Tesla Doors Can Trap People Desperate to Escape

Posted4 months agoActive4 months ago

mgh2

41 points

21 comments

bloomberg.comTechstory

heatednegative

Debate

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TeslaSafety ConcernsAutomotive Design

Key topics

Tesla

Safety Concerns

Automotive Design

The article discusses concerns over Tesla's door design potentially trapping people in emergency situations, with commenters debating the issue and proposing alternative designs.

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01Story posted
Sep 10, 2025 at 6:31 PM EDT
4 months ago
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4 months ago
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Discussion (21 comments)

Showing 21 comments

k310

4 months ago

1 reply

I read about this a while back. It looks like a satisfactory manual escape mechanism (highly visible, easy to find and operate) is the proverbial "next year" so common to Musk.

And no retrofitting/recall.

It's only lives at stake. You may know one or be one.

thebruce87m

4 months ago

The emergency release on the front doors is more prominent than the button you are supposed to use. Most people who get in my model y find and use the emergency release without realising it’s the “wrong” button.

jdsully

4 months ago

3 replies

At least for the model 3 the front the door releases are more prominent than the actual buttons your supposed to use - newbies often use that the first time they exit.

But the back doors are a different story. For a few years into owning the car I didn't think they had an emergency release at all. Now I know they are hidden in the door molding somewhere but I doubt I'd be able to find them in an emergency let alone a guest that's in the back seat. It does worry me when I have people back there.

moogly

4 months ago

1 reply

I believe some of the older Model 3s in some regions don't actually have emergency releases in the backseat; you're supposed to lower the seats and escape through the trunk (which does have an inner handle).

Zigurd

4 months ago

Is that correct? And if it is, is it safety compliant? I don't think I can release the seat backs in the backseat of my car from within the passenger compartment. You have to open the trunk and pull the release for the seatbacks from there. I can imagine kids wreaking havoc by pulling down the seatbacks from within the car.

m463

4 months ago

1 reply

When the model S was created, they had a better design - open the handle a bit, and you get an electronic release. keep pulling it further and it will mechanically open the door.

Since then, tesla has been relentlessly cost reducing everything. First it was no dashboard on the model 3, and on and on into dangerous design.

Latest 3 has no turn signal stalks. No drive select stalk (it guesses). and lots of critical controls are not physical at all and are hidden in touchscreen menus.

Zigurd

4 months ago

It seems as if some design decisions were made with the idea that FSD would actually work "by the end of the year." If manual driving becomes the exceptional case, why not minimize the controls?

pavel_lishin

4 months ago

> At least for the model 3 the front the door releases are more prominent than the actual buttons your supposed to use - newbies often use that the first time they exit.

I think this happened to me when my buddy gave me a ride. I used the handle to open the door, and he told me I shouldn't do that since it might damage the car.

On the one hand, it boggles the mind that they would fuck up intuitive functionality that badly, but on the other hand, I am glad that the instinctive action is what you're supposed to do in an emergency.

On the gripping hand, the default action should open the door both regularly, and in case of emergency.

chairmansteve

4 months ago

2 replies

There are little window breaker tools made by a company called resqme which are worth having in your car.

tzs

4 months ago

1 reply

Note that these tools only work on tempered glass. Many newer cars are switching to laminated glass. Some have a mix with say a laminated windshield but tempered door windows.

Ekaros

4 months ago

1 reply

Haven't the windshield been laminated for very long time now? For Britain it seems safety glass was mandated in 1930.

tzs

4 months ago

The term "safety glass" just means glass designed to minimize injury when broken. There is laminated safety glass and temperated safety glass.

Laminated glass has at least two layers of glass bonded together with a plastic layer between adjacent glass layers. When broken it just forms webs of cracks but the pieces stay in place. This keeps you from getting ejected or cut by the glass.

Tempered glass on the other hand is made by rapidly heating and cooling the glass in such a way that it solidifies with a lot of internal stress. The glass at the surface ends up under compression and the interior glass ends up under tension. If you break the surface it releases all the stress rapidly resulting in the whole sheet quickly shattering into a very large number of small rounded pieces. It won't keep you from getting ejected but the small rounded pieces should only inflict relatively minor injuries.

Tempered costs less than laminated.

Most countries have long mandated laminated glass for windshields but allow tempered glass for side and rear windows. Some car makers choose to use laminated for side/rear windows to make it harder for thieves to get in, or for people to get ejected out side windows during accidents, better UV blocking, and better soundproofing.

Yeul

4 months ago

Window breakers come standard with a new car in my country. I have never used one though.

theamk

4 months ago

3 replies

I wonder if a combined handle is possible: when you pull, the signal is sent _and_ mechanical 3-second delay starts. If the power is present, small solenoid blocks mechanical mechanism and door opens regularly. If it's dead, in 3 seconds door os overriden.

Or even easier: pull normally for electric release, pull real hard for override.

adastra22

4 months ago

1 reply

Mechanical time delay? How do you expect that to work?

theamk

4 months ago

1 reply

I can think of at least two methods right off top of my head:

- centrifugal governor, as used in old-school rotary phone dials (this could be too fragile though)

- an air cylinder with a small hole, as used in mechanical typewriters and vehicle shocks.

I am sure a real MechE can can come up with even more methods.

adastra22

4 months ago

Both of these (and any other contraption I can think of) are not the kind of thing you want to include in a safety feature, which needs to be operable after the car has been in a crash, flipped over, door crushed, etc.

rsynnott

4 months ago

This feels like overthinking it a bit. Just _have a proper door handle like every car had had for about a century_.

cwillu

4 months ago

Or even easier: get rid of the ridiculous electric release entirely.

chasing0entropy

4 months ago

It seems that most engineers have forgotten (or never learned) that vehicles were designed with cable driven primary systems for a reason.

The power steering pump is a good example of good design. The pump boosts mechanical(turning) input but the boost is not required to produce the output(steering).

The electric brake which replaces the pedal or handle is a good example of bad design.

mgh2Author

4 months ago

https://archive.is/lccr7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jY3K4AGAh0

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ID: 45204961Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 3:32:02 PM

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