But the latch was probably clearly described in the owner's manual. I'm not sure GM is responsible for second owners when the feature to unlock the car was there although not intuitive.

Peace to his family.

Its not a complicated design. I don't see how GM is at fault. I realize that most latches are on the door, but for various reasons, GM did not go that route. The GM is a sports car, and a goal of sports cars to save weight, so the latch is on the body of the car, not on the door. This makes a manual latch on the door impossible.

There is a manual override lever next to each seat. Between the seat and the door. Where should GM put it to make it more accessible if not there? This is clearly not like the ignition switch which was bad design and a cover up.

On edit:

Perhaps the lever should be colored blaze orange.

It is just intuitive. If my car door wouldn't unlock then I would be looking all over the door for a way to fix it. I wouldn't necessarily be looking at the floorboard.

I've loaded up the trunk of my car a thousand times, changed hard to get to lightbulbs but I couldn't tell you were the emergency release was. I usually have to look at the manual as to find the release to get the headlight cover off. Engineers don't always make it easy for laymen even though it may make sense to them.

GM discontinued the all electronic door probably because of customer confusion/complaints. If it was a great design they would have implemented it fleet-wide. IMHO

I happen to be a RTFM geek so I have an admitted bias toward familiarizing myself with everything I buy by reading the manual.

That's really not normal I know.

Was when Microsoft stopped printing paper manuals for their OS (probably win98 maybe win95). I used to read every word of all several hundred pages. I knew ever switch/parameter available for every command and experimented with all of them. I probably only know 10% of what is available in Win7. Online documentation is just not the same thing.

is because the latch mechanism isn't in the door. It's in the door jamb at the rear of the door.

I'm just saying that it isn't intuitive as the story presents. Engineeers do what they can it just doesn't always work well for the final customer.

Don't get me started on remote controls for electronic devices that have 40 tiny buttons and then the hold shift for the second tier of functions. Ugh! There is a point where less is more.

I can't see all those flipping buttons.

In the case of the Corvette, it was all about weight savings, which is important on a car many people will do competitive racing with on a track. Every pound counts. When the car is "burdened" with mandated safety equipment, such as airbags, etc, they will look for places to save weight anywhere they can. The electronic door opening system eliminated all the door latch mechanism inside the doors and saved, IIRC, 5-10 lbs. That doesn't sound like much, but it adds up. A real big part of the Corvette's performance is it's light weight. A Mustang, for instance, can weigh about 1,000 pounds more than a Corvette.

He could have looked up the manual door operation. Unless the glove compartment had an electronic lock also.

The power lock on the drivers side door stopped working and I forgot I had manual locks. I climbed across the console and out the passenger side window before I realized it and I wasn't even half this mans age at the time so I don't think it's an age thing. No, it's more a side effect of technology in my opinion.

You never know when these modern cars are going to have failures. My Tesla's electronic door opener has failed and needed repair 4 times (including right now). It keeps me out of the car, not in, but who knows what's next.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=emergency+escape+tool

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_16?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=automatic+center+punch&sprefix=automatic+center%2Caps%2C162

an automatic center punch or emergency escape hammer should included in that model free of charge.

it is a snug fit, if I flip, I think it will stay there, it has a seat belt cutter and an air bag puncture as well as the window breaker.

Car companies must address this problem, similar to the manual unlock in the trunk.

Is the Corvette impossible to open from the inside without special knowledge?

The doors are electric, and the normal opener won't function if there's an electrical problem or dead battery. To deal with those emergency situations, there is an emergency pull handle on the floor that will open the door. It's not well marked and blends with the trim though, so it's not instantly apparent.

My brother in law owns a 2012 Vette. I probably rode in the car a dozen times before I noticed the handle. It's not exactly hidden, but it doesn't jump out at you either. The image below shows the setup. The button on the door is the electric release. The lever on the floor is the manual override. When the door is closed, the floor is fairly dark and it's WAY harder to see.

Clears things up a bit.

GM must think it is an okay design if they are still using it.

We have to remember the guy was 72 and may have panicked.

There is a very simple manual latch next to each seat. It is clearly described in the owner's manual. He also could have unlatched the removable roof and exited that way.

I have heard stories about people who were not aware being trapped in the car until they figured it out. I have never heard of anyone dying over it, though.

existed.

I always had cars that could be either opened only manually (years ago), or both electrically and manually
in more recent times. The door handles were built to work both ways. To die of heat is one of the more
painful ways of going.

The Corvette can be opened manually from inside the car. Several ways. See my post #11. This guy just didn't know how.

Why was he unable to start the car? Was the "cable" a loose battery cable? Why did the door lock when he closed it? Did he lock it? Why did he get in the car and close the door if he was just checking on his dog and was going back inside?

It's not so much that the door locks, it just requires electrical power to be opened by the button normally used to open it. The manual latch is a backup opener if there is no power.

Pulling the door handle twice unlatches the door. There's also a lock knob on the top of the door panel.

people with electric everything. The water shorted out the door and window controls and they drowned, I made sure after that all my vehices had rolldown windows and didn't have power locks.

It's getting harder to find vehicles like that. I don't live in a flood prone area and don't care anymore. But the people that drowned in those situations were not as dumb as one might think.

There was one underpass in particular that I knew had a steep dip under a bridge. It was my usual route. One night I was in my fifth hour trying to find my way home as the freeway was flooded. I had to take all kinds of side streets, and drove on the side walks some of the way.

But I saw that one road I used every day had water and knew to see the water reflecting the street lamps in the dark like that, it had to be at least thirty feet deep. Those who didn't know the area well had drowned before there, so I veered off. It took me from 4 PM to 1 AM to get home. Then shower and get ready for the next day's work at 7 AM.

I feel real bad for this man and his dog, at least they were together at the end. FWIW, which is not very much. Very sad way to go out of this life.

Short of a dead battery, the horn will always work.

How could such a thing happen?!

It's criminal negligence doing something like this, in my opinion. Deserves to be prosecuted.

And for what?

Not true for Corvettes?