Comment Re:Getting a handle on the issue (Score 1) 181
Sort of, not really.
The Fire Service hasn't had a ton of experience with these vehicles yet, as there aren't that many of them on the road, fewer that crash, and fewer that require extrication. There is training to force entry into lots of vehicles, as depending on the class and type, they will fail more easily in certain ways. And by "fail" I mean "succumb to the tools that the FD carries and lets us get into the passenger compartment". Vehicle-specific training is common.
I've had to force a door on exactly one Tesla so far, and it was no harder to force than any other passenger car. The Cybertruck wouldn't give me pause, either. Stainless steel skin vs. several dozen tons of force means it wrinkles up differently than a normal car. The Saturns were more of a pain in the ass.
Almost all of the modern cars are "harder" to get into than the cars a generation ago, and that's a good thing. The passenger compartments are stronger and less likely to have intrusion, making it more likely for the passengers to survive. Beat up, sure, but survive. Techniques we used 20 years ago just don't work as well, but other techniques work just fine. For instance: the glass. A generation ago, all of the side-windows were tempered glass, with only the windscreen being laminated glass. Tempered glass fails with a simple glass punch; laminated glass requires the use of a saw of some sort (a Sawzall with carbide teeth works fine. There are specialty tools, too). Nowadays, we're seeing laminated glass in side windows from all sorts of manufacturers (Mercedes, Audi, BMW, Tesla). Is it slower for emergency services to get though this? Yes. Is it a problem? No. Is it a problem for a car in the water and the occupant has to self-extricate and there's no mechanical system to unlach the door? Hell yes, that's a problem.