I'm not sure how it'll work with automatic gearboxes (a small minority of cars here in the UK) but no reason why it shouldn't work on any car with a manual gearbox and key ignition.

[kevinpet]

It won't work on any manual made since maybe 1990. The starter won't engage unless the clutch is in.

Note that it is possible (with some luck) to start a car with a clutch that won't disengage this way and you might be able to limp to a garage.

[thaumaturgy]

You would have to have a starter with quite a lot of torque for this to work.

I have actually tried this before, in a 1972 J-4000 with a 258. The starter on that truck would make most other starters look like wind-up toys, but the truck would lurch, but not roll.

[lutusp]

>> propel it with the starter motor

> Name a car that supports this. Genuinely curious.

Over six decades of driving, I cannot tell you how many times I have successfully moved a misbehaving car a short distance by doing this -- a car that had a healthy battery attached to an unhealthy engine or out of fuel.