Tesla is being investigated by NHTSA over door handles locking people in

NHTSA has launched an investigation into Tesla over potential malfunctions of its door handles, resulting in people being stuck in the cars.

Tesla uses frameless doors with electronic door handles. The button to open the doors first causes the window to lower slightly, allowing the door to open. Then, it electronically unlatches, enabling the door to be swung open.

There’s also a manual latch, but it has been known to be somewhat hard to locate for people who didn’t read the owner’s manual, which is most people.

If there’s an electronic failure, especially after a crash, it can result in occupants having issues exiting the vehicle when they are in a state of panic.

Now, the NHTSA says it has been notified of electronic door handles that may cause a potential issue, specifically with the 2021 Model Y.

The automotive regulator claims to have received nine reports of parents being locked out of their vehicles when going to get their children in the back:

The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) has received nine Vehicle Owners Questionnaires (VOQs) reporting an inability to open doors on Model Year (MY) 2021 Tesla Model Y vehicles. The most commonly reported scenarios involved parents exiting the vehicle after a drive cycle in order to remove a child from the back seat or placing a child in the back seat before starting a drive cycle. In those events, the parents were unable to reopen a door to regain access to the vehicle. Four of these VOQs reported resorting to breaking a window to regain entry into the vehicle. Although Tesla vehicles have manual door releases inside of the cabin, in these situations, a child may not be able to access or operate the releases even if the vehicle’s driver is aware of them. As a result, in these instances, an occupant who remains inside a vehicle in this condition may be unable to be rapidly retrieved by persons outside of the vehicle. Entrapment in a vehicle is particularly concerning in emergency situations, such as when children are entrapped in a hot vehicle. For awareness, NHTSA has a Child Heatstroke Campaign that highlights the dangers to children entrapped in hot vehicles.

Tesla reportedly changed the 12-volt battery in the cars involved in those reports, but NHTSA is concerned that there were no warnings that the 12-volt battery was about to fail, which the agency says can be dangerous.

While there’s a process to get the doors unlocked in this situation, NHTSA beleives it might be too complicated and not accessible enough:

The Tesla Owner’s Manual “Jump Starting” and “Opening the Hood with No Power” sections describe a multi-step process for restoring power to the electronic door locks in order to enable their operation from outside of the vehicle. This process requires applying 12 volts DC from a separate power source to two different points accessible from the vehicle’s exterior. The subject incidents suggest that this process may not be readily available to owners or well known. For instances where an occupant is able to access and operate interior door handles, the Tesla Owner’s Manual “Opening Doors with No Power” section identifies the manual door releases inside of the vehicle’s cabin.

The investigation is currently specifically about the 2021 Tesla Model Y, which includes a population of about 174,290 units in the US.

NHTSA’s inquiry has launched after Bloomberg released a report about the issues that come with electronic door handles. The report was about the broader use of electronic door handles in the auto industry, but it specifically highligthed Tesla due to its extensive use of the technology.