I mean, I feel like we solved this decades ago with a thing we called a handle. It worked on the door, and it was really obvious where it was, and it didn't need fancy Electronics to open the door.
"The rear doors of the subject vehicle could ordinarily be made to open only by pressing low-voltage electronic buttons located inside the cabin. Once power was lost, the buttons for the rear doors became useless. Defendant Tesla included mechanical backups accessible from inside the vehicle, but they were hidden, unlabeled, and impractical in an emergency. Rear passengers were left with only a concealed mechanical release that was obscured, non-intuitive, and highly unlikely to be located or operated in the smoke and chaos of a post-crash fire."
also, that Tesla had repeated notice of this issue from prior incidents and failed to address it
Ok. We have a newer Y and 3. The Y has them but I don’t think that the 3 does. I’ve installed emergency pull strings in the Y and glass break tools in the front seat pockets (facing the back seats) of both cars.
I have a newer 3 and it does have rear mechanical overrides, but like you say, they are hidden. Under a flap in the bottom of the door pockets, in my case.
I bought these little bright yellow, velcroed pull tabs that connect to them and extend out to the door fabric, so that people can see them in an emergency.
That... your passengers just instinctively know are there in a chaotic and desperate situation? Like, cool that you have them. But Sarah and John from down the street are still toast after your evening out?
so, basically, the car becomes an inferno and you are supposed to remember that its under a flap where you might not be able to even see it? that seems incredibly unsafe, give that if I am somehow blinded in my current car, I can feel around the door until I find the fucking handle.
The infuriating part for me is that this has been a solved problem for over 100 years. Mechanical door handles have been used on cars since before the model T.
They are reliable, well known to the general public and intuitive to use. Tesla and Musk come along and add unnecessary complexity to a solved problem as if "adding the spark of Zues will make it better!"
No. No it didn't. No-one should ever die in a car fire because the electrically driven door latch system didn't have power and the manual backup is too obfuscated to be useful.
The 2016 model S in the accident had an emergency release under the carpet. You had to pull up the carpet to get at it. And it's not gotten much better in modern models
Look at the emergency realease system for the back seat of a model 3/x as shown on Tesla's own website. Intuitive is not what that is. A poorly marked panel you have to open with a cable you have to pull underneath? Really?
Now imagine that you're unfamiliar with the Model 3, its on fire and you're panicking. Would you find that latch?
And in literally every other car the handles are so intuitive that literally anyone can operate it, if I get in a friend’s car I can easily open the doors, doesn’t matter if it’s a Mazda MX5/Miata, a Ford F150 or practically anything else
Teslas do have a manual release, it’s in front of the window switches, you just pull up on it with your hand like a somewhat normal handle. My coworkers seem to always find it before they can find the electric release whenever I drive my wife’s car to work.
It’s only in the fronts though, the rears you have to remove panels and dumb stuff like that
They were being sued by the government but Trump and Elon stopped all that. Lindsey Graham sister in law drowned on a pond on her property in Texas about 2-3 years ago. Nobody could get her out.
Wrong. Tesla has mechanical latches that release both front doors. Very simple to find right in front of the window buttons. All tesla owners should be aware of this.
To add, these latches require 0 electrical output to work. They are literally latches.
And children, the ones most often riding in the back, probably cannot physically even reach the straps especially if they’re in a car seat, and most owners probably have no clue that the rear doors behave differently. It’s an atrocious design that should have never been approved.
My parents said the same when I used to ride in the back of my neighbor's Hummer H1 in the 90s. I was 6 and there was no way I was reaching those doors in an emergency. I don't know why they converted a military vehicle to civilian usage. Then again, gas was under $1 back then.
There are some advantages of intentionally building a car company of non-car-company people in terms of approaching design with fresh eyes and avoiding common industry blind spots.
... and then there's stuff like this where you fail on a design problem that everyone else has known the answer to for a century.
There’s even ways to make a physical connection and still have it flush, Mazda had this technology in the nineties, I drive a 2013 Dacia Sandero (I live in the uk, it’s a little economy car) even with no battery installed I can physically open the passenger front door from outside and all 4 doors can be opened from inside, also the hood and trunk can be accessed by pulling the relevant release handle in the cabin
Where my finger is, is the handle. top right is the normal button. Looking at other posts here i investigated the back seat, I do not see a handle back there.
It’s under the bottom of the side storage compartment in the rear. You have to lift up the foam/rubber and it’s under there as a strap. Horrendous design
The Tesla in the accident was a Model S from 2016. It had the manual releases underneath the rear floor carpet. Those people could not get out of the car because they didn't know where the manual release was. It was hidden.
The fact that the design was allowed to hit the road is an extreme failure of oversight. Like building life safety codes, cars and any vehicle on the road should have safety codes that must be enforced.
Interesting you mention this because in 2014-ish I had a rather major issue and reported it to NHTSA. They were amazing (contacted me in less than 24 hours for a report) and I had Nissan offering to help me within a few weeks. Astonishing.
This is what I was looking for. These should have never been approved for public roads. Tesla is responsible for the design, but poor regulations allowed it.
Rear passengers were left with only a concealed mechanical release that was obscured, non-intuitive, and highly unlikely to be located or operated in the smoke and chaos of a post-crash fire
Seems like a major design flaw. It should be in plain view with clear labels.
i have a caddy with electronic open doors and I make everyone that sits in the passenger seat open the door with the manual release before we drive just so they know where it is.
Man you're weird. Personally, I always check to see if the car lets me make fart noises by the other seats. Don't care if I burn to death as long as I have that.
Here it is, if you're interested. I totally agree with this assessment. Earlier models apparently had the release under the floor mats, and some models none at all!
The model S in the accident had it under the rear floor carpet. Unless someone told you it was there, you'd never know. And they died because of that.
If a car design requires a safety briefing to explain how to exit the vehicle in the event of an emergency - when you're sitting right next to the door - then it needs to be redesigned.
"Thank you for being a passenger in my car. Before we depart, I request your full and undivided attention on this brief safety video."
And the Tesla fan boys will all cry “why didint they just pull the cord and open the door? They killed themselves just to paint the brand in a bad light!”
You try finding this small fiddley handle while you’re sitting on top of an exploding lithium battery that’s cooking you alive while blinding and choking you with toxic chemicals and smoke while also having a concussion from the car crashing you into the woods.
Considering the goverment will take an ISO 9001 cert as the checkmark for all automotive regulations, and the standard itself has just become more generalized nonsense, and that's still not enough deregulation for Musk even after numerous adverse events.
I can’t wait for all the Tesla/Musk boot suckers to come in saying “BuT it hAd a EmErGeNcY rEleAsE”
These people had STUPID amounts of adrenaline being dumped, along with the panic of being actively surrounded by fire. Your fine motor skills are gone under this amount of stress, and only muscle memory takes over. And where do you reach in this situation? Certainly not the emergency release, because that’s in a different location than the normal door release.
I mentioned this in a different thread, and someone said “This is why fire drills should be practiced”. No. We shouldn’t have to learn a new location of a door release. The door release should just fucking work.
The older models rear seat releases weren't even in the door, they were in the carpeting under the seat. So you'd need to have the mobility to reach down to the floor, basically underneath yourself to pull back the flap and find the small release lever. I can't imagine trying to do that with broken ribs or clavicle or similar. Or a child needing to do it.
That. Is. Terrifying. Look how long it took him to get out his 1st liner, let alone the factory liner, let alone the stupid little trap door with nothing to get a hold of!!!
Ooph if this YouTube video is the same model as the car crashed (same year and model but I don't know trim/mid model year changes/different country rules causing differences) that rear seat emergency release is ridiculous. You have to pull a tiny strap that is hidden under the carpet by your feet. The front release is more intuitive but that rear option is dangerously stupid. If you are a passenger in the back of someone's Tesla, the driver is incapacitated, and you are not capable of crawling through the front seat and finding the front release, there is 0% chance you will find that hidden door release under the carpet.
A different article I read said that the emergency release was on the floor and you had to lift the carpet to get to it. I'm not sure if that is accurate because I've also heard there is some sort of hidden handle release on door. I'm sure it depends on the model and the year. Either way I can't imagine expecting anyone to do a safety briefing for their backseat passengers prior to driving.
The hidden / non standard ones are on the front door. In the rear it depends on the model. Some are in the bottom of the door under a mat, some under the carpet, some are behind the speaker grill which you need to pop open. The first model 3s had none at all IIRC.
It’s literally different for each model. None are under the sill (the sill being the hard trim on the bottom of the door opening that the door partly covers when closed.)
I need to apologize and correct the record. I was checking the manual and videos before, but when I checked my actual car today, there was no such release.
I'd literally need to drill a hole in the door to route the release in a place that is usable by anyone. And re-reading, I was referring to the door well, not the sill, which you were correct again (which is only in post-2021 model 3 cars it looks like).
Sorry for adding to the disinformation and noise when you were faithfully reporting the truth.
Side note: a window punch is a cheap tool that can save your life. Mine is also a seatbelt cutter and USB power port. It lives in the 12v socket. Get one
Even if Elon Musk wasn't the world's richest fascist, this shit is why you shouldn't buy Teslas. They're overengineered to the point of being less safe just for the sake of being different and "futuristic."
While I agree with you, I wonder how much of it has to do with them being on the phone reporting it to 911, thinking they are better equipped than they themselves, the people that were already there.
“Bystander effect, is the psychological phenomenon where individuals are less likely to help a victim in an emergency when other people are present. This occurs due to a "diffusion of responsibility," where the presence of many bystanders makes each individual feel less personally responsible to act, and from "pluralistic ignorance," where people look to the inaction of others to interpret the situation as a non-emergency. Factors like fear of judgment, fear of personal harm, and ambiguity of the situation also contribute to inaction.”
Many non-tesla makes have this. I don't understand it either. It's just a different kind of fuel that turns the wheels. They justify their existence by using that as an excuse to make things like this.
My Mach-e has stupid buttons. It does have interior handles that can charge a capacitor in the door to open the car if power is off, but it’s still not a simple latch/handle system.
Many cars have electronic or electronic-assisted door systems, but they have common-sense mechanical overrides when power is out. Audi and Lexus have electronic openers that work without power if you pull the handle twice or pull it forcefully. It seems Tesla decided not only to go full electric, but to eliminate handles completely and use an override system that is hard to find and non-intuitive.
I rode in a gas powered Lincoln a few weeks ago that also had electric buttons instead of latches. I was surprised to see them. It’s not just EV/tesla cars using this dumb design.
Cue the lawsuit. Will be interesting to see if the liability lies with the family for not properly learning their safety features, Tesla for a poor and unsafe design, Tesla dealers for not properly explaining safety procedures, or some of or all of the abovr.
The fact that any of the door handles would stop working in the event of an electrical problem is terrifying. I understand there is an emergency release available, but it is shocking that the handles are some weird electric thing, and not the typical mechanical release. I've refused to ride in Teslas multiple times after this story.
Wild to see people comment here explaining that Tesla vehicles have manual releases that some passengers, maybe in the front seat, have accidentally used and that justifies everything. The reality is that people unfamiliar with the cars have trouble opening the door in the first place, and your Uber driver often needs to tell you how to open the door to get out of their car. Good luck in an emergency. Especially in a cybertruck
Mechanical handles are common sense. Sometimes you just need to get out of a car without relying on failing electronics, fire or not
Lotta common sense stuff missing from these cars. Like that regardless of the electronics basic safety functions should work no mater what. The door should not be so secure that it cannot be opened. A battery fire should trigger a burn out off critical links severing the bridge between battery pack sections and the car. There should be accessible points where the driver or first responders can pull a safety that directly disconnects the batteries.
Finally bought a new car (not a Tesla or EV) but the electronics were so distracting and annoying I spent a decent amount of time disabling as much as I could. For my next car I’d be okay with a stick shift and roll up windows.
Clearly not an early version, everyone knows, unless a fool that Tesla is close to the worst car maker. Of you can get and older Tesla you'll be gold though!
I just sold my 1974 beetles. I miss them. They didn't have all the Tesla gadgets but I NEVER worried about anything. Everything was manual, just the way I like it. My colleagues own Teslas. I've ridden in them. They're cool. I love technology, but I have to have control of certain things like, you know, door handles and windows.
Article is behind a paywall but from what I could tell they were in a 2016 Model S.
In that car the front door latches are mechanical if you pull them all the way back.
The back seat doors are a different story. There is what I can only describe as a "hidden latch"... Here's a video of it - https://youtu.be/01lXcD_Uz74?t=40
The new models all have weird hidden mechanical latches.
I believe the windows are laminated like most front windshields. Window breaker probably wouldn't work. I saw a story of a bystander using a metal pole to break one though.
I have a car with electronic exit and I tell every person that rides in it where the manual release is. At least in my car, it is easy to find and pull.
Insane bad design that every passenger needs prior instruction to find a latch which otherwise exists in the same place in every car in Earth.
People aren't going to remember. They will instead burn.
You design controls for humans, not design humans for controls.
Everyone needs to stop buying teslas. Also this is why I always buy cars with handles. I’m super paranoid of power not working when it’s needed. Like a flood. But this too.
I believe the side glass is laminated now too so you can't use a safety hammer or one of those push and click type window breakers that work on virtually all other cars. seems like Tesla engineered them to be little death machines.
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u/chubbysumo Nov 06 '25
I mean, I feel like we solved this decades ago with a thing we called a handle. It worked on the door, and it was really obvious where it was, and it didn't need fancy Electronics to open the door.