If the rear trunk lid of a car doesn’t latch shut, the wind will blow it back down. It might obscure the view from the rear window but the side mirrors should still allow rear view, so it’s not a serious safety hazard. If the hood, or frunk lid, doesn’t latch shut, wind might get under it and blow it open, completely obscuring forward vision. This is why, on most cars, the hood is secured with not one but two latches, and the “second” one that can hold it partially closed is just a lever with a big spring that holds a pawl over a pin. Simple doesn’t fail.
This worked fine for decades, because the engine compartment has always been a kind of “back stage” area. Less care for how the trunk latch felt and sounded was put into the design because you’d only open it to service the engine. But now electric cars don’t have engines there, so that volume of the vehicle gets re-used as a cargo compartment, and thus requires a latching system that the chai latte-est pair of yoga pants is willing to operate. So it has to be motorized with a motorized latch. And because adding that much electrical shit to the system means chance of failure skyrockets, you also need an interlock that can stop the car from driving with the hood unlatched so it doesn’t blow open on the highway.
Being made by Tesla also means the chance of failure skyrockets again.
Yes, and for a reasonably good reason.
If the rear trunk lid of a car doesn’t latch shut, the wind will blow it back down. It might obscure the view from the rear window but the side mirrors should still allow rear view, so it’s not a serious safety hazard. If the hood, or frunk lid, doesn’t latch shut, wind might get under it and blow it open, completely obscuring forward vision. This is why, on most cars, the hood is secured with not one but two latches, and the “second” one that can hold it partially closed is just a lever with a big spring that holds a pawl over a pin. Simple doesn’t fail.
This worked fine for decades, because the engine compartment has always been a kind of “back stage” area. Less care for how the trunk latch felt and sounded was put into the design because you’d only open it to service the engine. But now electric cars don’t have engines there, so that volume of the vehicle gets re-used as a cargo compartment, and thus requires a latching system that the chai latte-est pair of yoga pants is willing to operate. So it has to be motorized with a motorized latch. And because adding that much electrical shit to the system means chance of failure skyrockets, you also need an interlock that can stop the car from driving with the hood unlatched so it doesn’t blow open on the highway.
Being made by Tesla also means the chance of failure skyrockets again.