alt Hacker NewsEvolution of car door handles over the decades
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This is a great video by SuperfastMatt on the engineering behind and evolution of the Tesla door handle.
Fun fact: a great many key fobs have --and many owners have zero idea about it-- a physical backup key. The problem is that the key is so well "hidden" inside the key fob that most simply don't know it. For example on many Porsche models, it's impossible to access the physical key inside the key fob without first removing the key ring (a very smart design btw: you cannot accidentally lose the spare key for it's "held" by the key ring): most owners literally don't know they have a spare physical key.
BMW owners often find out they have a spare key when the key fob separate, for no reason, from the physical key (those keyfobs tend to be extremely badly designed, where the plastic knobs holding the physical key tend to become loose with age).
A spare physical key of course means that the door handle has a lock that can be opened with the key.
Wife is stuck under pouring rain with the battery of her BMW's keyfob that died (because she didn't pay attention to the message on the dashboard saying it needs replacing): "Please come pick me up" / "Babe, take the physical key, open the door, start your car with the physical key, come back home and I'll go buy a new battery and place it into your keyfob".
> More recently, there's been a trend of “suck-in” handles that are flush with the body. As noted earlier, flush handles come in two basic varieties.
Handles flush with the body are nothing new that said. I've got a car from 1992 (model came out in 1989) with flush handles.
This article contains a nice chart of different types: https://www.theautopian.com/what-is-the-goat-door-handle-des...
Nice, but it would have been better with more pictures to match the description IMO
Bloomberg Originals had recently published a video "The Dangerous Feature in Tesla's Doors" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lFzqBt3z0w
purely a matter of aesthetic preference, but I miss when the handle was literally just a handle and a big old chunky button is what operated the latching mechanism
I am bemused every time I use Uber and the car has some flush-mounted door handle that I have to figure out. When exiting the car and closing the door, I end up leaving fingerprints I would not have left if the handle had been designed by someone who had been in a car before.
Kids today miss the chagrin of damaging a protruding door handle, and the entertainment of one of their elders entirely removing one against some obstacle.
When I was about 20, I had a well used AMC Spirit.
Stylish, good gas mileage, decent performance, it was a great car. It had one fatal flaw, a weak linkage in the drivers door handle.
The linkage included a small plastic clip that didn’t quite align properly. It would pop out of place periodically, making the door impossible to open. I became adept at taking apart the door from the inside and popping the pieces back into place.
I once returned to my college dorm after a snowstorm, the car got stuck in the snow. I had another trick for this situation, I’d ease the clutch out ( leaving the back tires spinning slowly ) and would exit the car, pushing it by hand. When the wheels caught and the car started creeping forward I’d jump back in and drive off. ( Foolish, I know. I was 20. )
Well, once I had both mishaps at once. The car got stuck, so I got out to push. The door handle broke, locking me out of my car with the engine running and the wheels slowly turning!
Praying fervently, I ran to my dorm room, got my spare key and went in through the passenger door to stop the engine.
It was a memorable day.
See also: China bans hidden car door handles over safety concerns
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp37g5nxe3lo
> It comes as EVs are facing scrutiny from safety watchdogs around the world after a number of deadly incidents, including two fatal crashes in China involving Xiaomi EVs in which power failures were suspected to have prevented doors from being opened.
You had one job, door handles... but being made sleek and sexy and unlike normal door handles also made you a fucking liability.
Website crashes mobile safari?
Edit: correction it seems to be crashing on my adblock.
I was expecting some mention of the Dutch Reach (internal handles that are sort of backwards to force car users to look in the direction of possible approaching pedestrians or bicycles behind them while opening their door), but I guess the article's focus wasn't quite on that type of detail.
I've a bone to pick with the title, which euphemises degradation.
If they evolved, one might assume they'd survive more than a few years.
My last two vehicles have been Toyota and Hyundai, both of them having multiple broken and malfunctioning door handles.
Every time I get into a commercial* or antique vehicle, I long for the solidity, surety and hardness of the dark ages when things were built to last.
Driving semis, I'm well acquainted with automobile 'evolution', and all but a few are hardly worth entering. UPS trucks, Mac, some others still make stuff for adults, but International, Peterbilt, even Kenworth are using sillyputty for parts. Consumer vehicles, to me, are the antithesis of evolution. And for all the wondrous eco tech, their merit is contested by landfills, downtime and piles of repair receipts.
Not that eco couldn't work, but the way it's been introduced, in the US, has been replete with cut corners and outright scams. An old truck pre-DEF still runs far more reliably than anything new on the road. Volvo has done reasonably well with trucks, but no new truck can stand to the old ones. CAT!
Door handles are symptomatic of the disposable infrastructure we've built our new country on, and come hard times, when folks can no longer afford a new HVAC system every 8 years at 12 grand, coupled with everything else falling apart around us, we'll be longing for the dark ages again.
Thankfully it's not everything. I just bought a pair of Knipex pliers, which should make it well through the century.
For the young, or majority I presume, if you can suspend your contempt of a less fuel efficient steel monstrosity, hop into an old vehicle from the 70s or earlier. Close your eyes if needed, but just feel around a bit. You'll feel honest engineering. Not as safe, but there's something obnoxious anyway about being too safe and cozy trundling around in a big bulbous plastic bubble. We didn't always drive unaffordable fluorescent pillows.
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The mechanical flush mount car door handles are because shaping that divot into the steel is much more complicated then punching a hole, and especially aluminum is many times more complicated and expensive. Audi was showing off their technical expertise with creasing aluminum with unlimited money in their bodywork before dieselgate, and that was pretty much peak for car body technology.