Must "Park" to open side doors

22769 Views 31 Replies 22 Participants Last post by VelvetRedAWD, 10 mo ago

PacificaLimited

Discussion Starter · Aug 10, 2016

Just realized today that you must put the vehicle fully in Park in order to operate the side sliding doors. Looked for a setting to override this and found none. Rather annoying when it's only responsible adults in the vehicle.

Example today... busy front area in front of a hospital... wanted to quickly let my sister out at the front door as there was a long line of cars waiting to queue-up to the door. Pull in front, stop, hit the door-open button... nothing. hit it over and over... she starts pressing it... nothing.

Realized after about 10-seconds I need to put it in park first... THEN she can open the door.
I would prefer this to be an option in the Uconnect settings to disable when we are literally just looking to pull-up, passenger jump-out, close door and pull-away.

Not a MAJOR issue, but seems a bit TOO "protective".

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CenTexas

· #2 · Aug 10, 2016

Our 2008 Nissan Quest is the same, including rear gate. I suppose the thought was concern for accidentally pushing the button while driving (little kids, etc) or front passengers searching for the sunroof button who might open the door . . . ("Oh - sorry kids - I'll turn around and come back to get you!")

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PacificaLimited

Discussion Starter · #3 · Aug 10, 2016

I understand disabling while the vehicle is in motion... But when it is fully-stopped, I would think giving the driver's roof-top switches the authority to open the doors would be beneficial.

Again, It is FAR from a "real problem". Now that I KNOW how it works, I can adapt. I just wish there was a way to override it.

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chaim11218

· #4 · Aug 11, 2016

My current sienna works the same way

Tsuter

· #5 · Aug 11, 2016

You can thank the dummy's who can't take accountability for their own actions such as not putting their car in park, and not setting the parking brake when they try to get out and it rolls on them. Why be responsible when you can blame somebody else? Right?
...steps off soap box...
But you can bet somewhere back in the day, before they had the interlock, somebody opened a door while moving and had some sort of accident. So now we all get the interlock.

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hawkfan

· #6 · Aug 11, 2016

This is an odd behavior. My Odyssey would operate the side doors with the vehicle stopped and still in drive. I think it was added to their 2011+ years.

BrettP

· #7 · Aug 11, 2016

After so many freak accidents in recent years plus Anton Yelchin's death last June, I think the trend will be to add even more safety steps and safety interlocks to protect us from ourselves.

Reactions: 1

PacificaLimited

Discussion Starter · #8 · Aug 22, 2016

I guess... I just start to wonder where the "gray area" stops... at what point is it becoming a nanny state of things...?

Similarly, when I am going through the car wash in Neutral and I get to the end of the tunnel after the blowers, normally, one would just click their gear-shifter down one notch into Drive and pull away.

With THIS selector, you cannot just rotate the dial from Neutral to Drive... you MUST touch the brake pedal (even if just slightly) to turn the knob into Drive. It's an awkward added step that feels (to me) like an inconvenient overcompensation for the actions of an extremely rare few.

That is based on having DECADES of driving experience behind me though... it might be perfectly acceptable and become "normal" to newer drivers and future drivers. If it saves even ONE life, then it was OBVIOUSLY worth the inconvenience.

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ezdays

· #9 · Aug 22, 2016

What happens once you have the side door open, then try to drive away? I think on our T&C we got a warning gong but that's all, I haven't tried it on our Pacifica yet....

PacificaLimited

Discussion Starter · #10 · Aug 22, 2016

ezdays said:
What happens once you have the side door open, then try to drive away? I think on our T&C we got a warning gong but that's all, I haven't tried it on our Pacifica yet....

It starts shutting the door once I try putting it back into "Drive"

Damoncaravanman

· #11 · Aug 28, 2016

All my past vans with the auto sliding doors did the same, so no big deal to me.

dolee7

· #12 · Aug 29, 2016

side doors

very much a pain in the you no where but i can live with it.I think my 2013 I alwayes had to either open my drivers side door or unlock button before you could open back doors dont know if I had to put in park fist dont remember but I know people would try to get out before I did this a big pain.

Jaypoocha

· #13 · Aug 29, 2016

Park to Open the side doors!

My 12 year old twin daughters absolutely hate that I must place the car in park for the sliding doors to operate without manually sliding them open when in the carpool line for drop-offs in the morning! It is a nuisance and adds an extra 7 seconds or so to the process! This is the perfect example of a design / product engineer not getting real world feedback from its users! Come on Chrysler, so many firsts, please don't be the last manufacture to allow the side doors to slide open upon a complete stop without placing the car in Park! Most annoying!

Reactions: 1

cue003

· #14 · Aug 29, 2016

Jaypoocha said:
My 12 year old twin daughters absolutely hate that I must place the car in park for the sliding doors to operate without manually sliding them open when in the carpool line for drop-offs in the morning! It is a nuisance and adds an extra 7 seconds or so to the process! This is the perfect example of a design / product engineer not getting real world feedback from its users! Come on Chrysler, so many firsts, please don't be the last manufacture to allow the side doors to slide open upon a complete stop without placing the car in Park! Most annoying!

Agreed and is really a PAIN. Chrysler should make this an option in uconnect. Trunk and sliding doors on complete stop from front controls or park enabled first.

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gmo

· #15 · Aug 30, 2016

I suppose I can see the safety concerns with allowing the door to open while the van is in Drive.

I find it annoying as well - but better than an accidental passenger discharge lol. I'm sure it's happened somewhere!

I have little ones so I turn on the child locks on the rear doors, so it can only be opened from the outside. It only effects me when picking someone up.

PacificaLimited

Discussion Starter · #16 · Aug 30, 2016

gmo said:
I suppose I can see the safety concerns with allowing the door to open while the van is in Drive.

I find it annoying as well - but better than an accidental passenger discharge lol. I'm sure it's happened somewhere!

I have little ones so I turn on the child locks on the rear doors, so it can only be opened from the outside. It only effects me when picking someone up.

Well... I do not feel that it has to be "one-way". As I mentioned earlier, it would be nice for the system to come shipped/delivered with the safety feature enabled, but allow the OWNER to go into Uconnect safety settings and disable the "Must be in Park" feature... or at the very least, allow the DRIVER of the vehicle to operate the overhead switches (disable the local handle/button for passengers) when the vehicle is at a full-stop.

There are probably a handful of alternate solutions that honor the INTENT of this feature without having an overarching all-or-nothing approach.

builttwospill

· #17 · Aug 30, 2016

Did you try opening the door manually, does that work?

PacificaLimited

Discussion Starter · #18 · Aug 30, 2016

builttwospill said:
Did you try opening the door manually, does that work?

Yes. And my presumption is that THAT is the very reason for the override... so young kids in the back cannot just inadvertently (or intentionally) just open the door on their own - potentially causing injury or worse.

... and I GET that... I agree with limiting what children can do to doors in a moving vehicle.

When at a full-stop, if the car is NOT in park, my passengers were NOT able to manually open the doors, open using the button... nor could I open them from the overhead controls ... not until I put the car in "Park".

BrettP

· #19 · Aug 30, 2016

When court lawyers ask the car representative in front of a jury if they did EVERYTHING IN THEIR POWER to prevent little Sally from being hurt and the answer is "well, not ...everything..." jurors today have absolutely no problem awarding $900M judgements against big, evil, deep pocket car companies even though car companies pass 100% of that cost right on through to future customers who may or may not have the deep pockets themselves to absorb the cost.

Sadly, it can still get far worse, I'm afraid. One court case at a time they could choose to require the transmission in PARK, the emergency brake engaged, wheels to the curb if on an incline, the engine completely off, four way flashers on, radio volume turned all the way down, the horn tooted and headlights flashed TBD times as a warning to others, no approaching vehicles detected and you have to answer ARE YOU SURE. Y/N in Uconnect (at least twice) :wink2:before allowing a back seat person to open that door - especially if the driver hasn't already been required to open their front door first and get out so they can actively assist the person in the back seat. A few additional lines of computer code is all it would take and in the future we may look back at 2017 as the good old days, haha.

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Damoncaravanman

· #20 · Aug 31, 2016

I am use to it and 7 extra sec. are not going to kill anyone.

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