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 didnāt know is that the manual release for the door was under his left hand the whole time. Now, heās blaming the automaker and raising awareness.
Rick Meggison, 73, says that Tesla needs to address what he calls a āsafety concernā 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 wonāt work. To ensure safe exit of the vehicle Tesla includes a manual release. Meggison didnāt know about that and ended up trapped in his car for 20 minutes on a hot day.
āI couldnāt open the doors. I couldnāt lower the windows. The computer was dead, so I couldnāt open the glove box. I couldnāt open anything,ā he told ABC7. Of course, he couldāve 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 whoās to blame in situations like this.
If a passenger canāt figure out how to safety exit a vehicle, that sounds like a design problem.
Agreed. Manual opening should be visible and easily used by anyone even if you donāt know how Tesla works.
Yeah. This is pretty cut and dry.
Opening a car door from the inside shouldnāt require special knowledge. It shouldnāt require searching.
The manual release inside a trunk is easier to find.
Looking at the image in the article, it looks like a pretty simple latch
Not obvious enough for a safety feature