TESLA IN TROUBLE OVER DOOR HANDLES
The world’s biggest electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer has been flagged for its door handles. This follows an investigation by Bloomberg News, where they uncovered several incidents in which people died or were injured because they couldn’t open the doors.
It has been identified that passengers trapped indoors after the loss of power have been unable to open the doors from the inside.
According to Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s chief of design, the company is looking to combine the car’s manual and electronic door-release mechanisms.
“The idea of combining the electronic one and the manual one together into one button, I think, makes a lot of sense,” he said.
“That’s something that we’re working on.”
The investigation also found that since 2018, there were more than 140 consumer complaints related to doors on various Tesla models. The complaints were related to the door handles either getting stuck, not opening, or malfunctioning in other ways.
Top Auto reports that in China, a top regulator is considering a ban on fully concealed door handles, and Europe has implemented incremental measures to improve post-crash rescue protocols.
The results of the investigation have led Tesla to study the details of potential changes and are ready to make the necessary adjustments.
“We’ll have a really good solution for that,” he said.
Image credit: Bloomberg