China is banning hidden door handles on all cars sold in the country, becoming the first country in the world to target the feature – which was popularized by Tesla but has for years drawn concern over safety risks.
The feature has previously come under heavy scrutiny, both in China and elsewhere.
Last September, Tesla said it was looking into redesigning the way to open its car doors in an emergency, after several accidents where passengers were reportedly killed or severely injured in burning vehicles because rescuers could not open them.
Other Tesla owners have reported having to break their own car windows after buckling their children in and then being unable to get in the car again, according to an investigation by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
An investigation by Bloomberg found 140 incidents of people being trapped in their Teslas due to problems with the door handles, including several that resulted in horrific injuries.
Honestly do not understand how cars are not more heavily monitored for these kinds of safety features even for today.
They weren’t regulated because nobody tried to make door handles that weren’t always accessible before. Now that someone has, and it has proven to be dangerous, regulation is starting to happen.
Most modern cars lock the doors when going faster than the walking speed so in case of crash the doors are more unlikely to fly open. Similary most modern cars unlock the doors after crash so passengers can get out from the car. Tesla included. In case the door fails to unlock there usually are way to manualy open the locks, but Tesla has made it to a treasure hunt with multiple stages, hidden paths and there is a wizard at the end asking quizzes before you can open the door. So in the end Musk can say there is a way to mechanically open the doors, because there is. Its just not convinient or safe.
Gee, why did DOGE fire most of the NHTSA? Auto safety has been corrupted since Detroit got addicted to selling people cheaply made trucks on a safety loophole. Ironically, people will tell you they bought their flippy tanks for safety.