Tesla is working on a redesign of its vehicle door handles, which are criticized for safety reasons.
Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s head of design for years, said the company intends to combine the electronic and manual opening mechanisms of the doors, currently located at different points. According to him, change seeks to make use more intuitive for occupants in “panic situations.”
“The idea of combining the electronic and manual in a single button, in my opinion, makes a lot of sense,” said von Holzhausen on Wednesday (17), in an interview with Podcast Hot Pursuit! and Bloomberg. “It’s something we’re working on.”
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Tesla’s door handles gained attention after an investigation from Bloomberg NewsThis month, revealing a series of incidents in which people were injured or died for not being able to open their doors after energy loss, especially in accidents. Since 2018, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received more than 140 consumer complaints about Tesla’s different models who crashed, did not open or have malfunction, according to the report.
This week, NHTSA has opened an investigation to determine if some Tesla doors are defective, citing cases where external door handles stopped working and children were trapped inside the vehicles. The investigation covers about 174,290 Model Y SUVs of the 2021 year year and will also evaluate the way Tesla provides energy to the locks and the reliability of these sources.
Von Holzhausen did not specify what motivated the company to study redesign. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Tesla vehicles perform well in collision tests performed by government agencies, but most of these tests only survive impact, not the ability of occupants to get out of the car later. In China, an important regulator is studying to ban fully built-in door handles, while Europe has already implemented measures to improve post-accident rescue protocols.
According to Von Holzhausen, Tesla is analyzing the details of the possible change in China and is ready to make the necessary changes. “We will have a very good solution for that,” he said.
