The core idea of how a car door handle should work has not changed much in over a century of motoring. You manipulate a knob or handle, and that moves a latch that lets you in and out of your car. For most vehicles throughout history, door handles have been intuitive, and vehicle occupants have been able to figure them out, even in an emergency. There’s a newer trend out there of electric handles that disappear into the vehicle body. It seems that nobody likes these handles, and in some cases, users have been unable to operate them when they were needed most. Now, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is finally considering doing something about it.
The car door handle has long been a beautiful piece of engineering that didn’t require a second look to figure out how to operate it. Some of the earliest car door handles weren’t much different from what was mounted to horse-drawn carriages or maybe even the door of a building. You grabbed a handle, rotated it, and that made a bar or pin slide in or out to secure the door or free it to swing open.
Since then, car door handles have taken on seemingly a million different forms, from the twist handles of the early 20th century to the mid-century push-buttons and pull-levers. The bars and pins became rods and cables, and designers got creative with handle styling. Over time, the automotive world has seen handles that flip up, flip to the side, pull out, push in, and flip out. The linkages that make these handles work allow designers freedom to place handles in visually appealing places while the latch and striker could be in optimal positions for safety.
Of all of those designs, the pull-out handle has long been favored by automakers around the world. It just works. You walk up to the vehicle, pull the handle, and it opens. It’s just so easy.
Complicating What Should Be Simple
One of the trends brought on by the modern electric car revolution is a rethinking of how door handles work both inside and outside. Now, instead of just walking up to your vehicle and pulling a handle, your vehicle might have to electrically extend those handles first. Or, maybe you have to push an electronic button of some kind. If you’re inside one of these new cars, simple handles might have been replaced with buttons.
Take a look at the Ford Mustang Mach-E above. There are no handles at all. Instead, you thumb a button embedded in the door’s pillar like you’re unlocking a phone’s screen.
This technology isn’t exactly new. Let’s move inside now.
If you own a Chevrolet Corvette, for example, you’ve long been accustomed to mashing buttons to get out of your car. These electronic doors also have manual overrides, where you can pull a handle somewhere to pop the door in an emergency.
Unfortunately, it’s not always obvious where these escape handles are, and that costs precious seconds in an emergency, such as a vehicle fire or immersion in water. Then it gets worse, because while there might be manual door overrides inside of the car, that isn’t always the case for exterior door handles.
Let’s go back to that Mach-E. Do you want to guess how you’ll get into that car if there’s an electrical failure and, for some reason, the occupants can’t get out? Ford says you have to go through the frunk. That’s simply unacceptable in an emergency where every second counts. A door should just work like a door, even if there’s no power.
It’s not just Ford, either. If you have a fancy electric Cadillac, you also have electric door poppers, and if there’s no electrical power, you’re getting in through the trunk. As ABC7 reported, there was a real case when this could have been disastrous that didn’t even involve a fire or crash, as a baby got trapped in a Cadillac after its 12V battery suddenly failed.
Then there are vehicles like Teslas. The Model S has handles that have to electrically extend before you use them. The Model X doesn’t have door handles at all, and instead requires you to press door buttons that resemble handles. The Tesla Cybertruck doesn’t even pretend to have door handles, and you’re getting in through a hidden touchpad. The Model Y and Model 3 have physical handles, but they trigger electrical switches.
Tesla’s worst offender is the Model X, which requires you to disassemble a part of the interior if you want to manually override the Falcon Wing doors from inside.
In 2025, Bloomberg News published an investigation into a string of incidents where Tesla door handles failed to deploy during emergencies, delaying rescuers from saving trapped vehicle occupants. From Bloomberg News:
Max Walsh spotted the plume of smoke just as an emergency alert flashed on his smartwatch: vehicle fire with entrapment. Less than a minute later, the off-duty firefighter pulled up to a busy intersection in northern Virginia, where a Tesla Model Y lay crumpled and aflame against a utility pole. Having responded to electric vehicle fires before, Walsh knew what he was up against: electrically powered doors that may not function after a crash, manual releases that can be hard to find and battery cells that burn more intensely than gasoline. Every second mattered.
He sprinted to the SUV. The driver’s door wouldn’t open, but the window was cracked. Walsh smashed it with his bare hands and reached inside, burning himself in the process. “I’m trying to open the door and it’s like, ‘What the hell, where is the backup thing?’” Unable to find the mechanical release, he and a friend pulled the dazed driver, Venkateswara Pasumarti, up and out through the window frame.
[…]
The Virginia crash is one of a string of incidents exposing this paradox. Last November in California, a Tesla Cybertruck slammed into a tree and a wall and caught fire, killing three college students trapped inside. The same month, in Wisconsin, a Model S fire left five dead, with a cluster of bodies in the front seats suggesting to a detective there may have been a struggle to escape. In Los Angeles this spring, an All-American basketball player survived a Cybertruck crash by kicking through a window before bystanders pulled him out by his legs.
In a story earlier this month, Bloomberg has identified at least 15 deaths across a dozen incidents where rescuers and vehicle occupants were unable to open the doors of a Tesla.
While Tesla has come under fire frequently for its flush electric door handles, it’s hardly the only company doing it. You’ll find electric handles on vehicles from Rivian, Hyundai, Kia, and other brands. It seems like these door handles are solutions in search of problems that don’t exist. Is adding all of this complexity really worth the aerodynamic gains?
Thankfully, some of these handles aren’t entirely electric. For example, Hyundai’s handle is still mechanical where it counts. The only electric part pushes the handle out of the body. In an emergency, the handles might not extend, but rescuers can still get into the vehicle if they press the handles.
This issue isn’t limited to America, either. Electric door handles are found on cars all over the world, and drivers all around the world are finding out that these handles sometimes don’t work when they’re needed the most. Over in China, there have been some tragic incidents that spread across social media, depicting the horrors of what happens when door handles don’t deploy. As such, early this year, China became the first nation to outright ban these types of handles, and drivers around the world have been begging for similar regulations in their home countries ever since.
The Feds Are Getting Involved
Following Bloomberg‘s investigation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a defect investigation after reports of some Tesla Model Y door handle failures. Then, in November 2025, Kevin Clouse submitted a petition to NHTSA, hoping to get a safety defect investigation started on 2022 Tesla Model 3 vehicles. This is what the petition said, from the Federal Register:
In a letter dated November 7, 2025, Mr. Kevin Clouse (the Petitioner) requested that NHTSA “open a safety defect investigation into the emergency mechanical door release design” in the MY 2022 Tesla Model 3 vehicles as the design “fails to comply with FMVSS 206 requiring emergency egress controls to be readily accessible and clearly identifiable.” Mr. Clouse supported his request with details regarding his own experience during an emergency event.
The Petitioner stated that following a head-on collision, the MY 2022 Tesla Model 3 suffered a total loss of electrical power and caught fire. Due to the loss of power, the electric door handles became inoperative. The Petitioner stated he was unable to locate the mechanical door handle, forcing him to climb into the back seat and exit the vehicle through a rear passenger window. The Petitioner further stated that the mechanical emergency door release in his 2022 MY Tesla Model 3 is not accessible and clearly identifiable and thus fails to comply with FMVSS 206. NHTSA has based its decision on a review of the material cited by the Petitioner, pertinent information in NHTSA’s databases, and other relevant information in possession of the agency.
NHTSA denied the petition, noting that the design of Tesla door handles does not violate any existing Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. However, in denying this petition, NHTSA noted that it received another petition that sought to update FMVSS to account for these new types of doors. From the Federal Register:
On November 4, 2025, NHTSA’s Office of Rulemaking received a petition to initiate the issuance of a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) to mandate a robust and obvious door egress system in all motor vehicles. The request has been granted, and the Agency will accordingly commence a rulemaking proceeding. See 49 CFR 552.9. A decision as to the issuance of a rule will be made on the basis of all available information developed in the course of the rulemaking proceeding, in accordance with statutory criteria.
It’s too early to tell what these potential new rules could look like. The aforementioned petitions complained about occupants being unable to locate the manual door overrides inside of vehicles. That’s a different – though still very serious – problem from electric door poppers and handles that fail on the exterior. However, in crafting new rules for an obvious door egress system, it’s possible for NHTSA to also require a way to open doors from the outside in an emergency. Also unknown is how long it’ll take to implement these hypothetical rules.
Still, this is a step in the right direction. Some automakers have seemingly taken a technology that has been settled for decades and changed it in a manner that makes it no longer intuitive and, arguably, no longer safe. Drivers should be able to trust that a door handle will work like a door handle when it’s needed, and in some cases, that’s not happening. Hopefully, NHTSA can fix this.
Top graphic images: Tesla
My god the bureaucracy moves slowly. This is very simple rule-making. All doors must have outside and inside handles, and all handles must be operable manually and be readily accessible from both inside and outside the vehicle without requiring electrical power of any kind. That is the least they could do.
If this happens in less than 2 years I would be shocked, they will get industry and public comments, meetings and then a time line for implementation. There is a town about an hour from me that can’t get the BLM to permit a water tank on federal land for the last 10 years. On something that would improve public water supply. The bureaucracy does not care about the people.
It happens slowly because it takes a while to collect and tally up all the bribes from the industry.
I completely agree this is a problem and needs to get back to manual handles. But I wonder did we face similar concerns when most cars switched from crank windows to electric? I could see a case where the door is damaged or pinned in a crash, and the occupants need to lower the window to escape. Not everyone has the strength to break a car window from the inside.
if your door is pinned the glass isnt going down
And is probably shattered already anyway.
About fucking time. This is one of my hard lines in the sand for certain brands. Tesla, Ford, Rivian can all go fuck themselves until they fix this. Not only will I not buy cars that have this, I won’t even take them as rentals or Ubers.
Not only is it a safety issue, this is just shit engineering, and reeks of some dipshit product manager overriding the engineer who pointed out how dumb this is.
You have to have a mechanical override somewhere, so you are not saving on cost by making it electrical. What you are doing (again, in addition to adding in a huge safety issue) is adding more parts with more wiring that require more software. Over a production line, that’s serious money. And what for? Cool flush handles? News flash: flush handles don’t need electronics. The ability for the car to present it’s handles when you walk up? News flash: you can still do that with mechanical handles, see Hyundai/Kia/Genesis e-GMPs. So fucking dumb on so many levels.
I’m actually surprised some ev company hasn’t placed shaped charges to blow doors off after a crash. Like the battery that that launches its self.
Mercedes put explosive bolts on the SLS AMG gull wing doors, so there is precedent.
I think the Model X has this as well on the ‘falcon’ doors
So that people hypothetically can still get out from the back if/when one of these ends up with ots wheels trying to gain traction with the sky
AMC recessed handles. Sleek, easy.
I wonder if musk twatted about that rescuer being a pedo for not being able to locate the inside door handle from the outside in an emergency where seconds count.
This has nothing to do with electric vehicles, it’s all about cool factor and aero. And it’s really two separate complaints.
The late Mitch McConnell’s billionaire Sister-in-law died after a Pitbull concert when she drunkenly reversed her Tesla into her pond and got trapped inside.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/20/texas-police-release-angela-chao-death-investigation-report-.html
Are they admitting he’s dead or are we confessing a very very strong suspicion?
I have a very strong suspicion he’s brain dead.
But surely that doesn’t prevent him from being a Congressperson.
It’s nearly a prerequisite for being a Republican Congresscritter these days.
The official announcement of his death will probably come on August 2nd since were he officially dead before that date Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear(D) would be able to appoint a replacement for the rest of this session.
This isn’t true. Kentucky law requires the governor to replace a dead (or resigned) Senator with a person from a short list chosen by the ex-senator’s party. So Beshear would be forced to appoint a Republican. The world is better off with Quantum McConnell.
(This isn’t how it works in most states. If Bernie Sanders dies, the Republican governor of Vermont can appoint a Republican. Bernie Sanders should not have run for reelection.)
I bet they hold off until August 3rd or 4th for deniability purposes. For verisimilitude.
It’s really quite silly that EV Manufacturers will design items with ignorant usage requirements to save a key over a year but will instead require every feature to use electricity and multiple levels of the touch screen instead of better performance by analog or manual use.
What uses more a exterior door handle or a 3 level deep app to open the glove box
About time, as much as NHTSA and/or DOT have been overly proscriptive in the past and kept the US market from getting genuine innovation this seems like something that is past time they stepped in on. Hoping they crack down on turn signals as a playground for pointless style innovation next.
Perfect example of lunacy will change a metal part to plastic to save a nickle but will spend a million to change a already perfectly performing part.
For real, let’s not get started on shifters for automatic transmissions.
Tangentally, how about addressing headlights that are brighter than the sun too.
Yes! Welcome to the club lol
While they’re making rules about headlights I’m so sick of automatic headlights that don’t seem to come on unless it’s pitch black out. Maybe this is my specific axe to grind because I live in the gloomy PNW but I am so tired of seeing people driving around with no lights on in near dusk conditions (especially now that like 50% of cars seem to be some shade of dark gray)
I get annoyed the other way with auto headlights—they go on and off with nearly every overpass on a highway, yet they don’t come on with the wipers. Or interior lights that auto brighten. I covered the sensor in my car with tape as it was driving me f’n nuts, especially where the bright setting is way too high. Of course, if everything wasn’t a shitty display, it wouldn’t need to be lit constantly and more people would remember to turn on their headlights.
I mean that’s a fair point. And yes I think a lot of this is driven by the stupid screens that are always lit so there’s no affordance that you forgot to turn your lights. Somehow feels like there’s a better solution though, even ignoring the long rainy near dusk light conditions we get here, I see way more people driving at night with their lights off than I used to, somehow this needs to be addressed.
There’s a decent number of them, but what’s really getting me lately is all the line-crossers and wrong-way drivers we’ve had. By line crossers, I mean people who nearly run into trees alongside the road or (a Boxster a couple weeks ago) cross over the double yellow, through the other lane, onto the sidewalk before their astral projection session ends and they drive back to the correct lane like nothing happened. I don’t know what’s going on—weed’s been legal for a while now and while it’s definitely a problem, this is a new level and it’s too recent to be a direct connection—and the drivers I see doing this appear to be looking through the windshields, not futzing with a phone or the screen and I haven’t smelled skunk from any of them (I suppose it could be edibles). It’s the most disturbing trend I’ve seen.
Can’t say I’ve specifically noticed that though I could swear the median driver’s skill set and attention to the road has gone downhill since the pandemic.
The wrong way driving seems to be a fairly recent MA phenomenon according to news.
Bizarre-and I live in WA where we’ve had legal weed for years and I can’t say that’s been a problem that I’m aware of. Though I do wonder if it contributes to the amount of inexplicable head-up-butt behavior I see. Of course that could just be a general west coast je ne sais quoi
Yeah, it feels like auto headlights were meant to solve a problem that was less prevalent before they existed.
I definitely think it is. The first car I had a problem forgetting to turn my headlights on with was my ’88s TransAm with the digital dash option. Even got pulled over for it once (how quaint!) Back then it took me a while to realize why, the reason was because the gauges were always lit I didn’t have the immediate feedback that I’d forgotten something.
Having the headlights come on with the wipers is such a no brainer, and I have only encountered a tiny number of cars that do it.
Especially since more states require it than don’t. It should at least be an available option in the settings, set to on as the default.
Forget pointless style innovation, how about just mandate the rear turn signals be amber and SEPARATE from the braking illumination
YES
I am sure there is some amount of benefit from a flush mount handle without a finger pocket for range or even fuel economy. But I can recall plenty of cars over the years with flat flaps that pushed in to operate the door mechanism inside.
I’m not familiar with them pushing in, but on AMCs and a fair number of European cars they pulled outwards, which then became the opening of the door itself.
https://www.corvettemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/1969-1982-corvette-door-handle-lock-rod-installation-main-scaled.jpg
I was going to talk about the javelin(AMC). but I figured the little alcove to fit your finger under the door flap would be point out. Also the 68 Javelin ones at least broke on me quite often.
Re the Corvette pictured, is the flap just a dust/water/cosmetic/aero cover, concealing some release lever, or is it also part of the actuation mechanism?
Funny, I grew up with a ‘68 AMC Ambassador in a family with four kids, and the was never a problem.
Flap attached to a rod, when you push the flap down the door latch opens. there is a spring down there to push the flap back up I believe.
Every front seat guest I’ve had in my Model Y, which has been about half a dozen different people, has without fail used the emergency release instead of the electronic button. No instructions from me. And the door has worked. For the back seats, I did install bright yellow pull cords for those releases. Those suckers are buried.
Same in our model 3. I have to explain “please push the button”, or everyone uses the little manual door release. Every time I read one read one of the “Trapped in a Tesla”, I wonder if whoever bothered to learn how their car works. Probably not.
You shouldn’t need to RTFM to open a door.
Okay now for a proper test drive the vehicle into a tree and if it doesn’t automatically catch on fire set it on fire. Tell us how they do
A) These things are stupid.
B) It seems like every guest should receive a pre-flight briefing on how to use the locks.
I remember when Saab’s external handles were purposely engineered to be stout enough to be used as tow hooks.
MB, too. I believe they were built to be pulled by a hydraulic hook that could rip the door from the car. That’s when safety was actually about safety, but all those old cars are death traps now and only Big Brother’s advertising and gimmick machines can hope to save you in a crash today. Tomorrow, today’s cars will be death traps, too, and only the one they’re selling at the moment will be of any value in a crash, but you won’t get in one because it will drive itself and the technology is infallible—demonstrably better than the absolute worst human drivers.
My ’78 and ’88 MBs have the classic pull handles that feel pretty strong, but the driver side in the ’88 has worked itself partially loose under previous ownership. I haven’t fixed it yet because removing the door cards will mean breaking 9477185729 old clips.
Re safety, those old MB doors are so heavy and make that bank vault sound when they close, but I do wonder how much that would help during a side crash.
It would probably depend on when they added side impact beams. With old MB, they probably had them well before they were mandated, but that’s just a guess. I loved the solid feel of the old MBs.
Mercedes as well. And remember when car owner’s manuals sternly told you to NEVER lock the doors while driving lest a rescuer not be able to get you out? I do. Though I suppose modern safety systems that SHOULD automagically unlock the doors when the airbags go off fix that. Maybe. If they work. Feeling lucky? I absolutely hate cars that lock the doors when you set off.
Meanwhile, my 2013 car’s doors auto lock when you start driving.
“remember when car owner’s manuals sternly told you to NEVER lock the doors while driving lest a rescuer not be able to get you out? I do.”
Was that from before the era of carjackings?
I assume that carjackings have been a thing since shortly after the car was invented. 24x7x365 news media making people worried about them is a much more recent development.
If I am in “da ‘hood” where there is that infinitesimal chance of it happening to me, I am quite capable of locking my doors myself.
“24x7x365 news media making people worried about them is a much more recent development.”
You got me curious so I thought I’d share:
“The word is a portmanteau of car and hijacking. The term was coined by reporter Scott Bowles and editor E. J. Mitchell with The Detroit News in 1991.The News first used the term in a report on the murder of Ruth Wahl, a 22-year-old Detroit drugstore cashier who was killed when she would not surrender her Suzuki Sidekick, and in an investigative report examining the rash of what Detroit Police call “robbery armed unlawful driving away an automobile” (in dispatch slang shortened to R.A.-YOU-Da) plaguing Detroit.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carjacking
So you are right, we can thank the media for coming up with the scary fear of being “carjacked” instead of the delightful sounding Ra-YOU-da which sounds like a game played by toddlers.
People complain about my car not locking automatically, but I much prefer it, especially where the fuel lid locks with the doors. I don’t get why someone would prefer them to lock automatically. If you’re in some area where you think you’ll get people opening your door on you while driving, I would think it would be easy to remember to lock them.
Exactly how I feel about it, and that feature is disabled in all of my cars that can do it.
The first time my brand-new Jetta auto locked, it startled me. They had very loud actuators and it sounded like a gun had gone off in the cabin. It used the same shrill annunciator tone when you got down to low fuel or low on windshield washer fluid.
The doors on my ’17 Accord have the same satisfying thunk as a Mercedes when shut with the appropriate amount of force but probably don’t weigh nearly as much. I have a habit of not slamming things in general.
I don’t know whether locked doors are any less prone to flying open in a violent crash. There are probably research papers about that somewhere.
Car door locks just typically disable the ability to move the latch, not any sort of additional latch. So definitely no more or less likely to fly open. It’s entirely a “security from somebody yanking the door open” feature.
There are exceptions though – many older BMWs actually had a deadbolt feature that activated if you turned the key the other way. With a VERY stern warning in the manual to never do that while anyone is in the car, because the only way to unlock them again was with the key.
> remember when car owner’s manuals sternly told you
People read car manuals?
I do, usually before I take delivery. <shrug>
The point is that people riding shotgun in Tesla’s most popular vehicles have, without instructions, found the emergency release. Anecdote isn’t data, it’s true.
I had a buddy who “shaved” the door handles off his S-Blazer and installed electric door “poppers”. After a while they failed and his only method of entry and egress involved the rear tailgate. Fun times.
Were they lambo doors too?
I know I’m old, but I honestly can’t fathom how in the world anyone ever thought that mechanical door handles and latches would be better in any way by making them fully electric. Anything that relies on wiring and a power supply risks becoming inoperative if the power source or wiring fails. (Yes, mechanical linkages can fail, but it tends to be far less likely.)
Further, hiding the interior manual release seems borderline homicidal to me. People don’t read the owner’s manual. Most of them will have no freaking idea how to get out of the car if the electrical system is disabled for any reason.
You want streamlined, fully-flush door handles? Fine. Do it like has been done on airplanes for decades. Make them so you push one end in to lever the other end out, and then pull on the end that pops out. People will figure it out quickly. For the interior? Stick to an obvious mechanical handle the pretty much shouts “PULL ME”. That’s all that’s ever needed.
The only actual improvement I’ve heard of is regarding child locks on the rear doors. Rivian has made some sort of argument that (if I’m understanding correctly) is that they are able to turn off child locks (thus a child can escape) in the event of an accident. Where on a traditional child lock situation where it is 100% mechanical, to turn off the child lock you have to open the door from the outside, flip that little switch, and then it’s off.
That being said, it seems like the an even better solution would be partially electronic child locks in conjunction with mechanical levers. Basically, some sort of spring return solenoid activates the child locks which prevents the internal handles from working, but if power is lost or an accident is detected or something like that, the solenoid returns to a fails-safe position and the interior handles now work.
The doors on my 2001 VX I bought new 25 years ago have never been locked intentionally. I feel if someone is going to steal something they are smart enough to break the window. Then I’ve lost whatever is stolen and I have a broken window. It’s like licking a convertible except a new top is more expensive than a window
Yeah, remember the guy that died in the parking lot of a diner, because he got trapped in his Corvette when the battery failed and didn’t know about the emergency release? Feels like we should have already been familiar with the dangers of this stuff well before the EV revolution came along, and yet, went down that path anyway
It could be worse. Granted this was on power locks not handles but I had an Audi that used pneumatic locks, and when the line going to it got a crack you had no way of opening it from the inside if locked and I ended up with the cheapest option being to destructively remove the door from the b-pillar and replace it with a junkyard one.
And the passengers have no access to the manual.
Insert Butt-Head “pull my finger, heh heh heh” graphic about here
Well, that’s horrific. It’s like a mini version of The Station night club fire*. I wonder how the engineers who designed this shit sleep at night?
*: I’m told video exists of this incident. I’m also told you absolutely should not watch it unless you like having nightmares. You’ve been warned.
I don’t think the dirtbags who engineer these abominations have feelings like that. If I had the proper sunglasses, I’d likely be able to see what they really look like and it isn’t human.
I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass…and I’m all out of bubblegum.
The dirtbags are the people who people who require them to be on the cars. The engineer either designs them, or has to go looking for work elsewhere due to immediate unemployment.
When an engineer can cite an official rule, statute or guideline that must be adhered to, they have grounds for an objection. I myself have gone to a superior with standards book in hand to explain an aspect that they were not aware of. Here’s hoping the NHTSA moves quickly.
“Just doing what I was told” has never been a valid excuse beyond the person making it and, in its most famous widespread use, the alternative to following orders was near certain death, not unemployment with a good degree.
I did expect a response of this nature. However, tell me, in a situation such as this where the directive that these door systems shall be made comes from far higher levels of command than can be appealed to, are you of the opinion that everyone assigned to the task teams working them for Corvette, Tesla, Kia, Cadillac, etc. all should have resigned?
Yes, there is a level of lack of safety as compared to a mechanical linkage, and I don’t like it. No, it is not being asked to substitute inferior brake material, and it is not intentionally shipping Arthur Miller’s cracked engine blocks. I can only speculate what I would have done if on the interior door handle team, but I suspect I would have worked to create and push a design for the mechanical fallback that was visible, accessible, and intuitive.
As many other effing stupid recent changes in automotive world, I blame Tesla.
Damn, Tesla is the one single responsible for worse cars in this decade.
Big screens
Buttonless HMI
Intrusive features
Complicated handles
…
Really you can’t think of any other car decisions, many that have killed far more people, that is worse than Tesla? Exposed gas tank on the Pinto, tire choice on the Ford SUV that flipped cars, plastic parts under the hood of many cars that become brittle and cause engine fires, airbags that chose a certain gas that caused airbags to deploy and shoot out shrapnel killing people just to name a few?
You are giving examples of decades ago, before cars were at their pinnacles of both usability/reliability and security some years ago. Tesla surely made safer cars too, but the backlash in the form of stupid shit nobody actually wants, caused cars to become insanely expensive and profit-oriented due to the impossibility of selling more sensible vehicles.
Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes, Tesla has single-handedly set back the auto industry more than any other company or event in the history of the automobile.
Turn signals as buttons rather than a stalk!
Prime example.
It’s all well and good until Elon Musk donates a few million dollars to Trump and they decide these doorhandles don’t need regulation anymore.
They were available many years before Tesla but let’s blame Elon right?
I wasn’t aware of that. Some examples?
Came here expecting one of these comments.
If companies want electronic door handles, go for it, but make the requirement be the manual override has to be operated at the same location as the primary door handle. Dont make the manual over ride a completely separate and hidden spot, in an emergency muscle memory is going to take over.
That is the way the Fords work with electric interior handles. Pull it half way and if the electrical system is functional the door will open. If the door doesn’t open then pull the handle all the way to engage the mechanical linkage.
That’s how my electronic doors work too.
So far the only benefit I’ve seen with electronic door handles is if I don’t shut the door completely, it will shut the door for me.
Why have a complicated system like that if you have the simple option built-in? Pull handle, mechanical linkage unlinks, door opens. So easy even Ford would only need 1 recall to get it right.
I have been for about a month now:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55369439461_ac766f27d9_c.jpg
The parts for converting its tail light (singular) into a combination tail and stop light (thereby giving it a stop light) are supposed to arrive in a few days, so until then pretty much all I’ve been doing is basking in the car’s simplicity as a stationary object. The door handles and latches work great, though.
Oh what a lovely example! I get your reluctance to drive without a “please don’t rear-end me” warning. Looks quite suitable for year-round use.
I still like the hand-starting trick I was taught at WAAAM: leave the ignition off, crank 1 full rotation, turn the ignition buzzer on and let it light off.
Thanks! Several years ago I had a ’37 Plymouth sedan with no turn signals that I used as a daily driver but having no brake light is a bit much, particularly since my T isn’t equipped with the optional bumpers. Besides, Washington requires a brake light even for early cars, unlike turn signals.
Maybe motorcycle manufacturers should think about increasing the size of their tailights as you can not see them in the daylight and really can’t seperate them from other lights and reflectors. Probably Elins fault
Nice addition to the fleet. Yeah I certainly wouldn’t drive it without a combo stop/tail and I’d seriously consider adding one to the other side as well if driving in our state.
Two tail and stop lights? I don’t know that ol’ Henry would have countenanced such extravagance.
That is so nice!
There is a fellow that lives (or did at the time) in the UP (Upper Pinsula) in Michigan, that as a challenge I suppose to himself, decided he wanted to see what would happen if he drove his 1928? Ford Model A for a full year and write about his experience with his approx 100 year old Daily Driver.
The site is called 365DaysOfA.
I want to say he did this maybe back in 2014, so it has been a while.
That said after I found it, which was after he completed it, I got hooked and read each of his ‘daily driving entries complete usually with pictures.
Just looked it up… it was a 1929 Model A Coup and the year he daily drove it was 2010
https://www.365daysofa.com/
Also another thing not talked about with these crappy door handles/buttons is bears and moose in bear and moose country. Most people are kind enough to leave their cars unlocked in those areas in case someone is getting chased by said bear or moose. Well now you are running and you get to a car with flush door handles or button that only open if they sense a key around and well now you are getting eaten by the bear or the moose (that is one blood thirsty moose)
that’s an incredible edge case-and beautiful that people do that
If it’s rutting season, I think being eaten by the moose is better than the alternative.
Bigole oof
Past a certain point, it probably doesn’t matter anymore as fatal is fatal, but that’s got to be worse than that guy that got it from a horse in WA a while back.
See, that’s why you shouldn’t go anywhere without your bear-spraying camper!
By the same token, though, the bear can get into your car and trash it.
A moose once bit my sister…
No realli! She was Karving her initials on the moose with the sharpened end of an interspace toothbrush given her by Svenge—her brother-in-law— an Oslo dentist and star of many Norwegian movies: “The Hot Hands of an Oslo Dentist”, “Fillings of Passion”, “The Huge Molars of Horst Nordfink”…
Mynd you, moose bites Kan be pretti nasti…
The writer of the previous comment has been sacked.
We apologise again for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.
Køm visit the fjørds!
Beware the møøse.
I, of course, want to blame the manufactures, instead of making proven cars EVs they had to make EVs all loaded up with show off technology and wonkey designs and to try to attract the tech bros.
You do realize it was the computer tech guys and not ICE Manufacturers who made these decisions? Or maybe you didn’t
You know you’re in odd times when China beats you to a consumer protection rule.
I can only imagine a regulator in China reaching for the door handle of their car with a dead battery and saying “well, this is not only stupid: it’s potentially unsafe. I’ll fix this.”
This what baffles me with my Polestar 2 and my dad’s Blazer EV both have normal door handles but other EVs all have these goofy hidden door hands or something terrible like that Mach-E button thing. Door handles should be all mechanical and not require any electronics to close or open.
“We need these fancy handles to maximize range! … Yes the wheels are 21″, why do you ask?”
Make it make sense hah also really how much efficiency does it really save especially vs giant wheels as you said.
My thoughts exactly!
My dad has a Mach E, can confirm the button thing is really stupid and annoying.
Does he live in a snowy/icy area? I was wondering is it heated? Hopefully so.
Yes, Wisconsin. I’m not sure if it’s heated, but he hasn’t complained about it during the winter so maybe?
My ’23 Bolt has normal door handles and is more efficient than nearly anything on sale today.
While they’re at it, could they get rid of haptic touchscreens controlling the functions inside the cars, dealership-only parts/tools ecosystems, surveillance in cars, and put forth solid right to repair laws?
Actually the Trump administration is pushing for the right to repair but you are unlikely to get that information here, and watch the comments that appear to this comment
They don’t seem to be pushing very hard. Even Europe beat us to it:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20240419IPR20590/right-to-repair-making-repair-easier-and-more-appealing-to-consumers
Gotta start somewhere.
Coulda been here.
If you had to pick only one, which of those would you pick?
Getting rid of surveillance in cars would be first on my list.
Great news, everyone! TPMS sensors are now part of the panopticon!
https://www.leonardocompany-us.com/lpr/elsag-signaltrace
Cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth, and any other broadcast radio frequency (TPMS) can now be associated with you as an electronic signature, and coupled with every other way to uniquely identify you (license plate) to ensure you can be tracked, as well as everyone you associate with!
DARPA was working on this sort of technology almost half a century ago. The intent all along was to force it onto everyone once it became economical enough and the technology advanced enough to allow for it, all funded with taxpayer dollars in conjunction with various corporations/universities as “public-private partnerships”, all without single a vote cast by the public.
I feel like this does a disservice by basically grouping together electronic handles and flush handles. While both generally aren’t the most ergonomic to use, the safety risks of them are different.
Hyundai’s flush door handles (at least on the Ioniq 5) are mechanical. All the electric motor does is “present” them on the exterior so they are easier to grab. But they are still mechanical. You pull on it and you are mechanically actuate the latch mechanism. On the interior, is a very traditional mechanical pull handle. If the battery dies, the doors still work like any traditional handle, but the exterior just doesn’t pop out (it still works). Emergency exiting is just like any other vehicle
Conflate that with brands like Tesla or Rivian where if the battery completely dies or power to the door is severed (I’m ignoring any supposed electrical redundancy either brand claims to have), the interior handle might not work at all. You may have to remove some hidden little cover, and then find some emergency pull cord stashed away inside. Totally cumbersome and easy to forget in an emergency.
I think what we would consider “traditional” designs are better. But the current flush and electronic handles complaints require nuance.
Yeah. I don’t have any problem with the various “exotic” door handles that are nonetheless mechanically straightforward (even if the actual mechanism is electric like on C6 and newer Corvettes) so I’m not enamored with the over the top calls I’ve seen to legislate door handles to look like GM truck door handles from 1994; but the ridiculous stuff like “press the button to slide out the electric handle open the door” like on Teslas I have no problem with being made to go away.
I think the worst is the hidden pull cords. Some brands have different escape methods from the front seat vs the back seat. And then it’s different from one brand to the next. Different spots where to find dumb covers looking for different pull cords….
You shouldn’t need a flight attendant to give you a pre-flight safety demonstration when getting in a different car, just so you can safely get out in an emergency.
I’m not familiar with the Ioniq 5 handles, but if the electrics fail and the handle doesn’t “present” itself, can you still use the handle with a gloved hand? If not, I would lump it in the same boat. You don’t want your rescuer fiddling with a little shim to pry out the handle while your lungs fill with smoke.
Door handles are a kind of safety device. It’s the reason electronic deadbolts for exterior building doors always have a big dumb mechanical latch on the inside.
Subjectively yes. It would likely be more difficult depending on what the gloves are. The handles are spring loaded levers. Push in on the leading edge and trailing edge pops out so you can grab it just the same way it would be if it electronically popped out. Keep pulling it beyond that “presentation” kinda position, and it becomes a mechanical actuation of the latch. Yes it’s likely to create some confusion for the unfamiliar. Yes it’s likely to add time to process. No, I don’t love it.
Like I said, I think “traditional” designs are best, but this design is leaps and bounds better than something like what is found on the Mach-E or Teslas and Rivians.
It definitely sounds better, kind of like the original Model 3 handles except it’s actually mechanically connected to the door latch. I’m all for new designs, especially in the name of aero efficiency, but anyone better be able to walk up to the handle and be able to open the door within a couple of seconds regardless of the condition of the vehicle.
Exterior and interior door handles should be simple to operate by anyone who walks up outside or sits down inside the car.
Yeah grab a hammer break the glass works the same on every vehicle
There’s like 3 inches of space when the Ionic 5 handles are “presented,” and I’m pretty sure you can physically push the front portion of the door handle to force the rear part out that would normally open electrically.
The Ioniq 5 look to use the same type of handle as my EV6- you can always press in the leading edge of the handle to pop the trailing edge out to grab. In fact, the lower trim levels don’t auto-pop at all, they’re always flush until you manually push them out.
The other nice thing about the EV6/Ioniq 5 is that there’s a conventional lock tumbler under the drivers side door handle and a regular key in the key fob. Makes it very easy to get into the car and under the hood if the 12v battery fails.
Each time my EV6 pops out the door handles when I unlock it, I wish the GT was available with the non-powered levers of the lower trims just so there were no electric motors to break. Honestly, though, I just wish it had traditional door handles so my hand wouldn’t slide off when the levers are wet (which is often here in the PNW).
The Ioniq 5 got an updated fob so that back-up key is now separate and the fob looks like a giant sextoy. Well, the fob is huge, but still small compared to most sextoys. So, I guess I should say, “the fob is now giant and looks like a sextoy.”
Provide brass knuckles for every car
Yeah I would say as long as there is a physical way to get the handles to pop out if/when the 12v is dead and you can still open the doors that is fine now in a situation like the Mach-E ummm kind of SOL from the outside if the battery is dead.
Bonus points for the Porsche frunk release being electric only and also being where the battery is stored.
I agree that the Hyundai/Kia presentation of the mechanical handle is 1000x better than all-electronic ones. That said, one of the few things I really don’t like about our 24′ Ioniq 6 limited is those stupid pop-out handles. My main gripe is that they’re just advertising that the car is unlocked. In addition, the car can be unlocked BUT the handles can still be in the flush position, making you think the car is locked.. You press the fob to unlock and instead of getting the handles presenting out… click.. they’re locked now. The car can also auto-unlock as you approach (sometimes), but doesn’t auto-lock when you walk away.
Hyundai/Kia did a lot of things right, but the lock/unlock/auto presentation of handles just flat out sucks.
Will the average buyer know they can still be used in flush mode? In an emergency I can see a panicked person assuming they won’t work and not even trying them, in other words if the average car buyer conflates them and assumes they’re broken it somewhat doesn’t matter.
Screw that will the average passenger know it?
Absolutely, hence my requirement. You have to incorporate something into the design to at least indicate that you can do this. Your new design needs to be familiar to people who can use the old one while still hitting the other goals you want.
Agreed-though I question if there’s really a design affordance that would be close to instantly recognizable to emergency personal in the case of accident or emergency.
Thinking about this more part of what you’re fighting against as a designer here (and Jason alluded to this in his story comparing what was actually wound up being a relatively small number of physical door handle styles over the years) is that even if you provide some visual affordance of how the door handle can be manually pried open when the battery is dead what is the recognition time and success rate in an emergency? I think part of why the manual door handles are easy to use is most of them follow one of several common physical design patterns and what like like two basic ways of interacting with them (ignoring those stupid hidden trigger door handles) to actuate them.