Recently, a Wenjie M7 in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province was involved in a traffic accident, and it rear-ended a moving sprinkler truck, causing the vehicle to catch fire. After the accident, several passers-by participated in the rescue, but the door could not be opened through the door handle, so they had no choice but to break the window for rescue, which finally caused a tragedy.
Therefore, the M7 was questioned that the door could not be opened after the accident, which caused many people to worry about the hidden door handle of the car. So, are hidden door handles in cars really a rescue roadblock?
Let's first look at the original design intention of the hidden door handle, which is to allow the door handle to be hidden inside the body when not in use, so as to improve the smoothness and aesthetics of the overall appearance of the car, while reducing wind resistance, fuel consumption and noise.
According to calculations, a single hidden door handle can reduce the wind resistance by 0.003Cd, and four door handles can reduce the wind resistance by a total of 0.012Cd. For every 0.01Cd decrease in the drag coefficient of fuel vehicles, the fuel consumption per 100 kilometers is about 0.5 liters, and for every 0.01Cd reduction in the drag coefficient of pure electric vehicles, the cruising range of 100 kilometers can be increased by more than 5 kilometers.
For new energy vehicles, the 5 km range is still very important, and from this point of view, it does have its design advantages.
At present, there are generally two ways to open a door with a hidden handle: automatic pop-up and manual opening, but the premise is that the car is unlocked. If it is impossible to unlock it manually in the event of an accident, then it will be automatically unlocked in an emergency.
Therefore, it is not the key whether the door handle is hidden or not, it still depends on whether the vehicle has the function of automatic unlocking after a collision, after all, even if it is a traditional door handle, it cannot be opened by external force without unlocking.
Let's go back to the M7, its owner's manual has written about automatic unlocking in case of emergency, which shows that this car is equipped with this function.
So why didn't the automatic unlock take effect after this accident? This should be related to the second clause in the emergency automatic unlocking instructions.
The note states that the vehicle has collided and the system has received a collision signal.
In other words, in the event of a collision-type accident, there is a prerequisite for automatic unlocking, and the system needs to receive a collision signal. The tips below are supplemented by the fact that the doors may not unlock automatically and that whether or not they unlock automatically is not based on the degree of damage to the vehicle.
In this regard, some netizens analyzed that the door could not be opened or because of the high cutting position of the rear of the operating vehicle, and the sensor in front of the front of the car was cut off when the corresponding signal was not detected, which led to the door handle not popping open, that is, it could not be automatically unlocked.
In other words, it is highly likely that the accident caused the door to not open is a special case. According to the current relevant regulations on this aspect, the function of automatic door unlocking after a car collision is not a mandatory requirement, and exceptions and special circumstances are allowed.
Of course, more details about this accident still need to be jointly investigated by multiple relevant departments before the final authoritative conclusion can be given.
However, it is undeniable that there are various designs of hidden door handles, and the form and position of emergency switches are also different, which requires the cost of learning for users or rescuers. We also call for industry norms and standardization of concealed door handles.
Finally, the Governor would like to remind all car owners that we are the first responsible person for safety. No matter what kind of car you drive, keep your distance and drive safely. At the same time, it is also necessary to understand that although technology is developing at a high speed, no matter whether it is a high-end intelligent driving or not, or which manufacturer's high-end intelligent driving, you cannot blindly trust, because no technology can be foolproof.