Help! I’m trapped in a Tesla!
Door Performance
Tesla owners keep reporting a slight problem with their cars losing power and locking them in in the process.
In a piece meant to instruct Tesla drivers on how to get out of their cars if they find themselves trapped — talk about SEO — Insider reports that this growing issue often presents somewhat differently for each driver, though some consistencies remain.
Some peoples’ batteries die normally, the report notes, while others’ cars just shut off for no reason. But in all cases, the manual door unlock is difficult to find, and in at least a few reported cases, the cars’ windows inexplicably break in the process of escape.
The manual release is “not labeled,” one driver, Arizonan Rick Meggison, told Phoenix’s ABC15. “You don’t know it’s there unless you know it’s there.”
The 73-year-old man was, to make matters worse, trapped inside his Model Y during 100-degree heat in June. It was only when his sister arrived and opened the car with a Tesla app, which cracked the vehicle’s window in the process, that he was able to get out.
Explainers
According to Tesla owner’s manuals, the manual door release switch is located in front of the window switch panels, and requires one to pull it up and back to release the front doors.
While some models, including the Model S, do have complicated rear-door manual release mechanisms — “fold back the edge of the carpet below the rear seats to expose the mechanical release cable [and] pull the mechanical release cable toward the center of the vehicle,” the Model S manual reads — other models simply don’t have those escape hatches installed, meaning you’re out of luck if you get locked in from the backseat.
Getting locked inside one’s Tesla when it loses power is, of course, far from the worst thing that can happen to someone inside one of those electric vehicles. Nevertheless, it is a great example of how janky these cars can be even as they grow in popularity. How many people are getting trapped inside their Hondas?
More on Tesla jankiness: Cybertruck Already Found Broken Down and Abandoned on Side of Road
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