The Euro NCAP crash test scoring was just revised so that cars that don’t have manual controls for the most important functionality cannot get 5 star ratings anymore.

“It’s terrifying,” said Kevin Clouse, a Georgia resident who was trapped in his Model 3 following a 2023 crash and had to kick out a window to escape. He recently filed a complaintwith US regulators and has sought to raise awareness of door-related entrapment on social media. “You’re in a box that’s on fire and you can’t get out.”

What a horrifying way to go.

When I was young and naïve in my 50s, I thought US cars had safety requirements, and the era of rolling death traps had been beaten back by Ralph Nader. Must've been my mistake. Is there nobody in the government looking at safety issues like un-openable doors?

Recently there was a similar incident in China involving a Xiaomi car. This led to an incoming legislation that will require all cars to have mechanical handles in case of emergency.

Tesla alone had many such cases and there are no plans whatsoever to do anything about it.

Imagine losing to China in safety regulations.

Can someone explain what was wrong with normal door handles that they would do this?

Is it like some Steve Jobs-esque obsession with a car not being a car or something?

I have similar style of handles on my car that the model 3, S, and Y have. The thing is the manufacturer made the handle manual while still being flush with the body, they even added a physical key hole so I can have access to the interior if the battery is dead, while still being flush with the body. It’s not hard to do manual, it’s safer, it just costs slightly more, and as we’ve seen in capitalism, lives are cheap. So what if it kills someone, you saved $5.

about 70 models currently on US roads sporting electric handles

So you can be mad at Tesla for making this popular but it's clearly not a Tesla specific problem anymore.

In a normal car company, the CEO would be fired.

110 people died in a car crash today in the USA alone.

There are layers to this.

No exterior door handles is a massive danger in the event of a crash that incapacitates those inside. No interoir door handles is a massive danger to those inside in the event of a crash that takes out the electrical system.

That said. Plenty of crashes will "disable" the doors just from the type of impact and so forth. And those tend to be the really bad ones.

Which is why EVERYONE should have, preferably a pair, of those car window breakers. Keep one handy to the driver and one either in the box between the driver and passenger or somewhere very visible in the back seat area.

In the event of a really bad crash? That is how you cut your seatbelt if it is jammed or you are otherwise unable to easily access it. And that is how you smash the glass to get out. And if you pull up to the side of an accident? That is how you get the injured driver out (keeping in mind all safety related concerns with moving someone who might have a spinal injury).

Just... also be aware that it has become increasingly popular (and not just among swasticars) to laminate many of the occupant windows. This DOES prevent shards of glass from flying into your face in the event a pickup truck tried to run you over. This ALSO makes escape a LOT harder. It is good to actually read your manual (or at least the labels on the windows) to know which ones you can escape from in the event of a crash.

But yeah., There is no fucking reason to remove mechanical door handles. But it is not THAT much of a danger in the event of a crash. Whereas it IS very much a deeply annoying hazard in the event of accidentally starting a firmware update with the door closed...

In that case, it's past time to get Tesla shutdown and Elon Musk arrested for producing this shit.