EVs during this heat wave

[Lamb]

A lot of the US is having a big heat wave this week, and it will be interesting to see how people who own EVs fare. I've already read a news report where a child was locked inside a car when it got too hot.

 

[NewCreation435]

What are EV's?

 

[Forgiven1]

EV = Electric Vehicle

 

[NewCreation435]

I'm confused about what having an EV has to do with a child locked inside a car?

 

[Lamb]

I'm confused about what having an EV has to do with a child locked inside a car?

Apparently the machine couldn't handle the heat, and it locked with a child inside it.

 

[Forgiven1]

When electronics get hot, they shut down. When a battery dies, the system can not work. Somehow there needs to be some sort of safety net for an incident like this to not happen again. Though one needs to be sure the car is charged before using it. From what I read, this was a failure of the Tesla as it did not warn that the battery was dying. Other attempts to get into the car failed. Happening in a place with hot weather is a safety issue if you have young children.

Add this to another reason why I won't get an EV. Will consider a hybrid though.

 

[tango]

A constant problem with just about any system is determining a fail state, i.e. what the system does if some aspect of it fails. Whatever the system does in a fail state creates potential issues, and it's a question of determining which situations are desirable and whether the potential downsides are acceptable or not.

Where something like security is concerned there are conflicting requirements to balance. A fire door's security needs to fail in an open situation because it's not much use to anyone if there is a fire and people can't get out because the fire door failed into a locked state and wouldn't open. But if it fails into an open state it creates a vulnerability because a hostile agent can then seek to create a fail situation such that the fire door unlocks and they can gain access.

With a car you don't want all the doors to automatically unlock because you parked it in the sun for too long, but if the doors fail in a locked state you potentially get a situation where you can't get out because the doors failed. If there's no non-electronic override of a system then sooner or later something like this will happen.