Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / 15 People Are Dead. Tesla Was Warned About Door Traps

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15 People Are Dead. Tesla Was Warned About Door Traps · Elon Musk Podcast

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  now would help the show tremendously.
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  Thank you so much. Elon Musk was warned in early
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  2016 that Tesla's electronically powered door handles can trap
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  people inside vehicles if the power has failed.
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  That warning came during development of the Model 3,
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  according to Bloomberg, when engineers raised concerns about
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  scenarios where a loss of vehicle power could prevent
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  doors from opening. Now, the Model 3 was supposed to
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  be the mass market sedan that would turn Tesla from a niche
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  luxury brand into the world's most valuable automaker.
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  And Tesla pressed forward with the design anyway.
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  And now federal regulators have opened a new investigation, the
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  second in three months, into Tesla's door really systems.
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  Now, we've identified at least 15 deaths in the crashes where
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  Tesla doors would not open after impact.
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  More than half of those deaths occurred since November of 2024.
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  Now that is crazy. And how does a known design risk
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  go unaddressed for nearly a decades while fatalities
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  accelerate? Now, the new NHTSA investigation
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  covers nearly eight 180,000 Model 3 sedans from the 2022
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  model year. The agency received a defect
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  petition alleging the mechanical door release is hidden,
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  unlabeled, and not intuitive to locate during an emergency.
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  This investigation is separate from the September probe into
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  Model Y door handles. Given how similar Tesla's
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  handles are across its whole lineup, the Model S, Model X,
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  and Cybertruck could face more scrutiny next.
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  Now we're going to walk through what we found in a month long
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  investigations, how Tesla responded, what federal
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  regulators are doing about it, and why this story extends
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  beyond just Tesla. And we'll get right into that
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  after this very short break. Now, Tesla's signature flush
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  door handles have become a serious regulatory and legal
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  problem. The design uses electronic
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  latches instead of mechanical ones, and with you press a Tesla
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  door handle, it sends an electronic signal that triggers
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  the door to open. Now, if the car loses power, the
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  normal handles completely stop working.
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  Tesla has 2 battery systems. A high voltage pack propels the
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  car. A low voltage 12 Volt battery
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  operates the windows and the doors, and if that 12 Volt
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  battery dies or gets disabled in a crash, the doors may not
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  unlock at all and you're trapped inside.
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  Now, Tesla does include manual backup releases, but they're
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  located in different places depending on the model and the
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  year. Some are even under carpets and
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  hidden. Some are behind speaker grills,
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  and if you're in an emergency, you don't know where they are.
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  Some are small levers near the window latches.
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  And it's some Model 3 and Model Y vehicles sold between 2014 and
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  2024. There were no manual releases
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  for the rear doors at all. Now that's worth repeating at
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  all. There's no manual releases for
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  the doors now. For years, Tesla sold cars where
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  rear passengers had no mechanical way to exit.
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  If the electronics fail, the owner's manual explains the
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  backup system. But most people don't read their
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  owner's manual in emergency. You do not have time to consult
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  a diagram. You don't rifle through a book
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  while you're trapped inside your car in risking or expecting to
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  not make it out. Right now, we've seen every
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  fatality of electric vehicle crashes in the United States
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  between 2012 and 2023 that involved fire.
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  Bloomberg has identified independently additional crashes
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  in 2024 and 2025, and there's thousands of pages of police
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  reports, fire reports and autopsy records.
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  They listened to 911 calls and watch police body camera footage
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  at Bloomberg. The investigation focused on
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  cases where there was documented evidence that victims survived
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  the initial crash impact but were trapped inside burning
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  vehicles because doors wouldn't even open.
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  How do you get to the latch if it's burning?
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  It doesn't make any sense. You should just be able to pull
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  that thing open right now. The methodology produced a count
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  of 15 deaths in 12 separate incidents over the past 10
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  years. I should note that Tesla is not
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  the only automaker with electronic door handles.
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  Around 70 models on sale today use them, including vehicles
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  from Ford, Lucid and BMW. But Tesla accounts for the
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  largest number of consumer complaints.
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  One recent rescue in Virginia captured the problem on dash Cam
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  video. A state trooper responded to a
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  burning Tesla Model Y and found the driver unable to open the
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  doors. The officer bashed through the
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  window and pulled the driver to safety.
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  That scene, someone smashing glass because the door handle
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  doesn't work because the battery died or was destroyed in the
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  crash. It's becoming a pattern with
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  Tesla. Parents have had to break
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  windows to reach children trapped in Model YS after the 12
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  Volt battery died. In one California incident, an 8
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  month old was struck in a car seat or stuck in a car seat for
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  30 minutes while the interior temperature exceeded 104°.
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  Police and firefighters arrived and smashed the window to get
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  the baby out. It survived.
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  There's more like lawsuits. They're piling up.
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  The Texas family suit Tesla after Michael Sheehan burned to
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  death in a cyber truck in August of 2024.
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  According to the lawsuit, Sheehan purchased the vehicle in
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  April 2024. Just 120 days later, he crashed
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  into a culvert and the vehicle caught fire.
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  The crisis itself was survivable, but once the truck
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  lost power, the electronic doors would not open.
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  The emergency manual releases were allegedly difficult to
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  locate, and the battery went into thermal runaway, a chain
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  reaction where damaged lithium ion cells overheat and ignite.
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  The fire reached approximately 5000°F.
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  Sheehan's attorney said the heat was so intense that his client's
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  bones experienced thermal fracture.
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  He was 8 inches shorter in length after the fire than
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  before. That's horrible and the family
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  is taking more than $1,000,000 in damages.
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  As they should in my opinion. If you can't find your way out
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  because the door handles are busted because the battery
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  doesn't work, look man, it's it's a scary thought.
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  A separate lawsuit involves three teenagers who died in a
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  cyber truck crash in Piedmont, CA November 2024.
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  A friend who witnessed the crash said he ran to help and tried
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  the push button. Door release.
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  Didn't work. He tried the Rea door also
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  didn't work. He picked up a tree branch and
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  struck the window roughly a dozen times.
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  Now the Cybertruck has armored glass in a stainless steel frame
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  and shell, and Musk once called it the finest in apocalypse
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  protection technology. The same protection made rescue
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  nearly impossible. The victims autopsy showed they
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  died from smoke inhalation and burns, not the impact.
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  They survived the crash. They did not survive the doors
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  not opening now. Tesla launched a new safety
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  website this month. It says doors will automatically
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  unlock for emergency access after a serious collision.
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  It's a new feature, and the website includes A footnote
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  saying the feature may not be available on every model
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  depending on build date. Tesla design chief Franz van
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  Holzhausen told Bloomberg in September that the company is
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  working on redesign. The plan is to combine the
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  electronic and manual door release mechanisms into a single
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  button. Now, they said the goal is to
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  make the system more intuitive for occupants in a panic
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  situation. Did not say when the redesign
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  would be ready or whether older vehicles would receive a
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  retrofit in a recall. Now the NHTSA that opened two
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  investigations into Tesla door systems.
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  September probe covers about 174,000 Model Y vehicles from
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  the 2021 model year. The new December probe covers
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  about 179,000 Model 3 vehicles from the 2022 model year.
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  And the September investigation was prompted by complaints from
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  owners who could not enter or exit vehicles after the battery
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  has died. You know, in several cases,
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  children were locked inside. And HTSA sent Tesla a letter
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  demanding extensive records about consumer complaints,
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  crashes, injuries, fatalities, fires, lawsuits, and warranty
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  claims related to door operation ability.
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  Now, the agency warned Tesla it could face fines of nearly
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  $28,000 per violation per day if it failed to respond completely
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  and on time. Don't mess with them now.
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  This issue is not limited to the United States, though.
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  China's auto safety regulators are considering a ban on fully
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  concealed door handles. If implemented, that rule could
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  take effect as early as July 2027.
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  All of Tesla's vehicles are concealed and they use concealed
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  handles for aerodynamic efficiency.
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  A change in China Wood Forest Tesla to redesign The European
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  Transport Safety Council has called for clearer emergency
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  opening rules for electronically activated doors.
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  Tesla has said any safety issues with doors are industry wide and
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  not unique to its vehicles. That's true in the sense that
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  other automakers use similar technology.
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  But the complaints, lawsuits and fatality count are concentrated
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  on Tesla, and owners are taking matters into their own hands.
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  Some are buying glass Breakers and seat belt cutters to keep in
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  their vehicles. Rideshare drivers are
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  proactively showing passengers where to find the manual
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  releases. Third party sellers on Amazon
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  and Etsy are listing emergency pull cords and accessories to
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  make the releases easier to use. TikTok videos and Reddit threads
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  explain how to install them. Nearly 35,000 people have signed
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  a Consumer Reports petition calling on automakers to fix
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  their electric doors. Now, a Tesla owner in Los
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  Angeles made an informational video about reading about
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  college students who died in a crash.
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  She realized she did not know how to exit her own car in an
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  emergency. That, my friends, is a designed
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  failure. Now, Tesla introduced flush door
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  handles with the Model S in 2012.
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  The company made them a signature styling element.
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  The handles look sleek. They reduce aerodynamic drag.
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  They also hide the mechanism that gets you out of the car
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  now. Von Holzhausen has LED Tesla's
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  design team for 17 years. He acknowledged in his Bloomberg
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  interview the muscle memory matters in a panic situation.
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  If the door handle you reach for doesn't work, you need to find
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  an alternative, possibly within a second, or you're done.
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  That alternative should not be hidden under a rug, should not
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  require reading an owner's manual.
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  The Ford Mustang Mach E already uses the system where pulling
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  the electronic latch further engages the mechanical release.
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  Now Tesla is now exploring something very similar.
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  Tesla taking a page out of the Ford playbook and the question
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  is whether the fix will come soon enough and whether it will
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  cover the millions of vehicles that are already on the road and
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  will save lives. Hey, thank you so much for
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