Chao, the billionaire former CEO of dry bulk shipping giant Foremost Group, tragically died at the age of 50 on Feb. 10 after accidentally backing her car into the pond making a three-point turn.
If you can’t get the windows down before the water pressure seals them shut, it’s still survivable without a glass breaker if you keep your wits about you and the car doesn’t flip. You’d need to take a deep breath right before the interior completely fills with water and then just sit there until the pressure mostly equalizes. There was at least one reported case of someone in a submerged car specifically crediting their survival to Mythbusters successfully showing just that, but a variation of the scenario involving the car flipping while sinking into deeper water later proved to be much less survivable.
Someone else in this comment thread pointed out that Tesla’s windows are laminated and not tempered so a glass break doesn’t actually work on them.
I just did a quick “fact check” as I was writing this and apparently there are multiple cars that are going to laminated glass windows. I’ll have to add that to the list of things I don’t want and have to check next time I’m shopping for a car.
If you can’t get the windows down before the water pressure seals them shut, it’s still survivable without a glass breaker if you keep your wits about you and the car doesn’t flip. You’d need to take a deep breath right before the interior completely fills with water and then just sit there until the pressure mostly equalizes. There was at least one reported case of someone in a submerged car specifically crediting their survival to Mythbusters successfully showing just that, but a variation of the scenario involving the car flipping while sinking into deeper water later proved to be much less survivable.
Someone else in this comment thread pointed out that Tesla’s windows are laminated and not tempered so a glass break doesn’t actually work on them.
I just did a quick “fact check” as I was writing this and apparently there are multiple cars that are going to laminated glass windows. I’ll have to add that to the list of things I don’t want and have to check next time I’m shopping for a car.
I’ve just learned that laminated glass is now mandatory across all models since 2020.
https://lifelinerescuetools.com/blog/3397/