Tesla faces safety probe over door handle issues
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The news: EV maker Tesla is being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) over issues with door handles on some of its Model Y cars which risk trapping occupants inside the vehicles.
The numbers: An NHTSA document on the probe says that an estimated 174,290 2021 Tesla model Y vehicles could be affected by the door handle issue.
The context: The NHTSA release explains that the Model’s electronic door handles become inoperative due to low battery voltage in the car which impedes vehicle re-entry. The agency said it has received nine reports of owners being unable to open doors on the affected vehicles, with the most commonly reported scenario involving parents leaving the car after driving to remove a child from the back seat and being unable to reopen a door to regain access, trapping the child inside. In four instances the car door window had to be smashed to regain entry to the vehicle.
While there are a number of manual processes Tesla describes to regain access from the outside, these can take time and are not necessarily possible or fast enough during emergency situations, such as when a child is entrapped in a hot vehicle.
The |NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation said it opened this preliminary evaluation to assess the scope and severity of the car door problem and will take further action as needed.
What they said: “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 will continue to monitor any reports of entrapment involving opening doors from inside of the vehicle,” the agency said.
