Baby locked in Bay Area family's Cadillac EV after sudden 'faulty battery' shuts car down

[Coventina]

ANTIOCH, Calif. (KGO) -- 7 On Your Side investigated an apparent safety hazard with a Cadillac EV that left a young infant trapped in the car -- and the parents scrambling to get their baby out.

It was a chaotic Sunday morning for this Antioch family.

What they thought would be a typical ride to church turned into 30 minutes of chaos.

It was January fourth, and Lacey Gunn was en route to Sunday service. The mom of two tried taking her girls in the grandparents' Cadillac Lyriq EV.

"That's the best car that we have to transport our precious cargo," said Erika Tinoco, the children's grandmother.

"The car automatically unlocked. Everything was fine. She put our infant, baby Lyla, inside, strapped her in and closed the door," Tinoco said.


https://abc7news.com/post/baby-locked-antioch-familys-general-motors-cadillac-electric-vehicle-sudden-faulty-battery-shuts-car-down/18700840/

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The baby is fine. They were able to get her out after 30 minutes. (That could be fatal in AZ heat)

Still, something to keep in mind.

On edit: shortened for copyright.

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. LOL Sorry, but her children are "cargo"?

[usonian]

2. I carry.

Former Coastie here. "Semper Paratus" Always ready.

A career techie seeking ways to make life better, I found that every solution I came up with basically undoes what technology in the hands of sociopaths and cost-cutters has done.

[hunter]

5. Our local police or fire department might have done it that way...

... said "You're welcome," and left while the car alarm was still blaring.

[usonian]

6. I am reminded of the mostly hidden latch inside Teslas for opening doors in a pinch.

Not exactly what a young child could operate.

Geez, with a solar rooftop, you could just wait ....

Oh never mind. Takes too long to charge up, and what if there's a short circuit?

I have a physical key in the 2018.

[dalton99a]

3. And Cadillac wanted to charge her $1,000

Tinoco says she called the dealership service department first to complain -- adding she then used six pages of notes documenting the process to file a formal complaint to corporate Cadillac. She says she wanted to learn more about what caused the faulty battery and what the company is doing to ensure it wouldn't happen again. But she says she never got clarity from them.

"We put so much faith into this luxury brand," Tinoco said.

Instead, the family got a big bill from the dealership. Tinoco says Cadillac initially charged her for replacing the key fob.

"So, I'm on the hook for nearly $1,000 because of this mistake, or this faulty safety issue," said Tinoco. "So, I pleaded with him. I explained that the only reason why it was broken was because our granddaughter was in serious danger."

[hunter]

4. I'm not sure how that problem is specific to the Cadillac EV.

People have been locking their children and pets in cars for as long as cars have had locking doors.

It seems wise to read the car's manual before driving it. A mechanical key hidden in the fob is pretty common these days Shame on carmakers who hide the mechanical lock away for stylistic reasons. And some chatbot was the most obvious way to discover this? Idiocracy is here.

Those electric flip up door handles have been banned in China for safety reasons. Doors must be unlockable from the inside by purely mechanical means and the unlocking mechanism must be in an obvious place. That seems a common sense requirement to me.

[artemisia1]

7. We need to mandate mechanical releases for EV cars. Of course that makes us anti-Business "Libtards". So what

if they say that. It simply means we have functioning moral compasses.

[haele]

8. My Ionic 9 fobs have a manual "key" for an emergency entry if a battery failed.

Also it could be used put the vehicle in "neutral" for towing.
I'm surprised they didn't have one.

[artemisia1]

9. Elon Musk. No surprise in that its his car.

[flvegan]

10. So even OnStar didn't know to tell them about the "hidden" key. Wow.

Then apparently, you have to unlock the hatch to get in the vehicle with that key, is that right?

But hey, it's all worth it so that we can have cars we can unlock with our phones, right? This is the solution to the problem of...I forget.