Man Trapped Inside XLR for 14 hours.

[Rich S]

I agree, there is just no excuse. The owner should be responsible enough to know how to open the door when the electric mechanism fails.

The comment on "push button start" reminds me of a situation where I live (a high-rise condominium building.) One of our Owners in his early seventies, with poor hearing (wears "hearing aids") routinely gets out of his Lexus LS430 Sedan and leaves it with the engine running in the garage. I get called as on the Homeowners' Board of Directors, because a car is parked, locked, in the garage with the engine running and spewing out carbon monoxide. When I have talked to the Owner, he says, "I thought I held the button long enough--I got out and walked away, but could not hear the car running, and I guess I must not have held the button long enough to stop the motor." I would hate to think what may occur if he experienced sudden acceleration and wanted to cut off the engine! There's also the situation of the various gear selectors now in new vehicles, such as the latest generation of Cadillac XT5 (their best-selling SUV)--the gear selector does not follow the usual P-R-N-D-L pattern, and there are various buttons on the stick to engage the different gears. Is it complicating something unnecessarily?

[INTMD8]

I can relate to the ls430 story. I had one old enough to still have a key but on a few occasions when I was distracted, attempted to start it again when it was already running. It was that quiet and smooth.

[z3skybolt]

Last night in Montgomery AL I drove our 2012 Grand Cherokee into the hotel parking garage and shut if off.  Wanted to move it.  Alas....my wife had the keys in her purse and was in our hotel room.  I couldn't restart the engine or lock the Jeep.  Finally was able to lock the doors mechanically except for the rear gate.  No big deal but just BS.  I hate all this electronic crap.  Give me a darn key to insert into the ignition. Certainly not a life threatening situation.  But I could have as easily driven to a gas station and been stranded.  I know, I know.  Keep the keys with oneself. Just saying......

Bob

[Cape Cod Fleetwood]

As if this story isn't funny enough, sorry ITS FUNNY, some of the comments here have been priceless.

I can think of worse coffins than a new XLR...

Joey Kramer (drummer, Aerosmith) got trapped in his Ferrari when it was being fueled and caught fire. Electrical system fried and he couldn't open the door, with drummer's arms. So he kicked out the sun roof, with drummer's legs, and escaped to freedom before he was cooked along with the car, which was a total loss.

Let them try to sue GM. As GM's attorney and as part of discovery I'll demand a mental competency evaluation of the plaintiff. And I'll settle out of court offering a life time supply of Aricept and a 1967 Rambler.

\m/
Laurie

[59-in-pieces]

Boy, late to the party again.

From one who owns one of these XLR marvels, there are all manner of errors and misrepresentations in the article to just take it on face value - small point, but to set the stage right out the gate, the picture is not of a 2006 - sorry for the nit-pick.

I am sympathetic with the plight of the owner, but 14 hours is a bit much, and the victim ready to die (?), does sound a bit on the, let's lay the groundwork for a law suit.
And before you cast me as the calloused ol' a holiness - personally, I'm not a fan of those who do not take the responsibilities of their actions nor the resulting consequences - and play the powerless victim.

As with any other car, no matter how much engineering, or ingenuity goes into its design, incorporating the best intentions and safeguards, there will always be accidents, stuff goes wrong, and hind sight is always worth a couple of hundreds of thousands of dollars - to make it right.
Buy a lottery ticket or sue, no risk or downside, and who knows - maybe something good will come of it - what with contingency fee structures as they are.

The floor is yours, and carry millions in liability insurance.
Have fun,
Steve B.

[D.Smith]

Rule number one!   Read the owners manual.

Rule number two!   Keep the owners manual in the car!

You'd think at some point during his car ownership he would have wondered what that lever next to the door with the red symbol of the car with a door open on it did and pulled it.

[V63]

We have become victims of advancement often due to the shallow edges of the gene pool.

Life itself is at a risk of dying or injury. It’s assumption of those risk that makes life worth living.

Half an owners manual anymore is operation of seat belts?

To its extreme, it will be the fault of automobile manufacturers because their engineering or lack there of, can too easily allow drunk people to operate them?

Think of all the automotive advancements of the past that could be brought for punitive damages today.  Styling is yet another. All the things we appreciate most about our vintage cars of days gone by.

Specifically, Cadillac Tail fins were covered in ‘unsafe at any speed’, and indeed horrific cases were pointed out, thru no fault of the victims.

Hydraulic power windows, moreover operable with key off? Cruise control? Floor shifters, hidden fuel fillers, ...massaging seats encouraging sleeping drivers? Or a hypothetical 1949 case of a distracted driver using the radio?

ANY use of cell phone (even hands free) is a risk...but so is a passenger. Have you ridden with a driver that was so distracted by your presence you were clutching the door panel?

Look at the extreme HORSEPOWER available today, I see those days are very numbered
Tomorrow’s mega collectibles, maybe if we aren’t too dumb to possess them.

Have you noticed the increase of wrong way drivers?

Here’s where we are headed:

We won’t be able to advance any faster than the dumbest person can to taught to use it.

[76eldo]

I think the whole concept of that type of door release is stupid.
They should have just left things as they were with a normal mechanical door release lever.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Soon, everything electronic WILL come back to bite us.

I can see it in the future.   Look, cars come with actual keys, and the vehicle will be controlled by humans.

The Lawyers will be demanding it as they will be losing work if everything is automated.

As it is now, it will soon be a case where the vehicles' computer will be taken to court, and the Magistrate will see the results of before the crash, and immediately say, "Guilty as charged....... Plus, I find that the defendant was speeding on dates such and such, therefore. straight to gaol.

Bruce.

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

You just cannot engineer all of any possible problem out of any system. 

I cannot agree more. There is no such thing as foolproof regardless of how well thought-out, conceived or planned.

There is simply no excuse for not having comprehensive knowledge of the machine of which you're in command. It would be akin for taking a watercraft out to sea with a group of people and not knowing how to operate distress equipment or where the life jackets are. Unacceptable. Period.

[INTMD8]

Laurie, I have not heard that story. I have the same model Ferrari, the door handles are just regular mechanical, not electric. Locks are electric but have a regular up/down buttons on the tops of the doors, not sure why he would have been stuck in it.

No sunroof version, maybe his was gts? (Targa). In which case would be easier to unlatch than kick through.

[WTL]

I cannot agree more. There is no such thing as foolproof regardless of how well thought-out, conceived or planned.

There is simply no excuse for not having comprehensive knowledge of the machine of which you're in command. It would be akin for taking a watercraft out to sea with a group of people and not knowing how to operate distress equipment or where the life jackets are. Unacceptable. Period.

You could be a passenger, or renting the car....

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

You could be a passenger, or renting the car....

Could also be a passenger on a boat...

If you're unfamiliar with the car, you shouldn't be renting it.

[WTL]

Who thinks about emergency door procedures in a car?  Boats can sink, so you prepare yourself for THAT contigency.

How many people are mechanically aware enough to even know that being locked in a car is possible?  Not everybody is so inclined, or has the time, or any number of things.

Do you want all passengers to demand literature before they get in the car?  Let's stop jumping through hoops here to excuse them, hate lawyers all you want, but the engineers screwed this one up.   

These are the same years that GM designed a defective ignition switch that would turn off the car/power steering/brakes without warning.  GM hemmed and hawed for years, blamed drivers for having too many keys on their chain, no...no, it was GMs fault.  Somewhere around 100 people died.  My wife had one of the cars.  It happened to us, and we were ok, but if there had been traffic, it's a roll of the dice. 

Was I supposed to be familiar with every component in a Saturn ion?  To know modes of failure and immediately have the solution in mind? 

[WTL]

Might as well have a flight attendant demonstrate emergency procedures for each remote contigency, every time a person gets in an unfamiliar car. 

Or we could put in a mechanical lock, like we did for 100 years.

Sorry folks, this aggravates me. 

[Scot Minesinger]

WTL,

Agreed. 

As an engineer, it really is impossible to design every possible issue out of anything, let alone something as complex as a modern car.  I hate all the unnecessary wireless, electronic and etc. stuff too.  On our 2014 Chrysler 300 the tilt steering is motorized - really? that can certainly be manual. 

Knowing this (that nothing is truly safe), we must strive in life to not be victims.  I check my bank and investment accounts twice daily and every six months or so I discover a theft, report it, and receive recovery.  In a car, I always think about the power windows, as in the event of a water crash they will be shorted out - do I open them before being submerged (if I could) or do I leave them closed until submerged to slow the sinking process?  Point is that you have to think about everything because life is just not fare. 

Back to this case, there is no way a car could contain me.  It is difficult to feel empathy, especially when all this amounted to was an inconvenience, albeit a little scary for the guy in the car. 

[WTL]

Scot,

I have a great deal of respect for your abilities, knowledge and preparedness.  I can see that in your fine 70 Cadillacs. I do not believe you would be trapped.  I was in a BMW, but that window would have been broken...but I'm better than average.

The people on this board are tuned to knowing everything about our cars.  In this way, WE are outliers.  I think of all the people who know jack about how cars work.  It is foreign to their nature.  So with the door lock thing, we are sneaking a heretofore unknown hazard into the fold which might catch them...might kill them, as it did a guy in a C6.  Are we really going to blame the guy? 

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

Might as well have a flight attendant demonstrate emergency procedures for each remote contigency, every time a person gets in an unfamiliar car. 

Exactly what do you expect?  Should every car must be designed to operate just like every other car because someone may not know how to operate something in it? Some cars have window switches on armrests; others on the center console while some don't even have power windows at all. The starter switch on a '60 Buick is activated by the accelerator pedal. A SAAB with a manual transmission must be placed in reverse to remove the key. On most Ford vehicles the interior door handle unlocks the door; for others, the door must be unlocked before the door can be opened...etc etc etc.

There are thousands of ways the operation of one car varies to the next for the thousands of makes and models across 100+ years of production. Sorry my friend, this is clear case of operator error here and there is no justification for owning a car with only partial knowledge of how to use it - especially of a control that is in plain sight, after years (presumably) of ownership.

[gkhashem]

I see people all the time cross the street and never seem to look both ways.  I was a 5 year old and knew enough to do that.

People today seem so self absorbed and not aware of their surroundings as to be a danger to themselves and more importantly a danger to others.

If so, yes I will say it, let them die. I am all for punishing an intentional or negligent party, but if we use your standards everyone is going to stop producing any goods for public consumption.

Why bother producing products and creating jobs if the stupid and greedy get all their profits.

By the way only a tort lawyer would advocate for such positions because they are feeding at the trough.

And I am for fair punishment for the negligent or the criminal who puts greed before safety but life has risks, There is no such thing as a risk free world.

[V63]

QUOTE: Who thinks about emergency door procedures in a car?  Boats can sink, so you prepare yourself for THAT contigency.

“Who thinks” ...That’s whats really at discussion here and when a problem arises...it’s somebody else’s fault or the equipment they are in control of.

Everything needs to be engineered or labeled so a single digit IQ can safely operate or abuse.

While, I’m not too excited about this electronic door latch...it’s the same spirit of innovation that brought us power windows and seats at the a touch of a button.


I absolutely agree WTL, this will be a losing battle for GM. The fix will be a large caution triangle riveted to each door panel with an arrow pointing to ‘emergency exit’