Tesla Wants To Make Its Doors Easier To Use In ‘A Panic Situation’

• Tesla’s design chief told Bloomberg that the company is working on an update to its door releases. 
• Tesla’s electronic door handles are being investigated by America’s top road safety regulator over reports that they can fail to open the car in an emergency. 
• Tesla’s new design could involve a button that functions as both the electronic and manual door release. 

Tesla is working on a new door-release design that should make them easier to operate in “a panic situation,” the company’s design chief, Franz von Holzhausen, told Bloomberg in an interview on Wednesday. 

On Monday, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a preliminary investigation into whether Tesla’s door handles, which operate electronically rather than mechanically, constitute a safety defect. The government probe and comments from Tesla also come days after a Bloomberg report that described several cases of people being trapped inside of Tesla vehicles following a crash. 

The change von Holzhausen described involves combining Tesla’s standard electronic door-release button and mechanical backup latch, used in the case that the car loses power, into one lever. 

“We actually have a mechanical release that’s basically right at the electronic one too, and we’re combining the two,” he said on the outlet’s “Hot Pursuit” podcast. “So in the moment that you’re in a panic situation, the muscle memory to go to what you know is right there. So you just pull a little bit further on the lever, and you have the mechanical release. So that’s something that we’re working on.”

“The idea of combining the electronic one and the manual one together into one button, I think, makes a lot of sense,” he added. 

NHTSA is looking into 2021 Tesla Model Y door handles after receiving several complaints from drivers who said their cars’ exterior door handles failed to open the vehicle, including with children trapped inside. The agency said the issues seemed to stem from a lack of power from the 12-volt battery, but that drivers didn’t report seeing any kind of low-voltage warning. 

NHTSA is evaluating whether Tesla’s exterior door handles, which don’t have a manual backup, pose a safety risk. But both NHTSA and Bloomberg also highlighted Tesla’s interior door releases—the function von Holzhausen described a new design for—as an issue.

Tesla drivers use interior electronic buttons to pop open their doors. And though the cars have often have backup manual releases, they can be difficult for children to access or operate, NHTSA noted.

“At this time, NHTSA’s investigation is focused on the operability of the electronic door locks from outside of the vehicle as that circumstance is the only one in which there is no manual way to open the door,” the agency said. “The agency will continue to monitor any reports of entrapment involving opening doors from inside of the vehicle.”

The Bloomberg investigation noted instances in which occupants or first responders couldn’t find or operate the releases in emergencies. It also reported that not all Teslas have mechanical door releases in the back seat. 

Tesla isn’t alone in using these kinds of systems. And it isn’t just the U.S. that’s cracking down. The Chinese government is reportedly considering a ban on flush-mounted electronic door handles that don’t have a mechanical backup. 

“We’re working on it right now, and just looking at the details of the regulation,” von Holzhausen said of the Chinese rules. “We’ll have a really good solution for that.”

Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com

Updated 8:40 p.m. ET with additional comments to Bloomberg from Franz von Holzhausen, and a video of the conversation