Sometimes technology isn’t actually an improvement over the thing it replaced. Smart TVs over regular TVs, software-as-a-service as opposed to just buying a perpetual licence, that sort of stuff. Electronic door handles run in that vein, and they finally seem to be garnering the scrutiny they deserve. The federal government is investigating 174,290 Tesla Model Y electric crossover because an electronic door handle setup that has reportedly led drivers to break windows in order to get their children out of their cars.
From the first door ever put on a car to the early 21st century, pretty much every door release was mechanical. A handle or a button would act on a rod or cable to release the latch. This was a pretty foolproof design because it required no power source, and since almost all cars come with more than one door, there was still a way to get into a depowered vehicle even if one of the handles was physically broken.
Over the past 20 years or so, however, electronic door latches have steadily become more common. While they allow for flush door handles, which aid aerodynamics and combine locking functions with door release functions, they require external power to work as intended. Although internal mechanical releases are required safety items, external ones aren’t, and that seems to be the problem here. As NHTSA reports:
The most commonly reported scenarios involved parents exiting the vehicle after a drive cycle in order to remove a child from the back seat or placing a child in the back seat before starting a drive cycle. In those events, the parents were unable to reopen a door to regain access to the vehicle. Four of these VOQs reported resorting to breaking a window to regain entry into the vehicle.
The culprit here is looking like the same culprit behind a recall of another unrelated car with electronic door latches, the Ford Mustang Mach-E. As the initial investigation report for the Model Y states:
Available repair invoices report replacement of the vehicle’s low voltage battery after the incident. However, no VOQs reported seeing a low voltage battery warning prior to the exterior door handles becoming inoperative.
While there is a way to provide external 12-volt power to a Model Y with a dead battery, it’s not exactly easy. First, a 12-volt power supply must be hooked up to leads behind the front towing eye, which will release the front trunk lid. From there, a cowl trim piece must be removed, and a HEPA filter seal may need to be moved aside to grant access to the 12-volt battery terminals, at which point an external power source can be applied to the battery terminals, providing the Model Y with the necessary juice to get everything going again. Since most people don’t carry a jump pack on their person at all times, this is a rather impractical setup.
So, since there are no emergency external door releases that work independently from a 12-volt power source, what about emergency internal door releases? While the front mechanical door releases are physical handles just ahead of the window switches, the rear ones aren’t exactly easy to access.
As the owner’s manual for the pre-facelift Model Y depicts, the emergency rear door release is hidden underneath an access panel that’s underneath a mat in the bottom of the door pocket, and it’s a rather crude cable as opposed to an easy-to-use handle. It’s not particularly easy to access even if you’re able-bodied, and some people just won’t be able to access it at all. Young children strapped into car seats, obviously, but also some adults. What if your hand’s in a cast because you sent it too hard on your last snowboarding trip, or you don’t have the fingernails to pluck the door bin mat out of its home?
It’s worth noting that some automakers simply don’t have this issue because they’ve included with their electronic door latch systems a piece of proven technology: An actual lock cylinder and a physical key, either hidden inside the fob or attached to it externally. The Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV9, and Lincoln Aviator are all great examples of cars with electronic door latches and external lock cylinders to get access to the interior if the battery’s flat. Just look at how easy it is, as shown by an excerpt from the owner’s manual for the Hyundai Ioniq 5 above.
Considering how Ford has recalled the Mustang Mach-E for a substantially similar issue, it wouldn’t be surprising if this investigation into 174,000 2021 Tesla Model Y crossovers results in a recall, and it may even expand to cover more model years. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine a fix for this that isn’t hardware-dependent in some form.
Top graphic images: Tesla
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