From the article:
The man is blaming the automaker even though the manual door opener was under his left hand the whole time.
A man in Arizona says that he was recently trapped in his Tesla after getting in, closing the door, and then realizing that his battery was dead. What he didnât know is that the manual release for the door was under his left hand the whole time. Now, heâs blaming the automaker and raising awareness.
Rick Meggison, 73, says that Tesla needs to address what he calls a âsafety concernâ involving how to exit the car when the battery dies. The main door latch actuator on all Tesla models is electronic so if the 12-volt battery dies it wonât work. To ensure safe exit of the vehicle Tesla includes a manual release. Meggison didnât know about that and ended up trapped in his car for 20 minutes on a hot day.
âI couldnât open the doors. I couldnât lower the windows. The computer was dead, so I couldnât open the glove box. I couldnât open anything,â he told ABC7. Of course, he couldâve opened the door in about two seconds had he known that the manual release was just ahead of his window switches. His situation has many wondering whoâs to blame in situations like this.
If a passenger canât figure out how to safety exit a vehicle, that sounds like a design problem.
Yeah. This is pretty cut and dry.
Opening a car door from the inside shouldnât require special knowledge. It shouldnât require searching.
The manual release inside a trunk is easier to find.
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Agreed. Manual opening should be visible and easily used by anyone even if you donât know how Tesla works.
Looking at the image in the article, it looks like a pretty simple latch
Not obvious enough for a safety feature