[hw]

Cars break down all the time but at least they can be moved to the side of the road. Are Teslas not able to be moved once they run out of juice? They’re heavy and even with a few folks pushing from the back, is it able to disengage the parking brake?

[ndsipa_pomu]

From the fine article:

> The handbrakes of electric cars, and some other modern cars, are controlled electronically, unlike those of traditional petrol and diesel cars, which are mechanical. This means that the handbrake often locks when the power fails and the car cannot be pushed or towed.

This sounds like a major oversight by Tesla as there should be some override in case a vehicle breaks down in a dangerous position or is blocking something important.

[cle]

They can be towed, but it is correct that certain electrical failures can prevent the brakes from being released.

I know because this happened to me. The tow company sent a flat bed truck and used a winch to pull the car onto the platform.

It’s pretty annoying from a design perspective but it also seems like something that any competent tow company should be able to handle easily.

[kube-system]

That is an unhelpful quote. Yes, some cars have electronic parking brakes. It is quite common on new cars today. But they typically require being affirmatively commanded to change between their applied and unapplied states. Nothing about the general existence of electronic parking brakes explains why this particular vehicle would have one engaged mid-turn.

[fuzzbazz]

Other car models have handbrakes and/or can be left in a gear that locks the wheels.

They should have called a parking enforcement truck that carries rollers that attach to the locked wheels, they could have moved the car pretty quickly.

[zizee]

My diesel and my wife's petrol card both have electronic handbrakes. I'm not sure what would happen if either has a battery failure.

[Saris]

You can still tow it even with the handbrake on, just drag it.

[wesleyd]

My understanding is that many/most modern cars [0] have an electronic parking brake, and soon enough all of them will.

Of course, a headline such as “car with electronic handbrake breaks down mid-turn…” wouldn’t have had the same clickability. I’m shocked - shocked! - to find a “news” organization sacrificing truth for outrage!

[0] E-handbrakes aren’t a great fit to a manual transmission (or are they?) but I suspect the days of manual transmissions are numbered: electric cars no more need a manual transmission than they need a buggy whip.

[simondotau]

On the other hand there are also numerous premium ICE cars which, if they break down in a specific way, can’t be placed into neutral without appropriate tools. This isn’t a new EV thing.

[whalesalad]

California CHP would have pushed it off the road with the bull bar.