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New Delhi: Car safety regulators have opened an investigation to determine if there are defects in Tesla doors. It has been reported that quite a few parents needed to break windows to get their children out of the back seat. On Tuesday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said that their preliminary probe will focus on 2021 Tesla Model Ys following nine reports of electronic handles becoming inoperative due to low battery voltage.
The Elon Musk-led EV makers have installed manual door releases inside the car, but the NHTSA said that it might not be operational for all age groups, and children might not be able to reach or know how to deploy the releases. There have been four instances where the parents had to break open the window.
The investigation into Tesla’s most popular model comes following loads of reported incidents in the last few years of problems with opening Tesla doors, sometimes trapping drivers inside, while the car has gone up in flames following accidents and a lack of power.
Back in April, a college basketball recruit had reported the terrifying moment his Tesla Cybertruck had caught fire after hitting a tree, while he remained trapped in the vehicle. One owner even recalled how smoke filled the cabin, and he stayed conscious by keeping himself hydrated with a bottle of water.
NHTSA have said that the focus of the investigation was to determine the operation quality of the electronic door locks from outside of the vehicle and not just inside, which is the only instance where there’s no manual method to open the door. It has been said that they will continue to monitor reports of people being caught inside, which they are calling “entrapment”, and will take steps if necessary.
The present agency investigation covers around 1,74,300 of the midsize SUVs.
The agency said the incident has happened whenever the electronic door locks receive insufficient voltage from the vehicle. It also said that available repair invoices in fact show that the batteries were replaced after such incidents took place.
Those who have reported the incident have said that they never saw the low-voltage battery warning before the exterior floor handles became inoperative. NHTSA have said that the preliminary evaluation will look at the scope and severity of the condition, including the risks that can happen from the scenarios that have been reported.
The agency’s investigation will also assess the approach used by Tesla to supply power to the door locks and the reliability of the applicable power supplies.
