Tesla Inc. TSLA is considering a redesign for the electronic door handles on its vehicles amid NHTSA’s probe into the door handles’ safety risk.
Combining Electronic And Manual Door Releases
Tesla’s design chief, Franz Von Holzhausen, said that the company is looking to combine manual and electronic door releases in its redesign, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
“The idea of combining the electronic one and the manual one together into one button, I think, makes a lot of sense,” Von Holzhausen said in the report, citing his appearance on Bloomberg’s “Hot Pursuit” podcast.
He also said that the company was studying the changes proposed by the authorities in China and was ready to make the necessary modifications. “We’ll have a really good solution for that,” he said.
NHTSA Investigation, China’s Proposed Ban
The NHTSA said that it was investigating over 174k 2021 Model Y units in the U.S. over instances of occupants, including children, being unable to exit the vehicle, which could pose a risk during emergencies. There were also reported instances where parents had to break the windows to gain access to the vehicles.
The investigation comes as authorities in China are reportedly considering banning flush door handles, a feature used primarily in EVs and popularized in the U.S. by Tesla. Beijing is said to be investigating the safety risks associated with electronic door handles. Any such ban from China would take effect in 2027, the authorities have suggested.
Ford Mustang Recall, Tesla Redacting Crash Reports
Interestingly, Ford Motor Co. F had issued a recall for over 197,000 Mustang Mach-E vehicles after a probe which revealed that the electronically-powered doors could trap passengers in the rear seat inside the car once the front seat occupants exited the vehicle.
Elsewhere, The Dawn Project‘s founder Dan O’Dowd has slammed Tesla for redacting crash reports submitted to the NHTSA, which the company says contains confidential business information about the autonomous driving technology that Tesla uses.
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