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Feds Launch Investigation Into Faulty Tesla Doors [gizmodo.com]:

U.S. regulators just launched an investigation into faulty door handles on certain Tesla cars, after receiving several reports of exterior handles glitching and leaving children trapped inside.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Tuesday that it’s opening a preliminary probe into Tesla’s electrically powered door handles, focusing on 2021 Model Y vehicles. The review covers nearly 175,000 cars and will gauge how widespread and serious the problem is.

“At this time, NHTSA’s investigation is focused on the operability of the electronic door locks from outside of the vehicle as that circumstance is the only one in which there is no manual way to open the door,” the regulator said on its website [nhtsa.gov]. “The agency will continue to monitor any reports of entrapment involving opening doors from inside of the vehicle, and ODI [Office of Defects Investigation (ODI)] will take further action as needed.”

The probe comes just days after an investigation from Bloomberg [bloomberg.com] revealed multiple cases in which people were hurt or even died when Teslas lost power—typically after crashes—and their doors wouldn’t open. Bloomberg reports that the NHTSA has received over 140 complaints since 2018 about Tesla doors sticking, not opening, or otherwise failing.

This is also the NHTSA’s third active probe into Tesla vehicles. The agency is already investigating the safety of the company’s Full Self-Driving and driver-assistance systems. The NHTSA said it opened this new investigation after receiving nine reports of people being unable to open the doors on 2021 Model Y cars from the outside.

The agency said the most common scenario involved parents stepping out of a car to put a child in or take a child out of the back seat. When they tried to get back in, the doors wouldn’t open.

The agency noted that Tesla vehicles do have manual door releases inside, but a child might not be able to reach or know how to use them. In four of these reports, people resorted to breaking a window to get back into the car.

The agency called the defect especially concerning because it could trap people in an emergency, like young children left in a hot car.

The agency also said that the defect seems to happen when the electronic door locks don’t get enough power from the car. Available repair invoices show that the car’s low-voltage battery was replaced following the incidents; however, none of the reports mention drivers ever seeing a low-voltage battery warning beforehand.

Although the Tesla Owner’s Manual explains a multi-step process to restore power to electronic door locks using an external 12-volt source, it may be difficult to use in an emergency.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Gizmodo.

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