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U.S. Regulators Examine Whether Tesla’s Electronic Doors Fail in Emergencies Following Reports of Children Trapped and Rescue Difficulties in the Model Y.
Tesla is under new investigation in the United States. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened a formal inquiry into failures in electronic door handles, specifically in the Model Y. The focus, according to InfoMoney, is to understand why the doors may not open from the outside, citing alarming cases where children have become trapped inside vehicles.
The preliminary investigation covers approximately 174,290 Model Y SUVs. The suspicion is that low-voltage battery issues render the electric door handles inoperable. Although the official focus is on external opening, the NHTSA is also monitoring the opposite risk: the danger of occupants being unable to exit the vehicle after accidents, a problem that has already raised global alarms about Tesla’s design.
The Trigger for the Investigation: Children Trapped
The NHTSA’s action was prompted by nine direct complaints from owners of 2021 Tesla Model Y vehicles. As reported by InfoMoney, the most common cases involve parents who, after closing the door, were unable to reopen it from the outside to remove or accommodate children in the back seat.
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The agency highlighted the seriousness of this specific failure. Although Tesla vehicles have a manual emergency release inside, the NHTSA emphasizes that “a child may not be able to access or operate these devices.” In some desperate situations, owners reported having to break the vehicle’s window to access the interior.
The Hidden Risk: Getting Trapped Inside the Tesla
The NHTSA’s investigation comes just days after a Bloomberg News report revealed a series of serious incidents. The publication detailed cases of people who were injured or died because they could not open the doors from the inside when their Tesla vehicles suffered power loss, especially after collisions.
While the current inquiry focuses on the external door handle (the only one without a manual opening option), the NHTSA confirmed it is “monitoring any reports of people trapped trying to open the doors from the inside.” The agency, cited by InfoMoney, states it “will take additional measures as necessary.” Since 2018, the NHTSA has received more than 140 complaints regarding doors on various models from the manufacturer.
A Design Problem Under Global Scrutiny
The design of Tesla’s electronic doors and embedded handles is already a topic of discussion outside the U.S. In China, a high-level regulatory body is reportedly considering banning fully embedded door handles due to emergency risks. Europe has also been advancing measures to improve rescue protocols and exit speed from vehicles after accidents.
Part of the systemic problem is that traditional crash tests are designed to measure survival in an impact, and not the speed at which occupants can exit the vehicle afterward. This testing failure disproportionately affects people with disabilities, the elderly, pets, or children, who may have difficulty activating the internal manual release in a panic situation.
The Silence of Tesla and Other Investigations
Questioned about reports of door failures and safety risks highlighted by Bloomberg, Tesla’s president, Robyn Denholm, avoided specific comments. According to InfoMoney, she limited her statement to saying that the board “takes any safety incident seriously, but the company has not responded to requests for comment on the new NHTSA investigation.
This new inquiry into the doors adds to other ongoing investigations against Tesla in the U.S. Elon Musk’s automaker is already under investigation for possible defects in the Full Self-Driving (FSD) system following multiple accidents, as well as an evaluation of the effectiveness of a software update (recall) regarding the Autopilot driver assistance system.
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