Adapting a child’s Ride on Tesla

[999gsi]

• ***MODS.. I’m not sure where to post this so please relocate if I’m in the wrong forum.****

Advice needed please…

Ive just started as a volunteer at my local children’s Hospice.

A parent kindly donated two Tesla electric children's cars. Due to the rules and regulations regarding H&S, liabilities and risk of injury , the cars are currently unable to be used. The cars don’t have seat belts, the edges of the cockpit are plastic and should the car hit something head on there is a high risk of severe damage to the vehicles.

Are there any companies that can make the cars child proof and/or can anyone help with regards to making them 99.99% safe.

Being a hospice the children are severely disabled, some are terminally Ill and sadly some are end of life . However some of the users are brothers and sisters of our residents.

The cars are fantastic but are collecting dust because no one is sure what to do with them. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Ive spoke to the powers that be and they are happy for me to do some research into making the cars available to the children at some point in the future.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Due to confidentiality, I cannot name the hospice..

Thank you … Phil.

A generic image is hopefully shown below.

https://kidsmotorcar.com/telsa-models-s-radio-flye..._store=us&_from_store=zh

Edited by 999gsi on Friday 14th October 20:29

[mike9009]

I don't quite understand why they are not being used? What does the risk assessment say that is prohibiting their use by the kids? Not CE marked? Or is there something inherently dangerous about them?

I suspect some quite simple pragmatic steps could enable them to be used, for example adult supervision, over 3 years old only, kids banned if they deliberately ram them, etc etc

[sherman]

Honestly you will ruin them if you adapt them.

I would say raffle or auction them off at your next charity night and use the money for something that can be used.

[Krikkit]

Surely a speed limiter to keep it at walking pace would avoid all the concerns? Perhaps an adult with an override remote who can stop it immediately.

Wouldn't be hard to have done.

[ME1982]

I have added a remote kill switch to my sons ride on which was needed as it was at a speed I was borderline comfortable with. I believe a lot of people just adapt a garage door remote switch. Feel free to contact me privately if you have any further questions.
Ps not offering a service just trying to help 😊

[Skellum]

Sorry OP, you're wasting your time on this.
The car looks a lot like a clone of a Maserati version we have for our granddaughter. That suggests to me it has a remote control. Has anyone checked? We can take full control at any point.
Ours has been crashed into everything in the house and garden- and no, it didn't suffer 'severe damage'. Maybe someone should crash-test the Tesla versions to see for themselves?
Your real problem here is an organisation with such pathological risk aversion it can't accept that a commercially available product freely available to the public is 'safe'. You won't convince them. As someone else has suggested, they might as well sell them and buy some Lego.

[Decky_Q]

Yeah also seems to be exactly the same as a range rover version I got for my kids, it came with a bluetooth remote so an adult can override and control it if it looks like they are going to do something dangerous and the ad says as much. Also it was crashed many times and never suffered anything more than scratched plastic. I'd imagine it's safe to use as is. If theres sharp edges inside rub them down with sandpaper?

The real risk with ours was it's a 2 seater so one kid tries to get out while the other was still driving.

Also no seatbelts isnt really an issue with a top speed lower than walking speed.

Edited by Decky_Q on Sunday 16th October 12:22

[dave_s13]

Skellum said:

Sorry OP, you're wasting your time on this.
The car looks a lot like a clone of a Maserati version we have for our granddaughter. That suggests to me it has a remote control. Has anyone checked? We can take full control at any point.
Ours has been crashed into everything in the house and garden- and no, it didn't suffer 'severe damage'. Maybe someone should crash-test the Tesla versions to see for themselves?
Your real problem here is an organisation with such pathological risk aversion it can't accept that a commercially available product freely available to the public is 'safe'. You won't convince them. As someone else has suggested, they might as well sell them and buy some Lego.

Choke hazard. Think of the children man!

Doesn't this depend on the area they have available? Kids in a battery powered car, in a hospital environment immediately make me think of them being crashed into beds, equipment, other people, snagging a chemo line and dragging it off into the distance, that sort of thing.

You could always get some foam pipe lagging and glue it round the bottom, bumper car style. A nod to safety but might be ok.

[TorqueVR]

Skellum said:

Sorry OP, you're wasting your time on this.
The car looks a lot like a clone of a Maserati version we have for our granddaughter. That suggests to me it has a remote control. Has anyone checked? We can take full control at any point.
Ours has been crashed into everything in the house and garden- and no, it didn't suffer 'severe damage'. Maybe someone should crash-test the Tesla versions to see for themselves?
Your real problem here is an organisation with such pathological risk aversion it can't accept that a commercially available product freely available to the public is 'safe'. You won't convince them. As someone else has suggested, they might as well sell them and buy some Lego.

I agree - the car's fine , it's the adults who are problem. It's a shame that someone has made an expensive donation for the kids to enjoy only to be thwarted by a risk-averse jobsworth. FFS it's a kiddie's car - it's MEANT to be used by kids.

[DonkeyApple]

I suspect the honest answer is to not waste a penny of charitable time or money making them work for the children who would most benefit. They'll probably get smashed up by perfectly healthy kids anyway.

Work out the best way to sell them for the most amount of money possible (raffle them?) and invest the proceeds into something that the unwell children can use very easily, without any risk and as often as possible and is tough enough to survive the apocalypse.

[Rozzers]

Wait till they see bicycles or roller skates….

[FazerBoy]

Skellum said:

As someone else has suggested, they might as well sell them and buy some Lego.

Have you ever trodden on a piece of lego in bare feet? The pain, the pain…

[999gsi]

Please forgive my lack of reply.... unfortunately I've been in hospital with pneumonia and haven't been on here.

I'm surprised at some of the comments... the cars are similar in size to the electric cars you can buy in Smyths toys etc.. no idea where the commentators have got the idea they will be wrecked by adults and other children !!!

Having being donated by a third party, I gather a charity cannot just sell them on...I need to look into that..

I appreciate some of the answers and hopefully I can modify them for the intended recipients to use..

[sherman]

999gsi said:

Please forgive my lack of reply.... unfortunately I've been in hospital with pneumonia and haven't been on here.

I'm surprised at some of the comments... the cars are similar in size to the electric cars you can buy in Smyths toys etc.. no idea where the commentators have got the idea they will be wrecked by adults and other children !!!

Having being donated by a third party, I gather a charity cannot just sell them on...I need to look into that..

I appreciate some of the answers and hopefully I can modify them for the intended recipients to use..

Why would the gifter not be happy for the charity to use the gift in the most useful to them way?
Be it a raffle prize or for the kids use.