Investigation into Tesla Door Handle Failures Opened After Children Trapped in Vehicles

NHTSA indicates that it has received multiple reports of parents breaking windows after Tesla door handles became inoperable.

Federal officials have launched an investigation into problems with 174,290 Tesla Model Y vehicles manufactured in 2021, following reports of door handles failing and leaving children trapped inside.

The Tesla door handle investigation was announced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on September 15, indicating that parents often had to break windows to retrieve their children from the backseat.

Unlike traditional mechanical door handles, Tesla doors rely on an electronic latch system that requires power from the vehicle’s low-voltage battery to open from the outside. If that battery is not supplying enough power, the exterior handles become inoperative, leaving no way to open the doors from outside the vehicle.

Although Tesla vehicles have manual door releases inside the cabin, young children often cannot reach or operate them, especially if they are secured in car seats. This creates a serious risk of entrapment in emergencies, such as after a car accident or during a fire, where the inability to quickly remove them could result in severe injury or death.

According to the investigation report, NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) has received nine Vehicle Owner Questionnaires (VOQs) reporting an inability to open doors, including four cases where owners had to break a window to regain access. 

The most common scenario involved parents either exiting the vehicle to remove a child from the back seat or placing a child in the back seat before starting to drive.

Based on ODI’s preliminary review, the issue appears to occur when the electronic door locks receive insufficient voltage from the vehicle. Although Tesla’s owner manual outlines a process for restoring power, the reported incidents suggest that this process may not be readily accessible to owners or widely known.

As a result, ODI is opening a Preliminary Evaluation (PE) to assess the scope and severity of the condition, including associated risks. The evaluation will also examine Tesla’s approach to supplying power to the door locks and the reliability of other relevant power sources.

At this time, NHTSA’s investigation is focused on the operability of the electronic door locks from outside the vehicle, as this is the only circumstance in which there is no manual method to open the door. 

Electric Vehicle Door Latch Concerns

This is not the only issue Tesla and other electric vehicles have faced with door handles. Last year, a man in Texas died after being unable to unlatch the doors of a Tesla Cybertruck during a battery fire. A resulting Tesla wrongful death lawsuit alleges that a series of design flaws with the vehicle’s doors prevented him from escaping.

A separate Ford Mustang Mach-E lawsuit filed earlier this year, also alleged that a design defect in the vehicles leaves the electronically latching doors with no way of opening from the outside when the car battery dies, posing an increased risk of serious injuries or death to passengers.

Ford issued a recall of Mustang Mach-E electric vehicles a few months later, following reports of passengers becoming trapped in the backseat when the lithium-ion battery became depleted, and the doors were unable to be opened.

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