4 ms·

Tesla is looking to redesign its door handles following trapped-passenger report

68 points by rawgabbit 1y ago

PaulHoule 1y ago
See https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a66052483/china-possible-ban-fully-retractable-door-handles-for-cars/ https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a66052483/china-possible-b...
ashleyn 1y ago
You would think the therac-25 was enough of an engineering lesson on designing safety-critical systems in software that lack hardware redundancy. Maybe they didn't consider the door handles "safety critical".
- burnt-resistor 1y ago
  Elon does watch or understand USCSB or their videos, he defunds them because he "knows better". https://www.youtube.com/@USCSB https://www.youtube.com/@USCSB
- marcosdumay 1y ago
  I don't know about hardware redundancy, but yes for at least "easily verifiable limiters". What is "hardware" anyway? Does a microcontroller-based integrator or debouncer count? Depending on how you define that, it can become a serious roadblocker. But anyway, I guess that point is moot for a door handle, you can fix it with stuff that is unambiguously hardware.
  - chrismeller 1y ago
    > What is "hardware" anyway? Does a microcontroller-based integrator or debouncer count? Hmm, good question. In this context, I guess "continues to work after the EMP"?
    - marcosdumay 1y ago
      So, antennas and grid power are forbidden, microprocessors and batteries are permitted? Do you expect a mechanical wave to come with the EMP or it originates in space?
- lawn 1y ago
  Another lesson not learnt from therac-25 (and really most disasters caused by humans) is that safety is a cultural issue, that needs to be taken seriously from top to bottom in the organization. This is clearly not the case with Tesla.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
pengaru 1y ago
Electric retractable door handles is such a stupid gimmick. I once pulled over to help a stranded Model S driver with a flat tire in the Mojave desert. Every door handle had a zip tie hanging off it because they _all_ had failed present mechanisms. Junk
- 3D30497420 1y ago
  Apparently non-retractable door handles have only a very minor impact on drag/efficiency: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/09/flush-door-handles-are-the-car-industrys-latest-safety-problem/ https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/09/flush-door-handles-are-... So, yes, I think you're right that they are largely just a gimmick.
  - ptmcc 1y ago
    If manufacturers in general were serious about improving efficiency they'd stop putting huge heavy wheels on everything, instead of chasing fractions of a percent with overcomplicated and failure-prone door handles. Side bonus, smaller wheels with taller sidewall tires are more comfortable, less prone to damage, and the tires are cheaper and easier to replace, too!
    - rale00 1y ago
      Alloy wheels are pretty light, and the weight mostly affects acceleration. At speed, most of your power is going to fight drag, so aerodynamics make a much bigger difference in efficiency.
  - Someone1234 1y ago
    Agreed. Plus the choices were never electrically actuated Vs. standard, plenty of vehicles before Tesla had flush fully mechanical doorhandles that reduced the drag coefficient. Tesla did it to be different, futuristic, and to show off. Then plenty of other electric vehicle manufacturers copied. Even ignoring the safety issues, these things had reliability problems since almost inception and could be frozen shut in the winter. Between the door handles, removing the turn signal stalk, removing the wiper stalk, non-round non-drive-by-wire wheel, and now putting the shifter in the ceiling, Tesla has made a lot of unforced errors to try to stand out.
micromacrofoot 1y ago
hopefully someday someone will solve door handles once and for all, but until then the tesla engineers will soldier on
chrismeller 1y ago
I don't own a Tesla, but I've been a passenger in well north of 100 different ones over the years (Uber/Bolt/etc.) and had no idea there even was a mechanical release. In the event of an emergency I would... not fare well. Years ago (decades now?) I remember James May on Top Gear doing a segment where he was looking for the first mass-produced car that "looked like a car". Of course there have been tons of changes, but it's also amazing to me how much some things are still the same 100 years later. Particularly when it comes to safety devices it just seems like you shouldn't mess with that combination of intuitive design and ingrained societal learning from media. It's literally something a child can do...
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  > I've been a passenger in well north of 100 different ones over the years (Uber/Bolt/etc.) and had no idea there even was a mechanical release I’d say these are grounds for removing them from the rideshare circulation until a user has completed a brief safety course.
kennywinker 1y ago
This is a failure of regulation. Companies come and go. The idea is that we have simple, efficient, long lasting gov orgs that can make sure each new company doesn’t repeat moronic mistakes like this in the name of design.
- mediaman 1y ago
  The funny thing is that Elon has been very critical of regulation in car design, such as the rules around the side-view mirrors (he wanted to get rid of them and replace with cameras). But then they find something unregulated and manage to flub it so badly it makes a strong case for regulation. I'm not sure if Elon was involved in these door handles on the interior, though I do recall he was very involved in the early touch-to-expose exterior handles and insisted they use them despite internal engineering pushback. I think a lot of the bad engineering designs seem to originate from internal engineers getting overruled by Elon.
  - jp191919 1y ago
    Many countries (EU, Japan) allow cameras instead of side mirrors, but not the US.
    - kennywinker 1y ago
      But are they a good idea? Many countries allow these dumb door handles…
  - kypro 1y ago
    I always found what we regulate and don't regulate when it comes to motor vehicles interesting... Demanding Tesla's need door handle regulation because of safety concerns lacks perspective given how relatively safe Teslas are, and that current regulation allows people to buy vehicles which go 60MPH+ on just two wheels, no airbags, and no doors at all. It would be cool if Tesla can come up with something a bit safer if there are problems with their door handles, but ultimately I think the only regulation required would be transparency of safety data. If Tesla's are really dangerous people should know that and decide if they want to buy one anyway. Although two-wheeled motor vehicles are death traps, I don't think we should introduce regulation requiring all motor vehicles have four wheels. If people want to buy a vehicle with two-wheels, that's up to them. I disagree that something as insignificant as a car door handle needs to be regulated to save at best a handful of lives a year – lives which probably could have been saved more effectively with other safety changes (perhaps many of which Teslas already have). Ultimately if you're in a car where your life depends on the design of a door handle, that's a problem already, and not one door handle regulation will necessarily be best suited to address. Just let manufacturers innovate... If a car is extremely unsafe so long as consumers know that then manufacturers will have a strong incentive to improve safety in innovative ways.
MisterTea 1y ago
> The Bloomberg investigation found numerous instances of passengers who were killed or severely burned by post-crash fires when rescuers on the scene were unable to open the doors. Have any of these incidents result in major law suits? Seems pretty likely they would and should sue. Honeslt yI hate modern automotive designs. My one wish for the Chinese EV makers was that one of them just makes a friggin normal car that's an EV without stupid gimmicks abut no, doesn't seem like the industry has the ability to design a reliable car.
- lotsofpulp 1y ago
  Why did Bloomberg write numerous instead of specifying the number?
  - Someone1234 1y ago
    That quote is from the linked article/CNN, it is a summary, you can read the original reporting from Bloomberg if you wish to learn more about what they found.
    - lotsofpulp 1y ago
      > An investigation by Bloomberg found 140 incidents of people being trapped in their Teslas due to problems with the door handles, including several that resulted in horrific injuries. The above is from CNN, but in the original bloomberg article, I don’t see any specifics. If I was a writer, and the number of incidents was high, I would want to specify it to maximize engagement. So I prone to assume when they don’t share data and instead use vague descriptions, it is probably because the data is not compelling enough to present. > Complaints about Tesla’s electrically powered doors also pervade NHTSA’s database that the agency uses to identify potential defects. Bloomberg identified more than 140 consumer complaints related to Tesla’s doors getting stuck, not opening or otherwise malfunctioning since 2018. While it’s difficult to assess how that compares with other models with similar doors, the regulator has taken notice. https://archive.is/2025.09.18-161757/https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-tesla-dangerous-doors/ https://archive.is/2025.09.18-161757/https://www.bloomberg.c...
happytoexplain 1y ago
I see a lot of questioning as to why this isn't required by regulation around this topic. I have no idea, but my intuition would be that it simply never occurred to regulators to require that door handles work? That door handles be accessible? Could it be that simple?
- Esophagus4 1y ago
  It reminds me of the rise of SUVs leading to more rollover crashes in the 90s. Before that, NHTSA didn’t run rollover crash tests - they added rollover crash tests in 2000 in response to SUVs. Regulatory and safety agencies are usually reactive, and can’t anticipate every market change.
geor9e 1y ago
I am deep in tech, but still struggle to open a tesla door. Hiding the handles, both inside and outside, will never make sense to me.
_fat_santa 1y ago
Just to share a personal anecdote. The other day me and my wife were getting into an Uber that was a Model 3 and she said to me "I don't know how this door works, can you open it for me". Sure they are not that hard to figure out but something like door handles shouldn't be something to "figure out" at all, it should be immediately obvious how to open the vehicle. Beyond that I just dislike electronic door handles in general, yes I get the argument that an electronic handle puts less wear on the car as it can accurately actuate the door release and do it better than a human but every time I have to use a button to exit the car, I always get flashing sirens in my head going "this is a massive point of failure"
- mixmastamyk 1y ago
  Same happened to us... we poked at the door "handle" for a few seconds.
- wyre 1y ago
  I find public transit will often use electric doors, but they will also have ways to open the door or window manually in the case of an emergency which seems like the best middleground. That said, when has a door handle ever been a major point of failure in a personal automobile? Electric door handles on cars for less wear is a bad argument, imo. My internal skeptic says Tesla saves as much money as they can on door latches, so they need it to be electronic to remain gentle enough it won't break.
  - PaulHoule 1y ago
    Often the emergency door mechanisms are very well labeled on public transit —- riding a train I know right away how to stop the train and get the hell out.
- jsbisviewtiful 1y ago
  The electronic door handle being a safety issue has been discussed for a very long time and to the point it's surprising it's just now getting this scrutiny. Personally, I don't want to ride in a Tesla and this is one of a few reasons.
mtlynch 1y ago
I considered buying a Model 3 but the door handles were the dealbreaker for me. The standard door handles don't work if the vehicle has a loss of power (such as after a collision). In the front, there's a manual release in the front seat that's accessible if you know where to look, but would be easy to miss in an emergency. In the rear, it's almost impossible to access the manual release in an emergency. You have to pull out a floor mat and then pop open a panel that requires a metal tool to extract, and then reach blindly into a hole to pull the release. And this process damages the car, so you can't really practice in a non-emergency.[0] I couldn't believe I was actually understanding it correctly and that this could be legal in the US, so I called Tesla's hotline and asked how to exit the vehicle in an emergency. The Tesla rep said it's easy to activate the manual release if you know where to look, so I asked how passengers unfamiliar with the car are supposed to use it to escape in an emergency. The rep said, "Oh, it's just a quick 5-minute explanation when they get in." Apparently, because Tesla decided to put this stupid design on their door rather than one that works without elecricity, it's now the car owner's responsibility to sit every passenger through a 5-minute safety briefing as if they hopped into a 747. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PbRBbIGnv4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PbRBbIGnv4
- IncreasePosts 1y ago
  I have a model Y and it is the first car in my life where I need to give passengers a tutorial on how to enter/exit the car. Also, my mom in the front passenger seat just assumed the emergency door release was the normal one(because she has never pushed a small button to open a door in a car before), and she pulled it and a big "WARNING! YOU MIGHT BREAK YOUR WINDOWS DOING THAT" message popped up on the screen.
- dgarrett 1y ago
  > In the rear, it's almost impossible to access the manual release in an emergency. You have to pull out a floor mat and then pop open a panel that requires a metal tool to extract, and then reach blindly into a hole to pull the release. And this process damages the car, so you can't really practice in a non-emergency. Just so you know, this is improved the latest (2023+) Model 3. There is now an easily removable panel in the door pocket, with a yellow cable to release the latch.[0] I still hope they improve the mechanism to not require this, but they did at least improve it a bit in the latest model. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1jhCz12SKM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1jhCz12SKM
fullshark 1y ago
Ever since reading this story I decided I wasn't buying a Tesla: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68622898 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68622898 Just so stupid, how many unnecessary deaths in Teslas have there been because of the overengineered crap door handles? Really tragic and pointless.
- bangaladore 1y ago
  She was highly intoxicated and driving under the influence, reversed the car into a pond and died because of it. Whether or not the doors contributed to her death is a guess at best. When a car is submerged, you aren't able to open a door generally due to the weight of the water pushing in on the car. That car has a completely standard gear stalk as well, so blaming it on that make no sense. I don't have sympathy for those who DWI. Luckily, she didn't kill anyone else.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - fullshark 1y ago
    She drowned in a glass coffin surrounded by her loved ones unable to figure out how to get her out. You are able to open a normal car door when the interior is fully submerged due to the water pressure equalizing. It's very clear to me she would have survived with normal door handles and your "anyone who DWIs deserves to die and doesn't receive sympathy cause I worship Elon Musk/Tesla" position is truly contemptible.
    - bangaladore 1y ago
      See the issue is you don't know the facts of this case, and call anyone who disagrees with you "worshiping Elon Musk" This car (2020 MX) had a normal mechanical door handle that works perfectly fine without electrical power. She was highly intoxicated and couldn't figure that out. Her death was caused by herself and only herself. She was too intoxicated to understand how to open the door while it was submerging. If she attempted to open the door as it was submerged, it would have opened fine. Please research the case before spewing ad hominin attacks.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
mrbluecoat 1y ago
"Tesla is looking to redesign its market strategy following trapped-investor report"
cfeduke 1y ago
I bought a Model 3 in 2018, a Y in 2020, and another 3 in 2024. The end user design has only continued to get worse on various aspects of the car. Regarding non-safety issues, living in the northeast and mid-Atlantic, the door handles freeze shut during the winter and become impossible to open from outside of the car. But why continue to buy these poor end-user design experiences, you think? My car maintenance costs since 2018 has been a gallon of windshield wiper fluid and new tires. So I deal with poor design decisions. But the cup holders in the latest Model 3 may be my breaking point.
- jp191919 1y ago
  You can use the app to open the door if the handle is frozen. Still not a great design, might as well have a button instead.
  - mikestew 1y ago
    The peak of tech jackassery: "We can fix it in software."
    - Esophagus4 1y ago
      See: Boeing 737-MAX + MCAS
- mikestew 1y ago
  My car maintenance costs since 2018 has been a gallon of windshield wiper fluid and new tires. If you're buying a new car every two years, you could get the same low level of maintenance with an ICE Toyota. Or, you know, you can buy an EV from a company that knows how to make a door handle, and still get that low maintenance of an EV. There are many to choose from.
- mrguyorama 1y ago
  >My car maintenance costs since 2018 has been a gallon of windshield wiper fluid and new tires Just to be clear, you keep buying stupid and poorly designed cars to save a couple hundred dollars on oil changes? Which are the ONLY maintenance item you need to do on any brand new ICE from purchase to about 100k miles? You repeatedly purchase brand new, luxury priced, "new car premium" priced cars to save a few hundred dollars? Uhhh.... What? My ICE car's entire maintenance budget since I purchased it 5 years ago has been about $300 worth of oil changes, once per year, and Europeans claim that's way too often.
Animats 1y ago
China is preparing to require obvious manual handles for car doors. China's own vehicle manufacturers have been copying Tesla in this, so it affects far more cars in China than Tesla products.[1] [1] https://carnewschina.com/2025/09/05/chinas-auto-regulators-eye-ban-on-retractable-door-handles-report-says/ https://carnewschina.com/2025/09/05/chinas-auto-regulators-e...
Zak 1y ago
When I've rented cars with electronic door poppers instead of conventional door handles, I've found them annoying. Do many people actually prefer them? Purely mechanical flush exterior door handles are possible if aerodynamics (or giving the impression of trying too hard to be aerodynamic) are a factor. Aircraft have used them for decades. Several older cars have used them including the Chevrolet Corvette (third generation), Subaru XT, Fiat Barchetta, and Pontiac Grand Prix (third generation).
keeda 1y ago
When my friend drove me to pick up my new Model 3, we made sure to find and test the alternative release mechanisms. The worst part is that the company and the car itself warns against using that in non-emergencies because it can damage the window trim. So basically you are strongly advised against trying out a critical safety feature because of poor design. But we did it anyway, because a) I believe the engineering philosophy "if it's not tested it doesn't work," is especially pertinent for safety critical systems; and b) my friend told me of a couple of youths who had died just a couple days earlier in a burning Tesla because the electronics shut down and they could not figure out the alternate release mechanism. Then he said, "Welp, enjoy your new car!" and drove away in his Tesla.

68 points by rawgabbit 1y ago

See https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a66052483/china-possible-ban-fully-retractable-door-handles-for-cars/ https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a66052483/china-possible-b...

ashleyn 1y ago

You would think the therac-25 was enough of an engineering lesson on designing safety-critical systems in software that lack hardware redundancy. Maybe they didn't consider the door handles "safety critical".

burnt-resistor 1y ago
Elon does watch or understand USCSB or their videos, he defunds them because he "knows better". https://www.youtube.com/@USCSB https://www.youtube.com/@USCSB
marcosdumay 1y ago
I don't know about hardware redundancy, but yes for at least "easily verifiable limiters". What is "hardware" anyway? Does a microcontroller-based integrator or debouncer count? Depending on how you define that, it can become a serious roadblocker. But anyway, I guess that point is moot for a door handle, you can fix it with stuff that is unambiguously hardware.
- chrismeller 1y ago
  > What is "hardware" anyway? Does a microcontroller-based integrator or debouncer count? Hmm, good question. In this context, I guess "continues to work after the EMP"?
  - marcosdumay 1y ago
    So, antennas and grid power are forbidden, microprocessors and batteries are permitted? Do you expect a mechanical wave to come with the EMP or it originates in space?
lawn 1y ago
Another lesson not learnt from therac-25 (and really most disasters caused by humans) is that safety is a cultural issue, that needs to be taken seriously from top to bottom in the organization. This is clearly not the case with Tesla.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

pengaru 1y ago

Electric retractable door handles is such a stupid gimmick. I once pulled over to help a stranded Model S driver with a flat tire in the Mojave desert. Every door handle had a zip tie hanging off it because they _all_ had failed present mechanisms. Junk

3D30497420 1y ago
Apparently non-retractable door handles have only a very minor impact on drag/efficiency: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/09/flush-door-handles-are-the-car-industrys-latest-safety-problem/ https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/09/flush-door-handles-are-... So, yes, I think you're right that they are largely just a gimmick.
- ptmcc 1y ago
  If manufacturers in general were serious about improving efficiency they'd stop putting huge heavy wheels on everything, instead of chasing fractions of a percent with overcomplicated and failure-prone door handles. Side bonus, smaller wheels with taller sidewall tires are more comfortable, less prone to damage, and the tires are cheaper and easier to replace, too!
  - rale00 1y ago
    Alloy wheels are pretty light, and the weight mostly affects acceleration. At speed, most of your power is going to fight drag, so aerodynamics make a much bigger difference in efficiency.
- Someone1234 1y ago
  Agreed. Plus the choices were never electrically actuated Vs. standard, plenty of vehicles before Tesla had flush fully mechanical doorhandles that reduced the drag coefficient. Tesla did it to be different, futuristic, and to show off. Then plenty of other electric vehicle manufacturers copied. Even ignoring the safety issues, these things had reliability problems since almost inception and could be frozen shut in the winter. Between the door handles, removing the turn signal stalk, removing the wiper stalk, non-round non-drive-by-wire wheel, and now putting the shifter in the ceiling, Tesla has made a lot of unforced errors to try to stand out.

micromacrofoot 1y ago

hopefully someday someone will solve door handles once and for all, but until then the tesla engineers will soldier on

chrismeller 1y ago

I don't own a Tesla, but I've been a passenger in well north of 100 different ones over the years (Uber/Bolt/etc.) and had no idea there even was a mechanical release. In the event of an emergency I would... not fare well. Years ago (decades now?) I remember James May on Top Gear doing a segment where he was looking for the first mass-produced car that "looked like a car". Of course there have been tons of changes, but it's also amazing to me how much some things are still the same 100 years later. Particularly when it comes to safety devices it just seems like you shouldn't mess with that combination of intuitive design and ingrained societal learning from media. It's literally something a child can do...

JumpCrisscross 1y ago
> I've been a passenger in well north of 100 different ones over the years (Uber/Bolt/etc.) and had no idea there even was a mechanical release I’d say these are grounds for removing them from the rideshare circulation until a user has completed a brief safety course.

kennywinker 1y ago

This is a failure of regulation. Companies come and go. The idea is that we have simple, efficient, long lasting gov orgs that can make sure each new company doesn’t repeat moronic mistakes like this in the name of design.

mediaman 1y ago
The funny thing is that Elon has been very critical of regulation in car design, such as the rules around the side-view mirrors (he wanted to get rid of them and replace with cameras). But then they find something unregulated and manage to flub it so badly it makes a strong case for regulation. I'm not sure if Elon was involved in these door handles on the interior, though I do recall he was very involved in the early touch-to-expose exterior handles and insisted they use them despite internal engineering pushback. I think a lot of the bad engineering designs seem to originate from internal engineers getting overruled by Elon.
- jp191919 1y ago
  Many countries (EU, Japan) allow cameras instead of side mirrors, but not the US.
  - kennywinker 1y ago
    But are they a good idea? Many countries allow these dumb door handles…
- kypro 1y ago
  I always found what we regulate and don't regulate when it comes to motor vehicles interesting... Demanding Tesla's need door handle regulation because of safety concerns lacks perspective given how relatively safe Teslas are, and that current regulation allows people to buy vehicles which go 60MPH+ on just two wheels, no airbags, and no doors at all. It would be cool if Tesla can come up with something a bit safer if there are problems with their door handles, but ultimately I think the only regulation required would be transparency of safety data. If Tesla's are really dangerous people should know that and decide if they want to buy one anyway. Although two-wheeled motor vehicles are death traps, I don't think we should introduce regulation requiring all motor vehicles have four wheels. If people want to buy a vehicle with two-wheels, that's up to them. I disagree that something as insignificant as a car door handle needs to be regulated to save at best a handful of lives a year – lives which probably could have been saved more effectively with other safety changes (perhaps many of which Teslas already have). Ultimately if you're in a car where your life depends on the design of a door handle, that's a problem already, and not one door handle regulation will necessarily be best suited to address. Just let manufacturers innovate... If a car is extremely unsafe so long as consumers know that then manufacturers will have a strong incentive to improve safety in innovative ways.

MisterTea 1y ago

> The Bloomberg investigation found numerous instances of passengers who were killed or severely burned by post-crash fires when rescuers on the scene were unable to open the doors. Have any of these incidents result in major law suits? Seems pretty likely they would and should sue. Honeslt yI hate modern automotive designs. My one wish for the Chinese EV makers was that one of them just makes a friggin normal car that's an EV without stupid gimmicks abut no, doesn't seem like the industry has the ability to design a reliable car.

lotsofpulp 1y ago
Why did Bloomberg write numerous instead of specifying the number?
- Someone1234 1y ago
  That quote is from the linked article/CNN, it is a summary, you can read the original reporting from Bloomberg if you wish to learn more about what they found.
  - lotsofpulp 1y ago
    > An investigation by Bloomberg found 140 incidents of people being trapped in their Teslas due to problems with the door handles, including several that resulted in horrific injuries. The above is from CNN, but in the original bloomberg article, I don’t see any specifics. If I was a writer, and the number of incidents was high, I would want to specify it to maximize engagement. So I prone to assume when they don’t share data and instead use vague descriptions, it is probably because the data is not compelling enough to present. > Complaints about Tesla’s electrically powered doors also pervade NHTSA’s database that the agency uses to identify potential defects. Bloomberg identified more than 140 consumer complaints related to Tesla’s doors getting stuck, not opening or otherwise malfunctioning since 2018. While it’s difficult to assess how that compares with other models with similar doors, the regulator has taken notice. https://archive.is/2025.09.18-161757/https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-tesla-dangerous-doors/ https://archive.is/2025.09.18-161757/https://www.bloomberg.c...

happytoexplain 1y ago

I see a lot of questioning as to why this isn't required by regulation around this topic. I have no idea, but my intuition would be that it simply never occurred to regulators to require that door handles work? That door handles be accessible? Could it be that simple?

Esophagus4 1y ago
It reminds me of the rise of SUVs leading to more rollover crashes in the 90s. Before that, NHTSA didn’t run rollover crash tests - they added rollover crash tests in 2000 in response to SUVs. Regulatory and safety agencies are usually reactive, and can’t anticipate every market change.

geor9e 1y ago

I am deep in tech, but still struggle to open a tesla door. Hiding the handles, both inside and outside, will never make sense to me.

_fat_santa 1y ago

Just to share a personal anecdote. The other day me and my wife were getting into an Uber that was a Model 3 and she said to me "I don't know how this door works, can you open it for me". Sure they are not that hard to figure out but something like door handles shouldn't be something to "figure out" at all, it should be immediately obvious how to open the vehicle. Beyond that I just dislike electronic door handles in general, yes I get the argument that an electronic handle puts less wear on the car as it can accurately actuate the door release and do it better than a human but every time I have to use a button to exit the car, I always get flashing sirens in my head going "this is a massive point of failure"

mixmastamyk 1y ago
Same happened to us... we poked at the door "handle" for a few seconds.
wyre 1y ago
I find public transit will often use electric doors, but they will also have ways to open the door or window manually in the case of an emergency which seems like the best middleground. That said, when has a door handle ever been a major point of failure in a personal automobile? Electric door handles on cars for less wear is a bad argument, imo. My internal skeptic says Tesla saves as much money as they can on door latches, so they need it to be electronic to remain gentle enough it won't break.
- PaulHoule 1y ago
  Often the emergency door mechanisms are very well labeled on public transit —- riding a train I know right away how to stop the train and get the hell out.
jsbisviewtiful 1y ago
The electronic door handle being a safety issue has been discussed for a very long time and to the point it's surprising it's just now getting this scrutiny. Personally, I don't want to ride in a Tesla and this is one of a few reasons.

mtlynch 1y ago

I considered buying a Model 3 but the door handles were the dealbreaker for me. The standard door handles don't work if the vehicle has a loss of power (such as after a collision). In the front, there's a manual release in the front seat that's accessible if you know where to look, but would be easy to miss in an emergency. In the rear, it's almost impossible to access the manual release in an emergency. You have to pull out a floor mat and then pop open a panel that requires a metal tool to extract, and then reach blindly into a hole to pull the release. And this process damages the car, so you can't really practice in a non-emergency.[0] I couldn't believe I was actually understanding it correctly and that this could be legal in the US, so I called Tesla's hotline and asked how to exit the vehicle in an emergency. The Tesla rep said it's easy to activate the manual release if you know where to look, so I asked how passengers unfamiliar with the car are supposed to use it to escape in an emergency. The rep said, "Oh, it's just a quick 5-minute explanation when they get in." Apparently, because Tesla decided to put this stupid design on their door rather than one that works without elecricity, it's now the car owner's responsibility to sit every passenger through a 5-minute safety briefing as if they hopped into a 747. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PbRBbIGnv4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PbRBbIGnv4

IncreasePosts 1y ago
I have a model Y and it is the first car in my life where I need to give passengers a tutorial on how to enter/exit the car. Also, my mom in the front passenger seat just assumed the emergency door release was the normal one(because she has never pushed a small button to open a door in a car before), and she pulled it and a big "WARNING! YOU MIGHT BREAK YOUR WINDOWS DOING THAT" message popped up on the screen.
dgarrett 1y ago
> In the rear, it's almost impossible to access the manual release in an emergency. You have to pull out a floor mat and then pop open a panel that requires a metal tool to extract, and then reach blindly into a hole to pull the release. And this process damages the car, so you can't really practice in a non-emergency. Just so you know, this is improved the latest (2023+) Model 3. There is now an easily removable panel in the door pocket, with a yellow cable to release the latch.[0] I still hope they improve the mechanism to not require this, but they did at least improve it a bit in the latest model. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1jhCz12SKM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1jhCz12SKM

fullshark 1y ago

Ever since reading this story I decided I wasn't buying a Tesla: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68622898 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68622898 Just so stupid, how many unnecessary deaths in Teslas have there been because of the overengineered crap door handles? Really tragic and pointless.

bangaladore 1y ago
She was highly intoxicated and driving under the influence, reversed the car into a pond and died because of it. Whether or not the doors contributed to her death is a guess at best. When a car is submerged, you aren't able to open a door generally due to the weight of the water pushing in on the car. That car has a completely standard gear stalk as well, so blaming it on that make no sense. I don't have sympathy for those who DWI. Luckily, she didn't kill anyone else.
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- fullshark 1y ago
  She drowned in a glass coffin surrounded by her loved ones unable to figure out how to get her out. You are able to open a normal car door when the interior is fully submerged due to the water pressure equalizing. It's very clear to me she would have survived with normal door handles and your "anyone who DWIs deserves to die and doesn't receive sympathy cause I worship Elon Musk/Tesla" position is truly contemptible.
  - bangaladore 1y ago
    See the issue is you don't know the facts of this case, and call anyone who disagrees with you "worshiping Elon Musk" This car (2020 MX) had a normal mechanical door handle that works perfectly fine without electrical power. She was highly intoxicated and couldn't figure that out. Her death was caused by herself and only herself. She was too intoxicated to understand how to open the door while it was submerging. If she attempted to open the door as it was submerged, it would have opened fine. Please research the case before spewing ad hominin attacks.

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mrbluecoat 1y ago

"Tesla is looking to redesign its market strategy following trapped-investor report"

cfeduke 1y ago

I bought a Model 3 in 2018, a Y in 2020, and another 3 in 2024. The end user design has only continued to get worse on various aspects of the car. Regarding non-safety issues, living in the northeast and mid-Atlantic, the door handles freeze shut during the winter and become impossible to open from outside of the car. But why continue to buy these poor end-user design experiences, you think? My car maintenance costs since 2018 has been a gallon of windshield wiper fluid and new tires. So I deal with poor design decisions. But the cup holders in the latest Model 3 may be my breaking point.

jp191919 1y ago
You can use the app to open the door if the handle is frozen. Still not a great design, might as well have a button instead.
- mikestew 1y ago
  The peak of tech jackassery: "We can fix it in software."
  - Esophagus4 1y ago
    See: Boeing 737-MAX + MCAS
mikestew 1y ago
My car maintenance costs since 2018 has been a gallon of windshield wiper fluid and new tires. If you're buying a new car every two years, you could get the same low level of maintenance with an ICE Toyota. Or, you know, you can buy an EV from a company that knows how to make a door handle, and still get that low maintenance of an EV. There are many to choose from.
mrguyorama 1y ago
>My car maintenance costs since 2018 has been a gallon of windshield wiper fluid and new tires Just to be clear, you keep buying stupid and poorly designed cars to save a couple hundred dollars on oil changes? Which are the ONLY maintenance item you need to do on any brand new ICE from purchase to about 100k miles? You repeatedly purchase brand new, luxury priced, "new car premium" priced cars to save a few hundred dollars? Uhhh.... What? My ICE car's entire maintenance budget since I purchased it 5 years ago has been about $300 worth of oil changes, once per year, and Europeans claim that's way too often.

Animats 1y ago

China is preparing to require obvious manual handles for car doors. China's own vehicle manufacturers have been copying Tesla in this, so it affects far more cars in China than Tesla products.[1] [1] https://carnewschina.com/2025/09/05/chinas-auto-regulators-eye-ban-on-retractable-door-handles-report-says/ https://carnewschina.com/2025/09/05/chinas-auto-regulators-e...

Zak 1y ago

When I've rented cars with electronic door poppers instead of conventional door handles, I've found them annoying. Do many people actually prefer them? Purely mechanical flush exterior door handles are possible if aerodynamics (or giving the impression of trying too hard to be aerodynamic) are a factor. Aircraft have used them for decades. Several older cars have used them including the Chevrolet Corvette (third generation), Subaru XT, Fiat Barchetta, and Pontiac Grand Prix (third generation).

keeda 1y ago

When my friend drove me to pick up my new Model 3, we made sure to find and test the alternative release mechanisms. The worst part is that the company and the car itself warns against using that in non-emergencies because it can damage the window trim. So basically you are strongly advised against trying out a critical safety feature because of poor design. But we did it anyway, because a) I believe the engineering philosophy "if it's not tested it doesn't work," is especially pertinent for safety critical systems; and b) my friend told me of a couple of youths who had died just a couple days earlier in a burning Tesla because the electronics shut down and they could not figure out the alternate release mechanism. Then he said, "Welp, enjoy your new car!" and drove away in his Tesla.