Technical

Srinivasa Reddy Kandi: Tesla to Redesign Door Handles Amid Safety Probe and Bloomberg Investigation

September, 18, 2025-04:23

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Tesla to Redesign Door Handles Amid Safety Probe and Bloomberg Investigation:

Tesla is rethinking the design of its door handles after concerns that they may trap passengers during emergencies. Chief designer Franz von Holzhausen confirmed to Bloomberg News on Wednesday that the company is “working on” a safer redesign.

The announcement follows a new investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), launched just a day earlier, and a Bloomberg report that documented multiple cases of Tesla owners and passengers being unable to exit vehicles after crashes.

Von Holzhausen did not disclose when Tesla decided to overhaul its handles. However, regulators in China have already been urging automakers to move away from fully concealed handle designs due to safety risks, though no binding measures have been implemented yet.

Tesla’s current handles face two key issues:

They rely on electronic locks powered by the car’s battery system, which can fail when power is lost.

Although manual release mechanisms exist in Tesla vehicles, they are often hard to locate and operate.

“The idea of combining the electronic and manual functions into a single button makes a lot of sense,” von Holzhausen said, adding that this is the direction Tesla is pursuing.

According to NHTSA, the agency received nine complaints from Tesla owners about malfunctioning door handles. In four cases, drivers were forced to break windows to exit their vehicles.

Tesla does provide guidance in its owner’s manuals on how to use an external power source to override dead electronic locks. But NHTSA noted that affected drivers reported no low-voltage battery warnings, leaving them without clear indications of the underlying issue.

Author: Kandi Srinivasa Reddy, Srinivasa Reddy Kandi, #KandiSrinivasaReddy, #SrinivasaReddyKandi