Infant stuck inside the car - dead 12V battery

[rcechinel]

the proper procedure is to pop the frunk with that tiny cable. Then jump the 12v to pop the door. The owner just does not know and are panicking. Smashing the window is not necessary. It is kind of stupid of ford to follow tesla design. A traditional keyhole and physical key would be better. Cost cutting being the reason as always.

I don't think it is Ford's fault or should cover it. Unfortunately for Ford, the optic is bad especially with baiting title like infant stuck in car. Better to just pay and shut the customer up.

Do you understand that, in that particular situation, no one would have quick access to any of those resources in a fast way? And there was an infant inside the car?
Do you understand they called for service and that took too long?
Knowing that since the late 1990s the U.S. has seen an average of 37 children die each year from heatstroke after being unattended in a car, would you be very calm and wait for service with your baby cooking inside?

Just for curiosity, how many drivers out there know how to jump a dead battery in an ICE easy-to-locate car? Imagine in a Mach-E. It would take ME, a full nerd, several minutes IF I had a battery to jump. Obviously that breaking the window was the only life-saving attitude to be taken in the given timeframe.

A car Ford manufactured had a fault a that trapped an infant alone inside the car. Good luck telling any judge that isn't Ford's fault...

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[Mosworthy]

This is what's in the owner's manual. I wonder if in any of the cases of a dead 12-volt, the owner saw either of these messages.

There is no talk in any of his post about what she or he might have seen in that or upcoming days.
Its a horrible situation, but I'm still sensing there is something missing here.
As well as the lack of knowledge on how to respond to this situation.
As a '21 owner, the manual and all these things were huge for me to know going to such a different vehicle than I've ever driven.

 

[SonicBlue]

the proper procedure is to pop the frunk with that tiny cable. Then jump the 12v to pop the door. The owner just does not know and are panicking. Smashing the window is not necessary.

You mean the owner… with an infant stuck in the car? You’re being unrealistic bordering on callous. Any parent would smash the damned window, and they’d be right to do so. Because the “proper procedure” is both time consuming and asinine in emergency situations.

 

[Wallie]

I think the frunk jumper wires often don’t work because people don’t realize that you are not jumping a battery and the jump pack doesn’t work because it won’t work if it doesn’t sense a battery. If the jump pack doesn’t have a button to force it to connect it won’t work.

Put some old skool starter cables in the frunk. Oh .. wait .. ?

 

[Sikkun]

Given stringing together AA batteries works. I assume you could have a A23 attached to your keyring or just mount one inside the frunk access panel.

 

[Wallie]

You mean the owner… with an infant stuck in the car? You’re being unrealistic bordering on callous. Any parent would smash the damned window, and they’d be right to do so. Because the “proper procedure” is both time consuming and asinine in emergency situations.

Be sure to smash a rear window on a ‘21.
Front windows are laminated?

 

[Space_Pony]

So the 12V battery is always monitored by the car, so the car knows when the 12V battery is low.

Possible "simple" solutions:
- Notify the driver in the car AND app that the 12V battery is low.
- If the car is "ON" and the 12V battery is low on charge - Warn the driver on the screen(s) of the risk of turning off the car without the car being connected to a vehicle charger. This way if the car is left on via the high voltage battery, the car will not "die".
It will allow the driver to get to a charger, or to a "safe" place to turn off the car without being stranded.

More "difficult" solutions:
- Better 12V battery charge system management from the high voltage battery.
- Mechanical "key" entry into the vehicle. (perhaps via the rear hatch- dealer retrofit mod)
- Supercapacitor power to the door keypad for emergency door opening.


Having a vehicle completely brick and leave the owner locked out completely is abysmally poor design. Unacceptable. Should have ALWAYS been a mechanical key opening somewhere on the vehicle.

If people have no knowledge regarding the health of their LVB and replace them based on age instead of their health, Ford can make more money replacing good healthy batteries.
Is Ford testing the batteries that they replace or do they just replace batteries that are good without testing them?

 

[Mosworthy]

In the reddit thread - Ford roadside tried that with no luck, and looks like Ford is covering the issue after being tagged on social media. The reddit poster is also talking to NHTSA, which IMHO is the best thing to come out of it, because you know Ford won't do shit to make this better until their hand is forced.

Did they try that?
He said they showed up, never said what they tried.....

 

[Track9979]

Did they try that?
He said they showed up, never said what they tried.....

According to this...

 

[Mosworthy]

According to this...

Yes, but you didn't include the question...
Which tells me a story of how this guy and the Ford techs don't know what they're doing

 

[Mosworthy]

and

 

[Track9979]

Any way you slice it, getting a car locked out due to a dying battery without a warning, and no good way of opening it without breaking glass in an emergency is a shit design.

 

[Mosworthy]

Any way you slice it, getting a car locked out due to a dying battery without a warning, and no good way of opening it without breaking glass in an emergency is a shit design.

Never said no warning, although I know it has happened in the past.

When I had 12v issues in the winter of 20-21 (all caused by me I must point out) the car and app gave me multiple warnings.

 

[Track9979]

Never said no warning, although I know it has happened in the past.

When I had 12v issues in the winter of 20-21 (all caused by me I must point out) the car and app gave me multiple warnings.

got to add "REPLACE BATTERY OR YOUR CAR WILL BE INOPERABLE AND POSSILY LOCKED OUT" in that warning. I'd bet that vast majority of people wouldn't link a dying 12v and a dead mach-e.

I'm not sure this is worth defending - it is shit design by Ford, copied from Tesla for absolutely no good reason. A single lock anywhere (tailgate, whatever) would've solved all lockout access problems, whether due to battery, software glitches, etc., and it wouldn't be newsworthy at all, like on any other car on the road.

Edit: and adding some more notifications/end user view of 12v battery would certainly help but 12v batteries die suddenly all the time - it's a bandaid, not a fix. I really don't understand the reasoning behind no physical lock access at all.

 

[rcechinel]

There is no talk in any of his post about what she or he might have seen in that or upcoming days.
Its a horrible situation, but I'm still sensing there is something missing here.
As well as the lack of knowledge on how to respond to this situation.
As a '21 owner, the manual and all these things were huge for me to know going to such a different vehicle than I've ever driven.

My take is that if you have a situation that forces you to read a manual to be able to get in and out of the car, the car failed. We have been doing this for more than 100 years...
Do you expect anyone to read a manual when they rent a car now?
If EVs will grow significantly in adoption, the operation can't be focused on enthusiasts and nerds (which I am).

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