Sometimes technology isn’t actually an improvement over the thing it replaced. Smart TVs over regular TVs, software-as-a-service as opposed to just buying a perpetual licence, that sort of stuff. Electronic door handles run in that vein, and they finally seem to be garnering the scrutiny they deserve. The federal government is investigating 174,290 Tesla Model Y electric crossover because an electronic door handle setup that has reportedly led drivers to break windows in order to get their children out of their cars.
From the first door ever put on a car to the early 21st century, pretty much every door release was mechanical. A handle or a button would act on a rod or cable to release the latch. This was a pretty foolproof design because it required no power source, and since almost all cars come with more than one door, there was still a way to get into a depowered vehicle even if one of the handles was physically broken.
Over the past 20 years or so, however, electronic door latches have steadily become more common. While they allow for flush door handles, which aid aerodynamics and combine locking functions with door release functions, they require external power to work as intended. Although internal mechanical releases are required safety items, external ones aren’t, and that seems to be the problem here. As NHTSA reports:
The most commonly reported scenarios involved parents exiting the vehicle after a drive cycle in order to remove a child from the back seat or placing a child in the back seat before starting a drive cycle. In those events, the parents were unable to reopen a door to regain access to the vehicle. Four of these VOQs reported resorting to breaking a window to regain entry into the vehicle.
The culprit here is looking like the same culprit behind a recall of another unrelated car with electronic door latches, the Ford Mustang Mach-E. As the initial investigation report for the Model Y states:
Available repair invoices report replacement of the vehicle’s low voltage battery after the incident. However, no VOQs reported seeing a low voltage battery warning prior to the exterior door handles becoming inoperative.
While there is a way to provide external 12-volt power to a Model Y with a dead battery, it’s not exactly easy. First, a 12-volt power supply must be hooked up to leads behind the front towing eye, which will release the front trunk lid. From there, a cowl trim piece must be removed, and a HEPA filter seal may need to be moved aside to grant access to the 12-volt battery terminals, at which point an external power source can be applied to the battery terminals, providing the Model Y with the necessary juice to get everything going again. Since most people don’t carry a jump pack on their person at all times, this is a rather impractical setup.
So, since there are no emergency external door releases that work independently from a 12-volt power source, what about emergency internal door releases? While the front mechanical door releases are physical handles just ahead of the window switches, the rear ones aren’t exactly easy to access.
As the owner’s manual for the pre-facelift Model Y depicts, the emergency rear door release is hidden underneath an access panel that’s underneath a mat in the bottom of the door pocket, and it’s a rather crude cable as opposed to an easy-to-use handle. It’s not particularly easy to access even if you’re able-bodied, and some people just won’t be able to access it at all. Young children strapped into car seats, obviously, but also some adults. What if your hand’s in a cast because you sent it too hard on your last snowboarding trip, or you don’t have the fingernails to pluck the door bin mat out of its home?
It’s worth noting that some automakers simply don’t have this issue because they’ve included with their electronic door latch systems a piece of proven technology: An actual lock cylinder and a physical key, either hidden inside the fob or attached to it externally. The Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV9, and Lincoln Aviator are all great examples of cars with electronic door latches and external lock cylinders to get access to the interior if the battery’s flat. Just look at how easy it is, as shown by an excerpt from the owner’s manual for the Hyundai Ioniq 5 above.
Considering how Ford has recalled the Mustang Mach-E for a substantially similar issue, it wouldn’t be surprising if this investigation into 174,000 2021 Tesla Model Y crossovers results in a recall, and it may even expand to cover more model years. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine a fix for this that isn’t hardware-dependent in some form.
Top graphic images: Tesla
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I actually like electronic door locks/latches and keyless ignitions but they have to implemented well and this is definitely not a good way. First, if I have to pull a handle to unlock/unlatch the door it’s already dumb. Second, there has to be a simple and reasonably straightforward way to open the doors without power and having to jump it or disassemble things to get to any release is a fail.
My C6, for example, has electronic door latching that has no moving parts except the latch itself. Easy to use, unobtrusive, very little maintenance. If the battery dies there are easily accessed manual releases next to the seats and there’s a key lock on the trunk to get to a back up door release from the outside. The only significant improvement would have been to make the release handles more obvious (paint them red) as they blend in with the trim too much.
Wow… Tesla getting bad press today?!? Must be a day ending in Y.
My Gen-Z kids won’t get locked inside, because they absolutely hate the Sperminator and would rather walk than ride in one of his cars. One of the reasons why is clearly illustrated in the Tesla manual text above- “In the unlikely event that your battery goes dead”.
Dude, batteries go dead ALL THE TIME.
Well, my pre-boomer parents and all of my GenX friends won’t ride in one either, so your kids are in good company.
Another day, another investigation into the obvious: Electric door handles suck.
Dear God, people, please, if you have to leave your kids in the car in the summer, please make sure to always roll up all the windows to keep the hot air from getting inside. Its basically common sense, yet every year, you still hear horrible stories
And if you leave them water, they will just have to pee that much sooner. Dehydration for you.
I like and support this site, but “Think of the children” is tired as a clickbait phrase. Anyone or anything (such as pets) trapped in the car is at risk when a Y’s battery dies. It’s a defect, Tesla, fix it.
Yes, but children strapped into a seat that they cannot release themselves from is a far more common scenario. It’s also one that carries a lot more legal ramifications compared to a pet if they’re to die inside.
similar ramifications if you tie a child to a tree outside compared to a dog.
A common practice, unlike strapping kids into car seats in a car-centric country.
To further TheDrunkenWrench’s point the article states that some of the complaints to NHTSA about the Model Y were from parents who parked, got out of the car, went to get their child out from the back seat, were prevented by inoperative door handles, and resorted to breaking the windows to regain access. With the further note that there was no warning about low voltage on the 12V battery prior to getting out of the car.
Theoretically, the driver could have avoided the problem by keeping their door open until after they opened the rear door and gained access to the rear of the car, but that’s not really a solution.
Is that from the logs or what the “customer states”? I don’t want to defend Tesla, but what’s really worse is defending users that just ignore idiot lights.
All I’m saying is how much is user error vs. product defect?
I don’t want to promote and further idiocracy.
To be fair to non-technical drivers, there are no other vehicles on the planet where the consequences of ignoring an idiot light leads to the driver being unable to access the cabin. Drivers have a reasonable expectation of opening unlocked doors.
IMHO it doesn’t matter the driver ignored an idiot light — this is a bad design worthy of a recall.
The Stans, somehow, will try and explain how this is actually genius.
Only thing that keeps their dates from escaping.
Sometimes, reinventing the wheel…er…door handle is not worth the small benefits. I will never understand electronic door handles, when mechanical ones are nearly fool-proof. When it becomes a life or death situation to escape a vehicle (such as after a crash), it needs to not require a pre-flight safety briefing to know how to escape.
Just yesterday I had a discussion with a fellow engineer that we shouldn’t throw away proven technology just for the sake of getting something new with minimal identifiable gains. These types of door mechanisms feel like exactly that, in that traditional door handles are mostly proven and have even been available in a flush mounting style for many decades. While I recognize electric handles and latches may simplify the assembly process, I still question where they provide any other benefit?
Saving cost/increasing profit is the only thing that matters to the techbro likes of Elon Musk. They can spin it as “cool and innovative”, but that is very, very secondary.
I wouldn’t call Jim Farley a “Tech Bro” yet the Mach-e doesn’t even have external door handles FFS.
Not having those handles saves money. And when you are losing tens of thousands per car sold, you squeeze every penny you can. And it appeals to the cool techie idiots. Why does every EV look like a science project inside? That’s why.
Wait, what’s the cost difference?
Mechanical handle + cable/rod vs. wiring + control module + emergency secondary + you still need a mechanical door handle, with an electric servo in it!
No way those are cheaper.
You’d be surprised how much cheaper an electric assembly can be these days. The mechanical backup doesn’t need to be good, it just needs to be there for emergencies so that is dirt cheap. Vs. a fully mechanical linkage that has to be tested to survive umpteen billion cycles, and is almost certainly more complex to install in the car. Saving on assembly time and expense often makes up for higher component expense today (but in this case I bet the electric is cheaper). The real reason all cars have electric windows, for example.
Not only does it likely save vehicle assembly time, but the component assembly likely happens at a third-party facility in another country that sources components from a bunch of overseas suppliers, so even if the individual component prices are slightly higher, the increased assembly throughput at the more expensive stages makes up the difference and then some. Not to mention for the purposes of warranty repairs, replacing an electronic component is quicker and cheaper than a tech troubleshooting linkages and adjusting tolerances, so win-win for everyone but the end user outside of the warranty period.
Exactly. Ultimately it’s a penny here and a penny there and pretty soon you are talking real serious cost savings.
Do the aerodynamics justify the cost, risks, and annoyance or is it just something flashy to attract the FOMO techie cultists?
I believe a previous article on here regarding the popout door handles stated they have a 0.01% impact on aero. I believe that is correct, but I don’t have a citation on hand.
So totally not worth a child being trapped. thanks for that stat.
Are we just gonna bypass the line in the image that says:
NOTE: Not all Model Y vehicles are equipped with a manual release for the rear doors”
How is this legal???
“Disruption”
Yeah I also read that and had to read it again just to make sure that it wasn’t on all of the vehicles.
I was gonna say, they’re partially burying the lede on that one.
and Uber wonders why I’ve requested an option to exclude Teslas.
AMC door flap handles federally mandated. There. Problem solved.
Those were some of the best door handles ever made. Dick Teague? I wonder.
I find it mind blowing that the feds regulate in such a way, that European turn signals aren’t allowed (like Audi), but somehow door handles like this are allowed, or there isn’t some standard about requiring certain controls to be physical, or that the Buick Envista brake lights and turn signals aren’t where you expect them at all (and the signals are red!).