Tesla owner ask for an emergency Supercharger unlock mechanism after the Twin Falls shooting incident

Although the shooter in the Twin Falls, Idaho incident is now deceased, he has left a terrible mark on the community. And not just the people living in Twin Falls, but for the Tesla Community as well.

On Saturday, 24-year-old Chad Williams randomly started shooting outside the recently opened In-N-Out Burger location in Twin Falls, Idaho. Interestingly, a Tesla Supercharger is attached to this restaurant for the convenience of Tesla owners.

During the sad shooting incident, the shooter went to the Supercharger station and shot through the windscreen of a Tesla Model Y that was being charged at the time (video below).

Sadly, these bullets injured the person sitting in the driver’s seat of the vehicle. This victim is identified as Terry Dudley, who works as a taxi operator for North Star Taxi, a business in Twin Falls. Terry has survived the shooting but has a long road to recovery, according to his employer.

Above: The Twin Falls shooter shooting through the windscreen of a Tesla at the In-N-Out Supercharger station.

Above: Son of Terry Dudley talks to the media for the first time. 

Emergency Supercharger Cable Release

When a Tesla is charging using a Supercharger cable, the plug is locked to the charging port. Driving is disabled during charging.

To put the car in drive, the Tesla Supercharger cable has to be manually released from the vehicle’s charging port (first press Unlock Charge Port on the screen or press the button on the charging adaptor/plug; functions can vary depending on the generation of the vehicle and Supercharger stall).

Sometimes, the plug gets locked to the port and doesn’t unlatch even when pressing the button on the plug or pulling it out. To release the cable, there is an emergency release cable located behind the charge port that can be accessed after opening the trunk (video below).

This charge port lock mechanism does not allow a Tesla driver to quickly escape a situation like the recent mass shooting in Twin Falls, Idaho. The situation gets worse if the driver is unable to go outside of his car and unlatch the cable to flee.

After the In-N-Out shooting incident, Tesla owners are asking the company to allow them an emergency exit from a Supercharger station.

One suggestion that I particularly liked is to charge a reasonably high fee for using such an emergency exit feature. If there is a way to quickly unlatch the cable while sitting inside a Tesla vehicle, it would be even better.

Higher fees for such a feature would reduce the abuse of this emergency-only feature. Tesla can even charge more for damage to equipment (like the charging cable, plug, and the Supercharger stall, etc.).

Anyone would pay a fee if the feature is life-saving in such a situation. However, according to some, if a person is shooting directly through the windshield, this feature would still not help.

A Tesla owner, Aryan Butala, wrote on X:

Heres an idea for safety at superchargers:

It branches off EVject. Tesla could add an emergency release feature to allow cars to drive away while the car is plugged into a charger.

It would work by trying to put your car into drive while plugged in, and it will ask you “are you sure you want to drive? A fine will be charged to your account”. If you choose to proceed, the charger will unlock and just fall out of the port allowing you to escape.

The fine could be $100-300 to prevent people doing it frequently, but in a real emergency, anyone would pay that to save their life. (or whatever the cost would be for supercharger damage) This is nothing against EVject, I just think this could be a useful feature. Tesla cares deeply about safety, so I hope this is something they have thought about.

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Featured image: Channel Korean Jay / YouTube.

Note: This article was published earlier on Tesla Oracle. Author: Iqtidar Ali.