All eyes are on Tesla as safety concerns grow about their electric door systems, which have been known to falter following accidents, posing threats to rescuers and potentially trapping people inside the cars.
These design choices date back to 2016, when Elon Musk insisted on replacing traditional door handles with powered controls throughout their vehicle lineup.
At the time, Tesla rushed to finalize the Model 3, aimed at transitioning the company from a niche player to a leader in mass production, a challenge they discussed in detail during a series of meetings in Palo Alto and Hawthorne as they sought to finalize essential features. The design of the doors sparked intense debate, particularly because complaints regarding faulty sensors had already emerged with the Model X SUV.
Elon Musk’s Electric Door Design Meets Reality
Despite warnings from engineers about the safety risks associated with electric doors, suggesting the necessity for mechanical handles, Musk reportedly dismissed those concerns.
Without facing explicit regulatory challenges, Tesla rapidly redefined conventional door mechanisms, relying heavily on Elon’s active involvement in both minor and major decisions, often working late into the night at the factories.
Years have passed, yet Tesla’s doors continue to operate on low-voltage batteries that may fail during crashes. In such events, doors might refuse to budge unless occupants can locate hidden manual releases.
This malfunction has often hindered emergency personnel and complicated rescue operations. According to a Bloomberg review of police, fire, and autopsy reports, 15 fatalities linked to 12 crashes in the U.S. over the past decade involved challenges with door access when Teslas caught fire.
Many complaints have been lodged with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, spurring an investigation into these streams of incidents. Meanwhile, China is considering restrictions on flush handles, and European regulators have stated that electric doors are now a priority for new regulations.
Tesla’s board chair, Robyn Denholm, has repeatedly promised a serious commitment to addressing safety-related matters, while design head Franz von Holzhausen asserted that in 2023, work was underway on a new door handle design that would integrate electric functionality with manual releases for emergency situations.
The Original Design Motivations: Cost-Effectiveness and Minimalism
The initial discussions surrounding electric doors were largely driven by a focus on minimizing costs and reducing the number of parts to ensure that Model 3 could be priced significantly lower than Tesla’s previous offerings. Simultaneously, designers appreciated positioning button controls in locations more ergonomic for drivers.
After finalizing the design for electric doors, Tesla incorporated manual release options as emergency backups, originally only equipping front seat doors since U.S. regulations didn’t require safety measures for the rear seats. Over time, rear manual releases were also added. Tesla had intended to train delivery staff on these features, although it’s unclear how many customers received this instruction.
Introducing further introspection, senior vice president Lars Moravy noted, “At Tesla, we always state that if you haven’t stripped something down to the point of needing to reintroduce elements, then you haven’t taken enough away. In hindsight, maybe we took away too much.”
Tesla now acknowledges that door-related difficulties affect the entire electric vehicle sector, and the company is currently piloting features that would auto-unlock doors when power is low and is examining functionality to unlock them automatically during severe accidents, contingent on the vehicle configuration and production date. Tesla is also collaborating with regulators in China and anticipates adapting to any potential future legal adjustments.
Concerns surrounding door systems resurfaced just prior to the Model Y’s debut in 2020, which likewise incorporated electric controls; however, other than comments made during a 2013 earnings call—where Musk acknowledged some failures with door sensors and described the situation as “obviously quite vexing for customers”—he has remained relatively silent on the subject since then.
