What Next | Daily News and Analysis Trapped in a Tesla
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Sep 28, 2025 Dana Hull, a Bloomberg senior reporter focused on Tesla and Elon Musk, shines a light on critical safety issues with Tesla door handles. She shares harrowing stories of passengers trapped in crashes due to the unintuitive design. Multiple incidents reveal how rescuers struggle to open doors during emergencies. Hull discusses the risks associated with Tesla’s flush handles and regulatory gaps in safety testing. She emphasizes the need for better awareness among owners and first responders, while hinting at Tesla's plans for redesigning these problematic features.
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Two Batteries Create Cascade Risks
- Teslas use a separate low-voltage system (commonly 12V) for doors and controls while a high-voltage battery powers propulsion.
- Crash-driven low-voltage failures can cascade, disabling doors, windows, and touchscreens when they are most needed.
Design Choices Prioritized Style And Efficiency
- The door-handle design began as a distinguishing, aerodynamic, cost-saving feature on the Model S.
- That design choice persisted across Tesla models despite later safety-extraction trade-offs.
Crash Tests Miss Extraction Challenges
- NHTSA crash testing focuses on crash performance, not occupant extraction or ease of egress after a crash.
- Stronger vehicles and harder-to-break glass improved survivability but made post-crash extraction harder in fires or severe crashes.