“That’s harder than it sounds.”
Is it, though? Is it really? We’ve been making manual car door latches for 100 years.
It’s only hard for Musk, and only because he just doesn’t want to do it.
Seriously. Every other car maker has figured out how to make normal door handles. You can even buy the parts directly from them if you find it too hard to design yourself.
The point is that the entire passenger entry system has been designed around electronic door handles. So you might think it’s as simple as just swapping them for mechanical ones but it’s not.
The handles are really just buttons. Requests to a computer. The “locks” are just a binary state of the entry system that determines if conditions are satisfied to release the mechanical latch when the request is made.
We’ve had electronic door locks with manual override for… 3 decades now?
We’re not talking about door locks, but door latches and handles. There are no “locks” on Teslas. As I said “locked” is just a state in the computer.
“Lock” is a term for the mechanism that controls the latch and restricts operation. Whether the access mechanism is digital (key card, remote, etc) or physical (key, dial, etc) is irrelevant.
My point is it’s a solved problem. You can have a mixed physical and digital system. In fact, Teslas already have a mixed system as evidenced by the existence of a mechanical override. The issue is that the mechanical override is difficult to use and inaccessible from the outside.
If Tesla used something that already exists, we wouldn’t have this problem. It can still have the same interface (the button in the handle on both sides), just simplify the mechanical override and expose a way to access it from outside.
“Lock” is a term for the mechanism that controls the latch and restricts operation.
Again, there is no such mechanism.
Whether the access mechanism is digital (key card, remote, etc) or physical (key, dial, etc) is irrelevant.
It’s none of these things.
If Tesla used something that already exists, we wouldn’t have this problem.
But they didn’t. So the problem exists.
Again, there is no such mechanism.
Then how does the door stay closed? If I walk up to someone else’s Tesla, I can’t open it. Why? Because it’s locked. If the owner walks up, they can open it. Why? Because they have the key.
Yes, the lock works differently than many other cars, but there’s still a lock.
Here’s an article that talks about how the manual release works. It exists, it’s just annoying to access, and not something an average child (or possibly adult) can intuit.
The article is stating that the override should be easier to access and use.
Then how does the door stay closed?
You’re thinking of the door latch, not the door lock.
the lock works differently than many other cars, but there’s still a lock.
Again, there is no physical locking mechanism. That’s what’s different from any other cars in history.
Here’s an article that talks about how the manual release works
The mechanical latch is on the interior of the vehicle, thus bypassing any “locking” methods. You can’t do the same on the exterior.
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Again, what did they miss? Spell it out for us, please!
I’m calling corpo lobbied bullshit. 2 years is enough time to put a normal door handle on your car.
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Redesigning the handle by 2027 is stupid easy. I have an masters in mechanical engineering, this could be done with mostly off the shelf parts. Tesla is being a bitch like normal.
The problem is not the handle, it’s the fact the mechanism only works with 12V DC power.
Your skill doesn’t translate into supply chain management, testing timelines, manufacturing setups, all that. Dad was a civil engineer. Didn’t mean he could run a road laying company.
Shit. Forgot where I was. My post is sucking Elon’s dick and excusing Tesla for fuck ups.
FFS, the issues I’m citing are in the article and they’re not quotes from Tesla. Lay off the fucking witch hunt.
I work in supply chain and manufacturing now lol. Tesla is a major fuck up of a company.
I worked with some of their engineers after they left and they aren’t very bright.
Well fuck it, I guess I’m ready to take the next step in my radicalization.
The best wording I can think of is late stage capitalism. Someone should be eating their lunch
No dude, your post acts like this couldn’t be anticipated, never mind reported on for years.
Seriously, how many models did Tesla need to figure this out for? They didn’t have a plan 2 years ago?
so in your mind, what happens when a recall occurs and some defective part is replaced with another part? do you think they run these replacements through all your supply chain management testing setups all that huh?
or they don’t replace the defects?
?
no, this happens all the time. it allows manufacturers to respond to systems that didn’t age well, or didn’t stand up to public users, or children, or was unsafe in a way that didn’t present itself during testing. these things happen. manufacturers make adjustments, replace parts, change software, and put it back out on the road.
Shit. Forgot where I was. My post is sucking Elon’s dick and excusing Tesla for fuck ups.
Unironically yes, you’re all over this story flooding the zone with shit to try discrediting the whole thing, despite having nothing of substance to offer beyond asserting that nobody knows anything except for you and Elon.
Idk, “off the shelf parts” seemed pretty clear
I read the article, and I’m calling bullshit on the excuses they’re putting up. The fact that they usually prefer a five year cycle, does not mean that it’s difficult to change the handles on the doors in two years if you need to.
Cars are designed up to 5 years in advance. Usually the last 2 years before production is dedicated to endurance testing.
They don’t have to redesign an entire car, just the internal parts of a door that are related to a handle, that in the past they made work mechanically btw, so no, 2 years is more than enough to redesign and start implementing it
Tesla doesn’t do any of that, nor crash testing
A quick search says they do crash testing, is this bullshit?
Of course they do crash testing, you can go watch videos of it if you want. That’s just a bot, or someone who knows fuck all. Their cars are always top ranked in crash saftey.
Won’t catch me dead driving a tesla but obviously they test safety in order to pass regulations lol
I mean… if they didn’t test their cars, they really must have the best engineers in the world, being able to go from just engineering plans to getting a 5 star saftey rating at all the agencies. Those engineers would be worth their weight in gold lol.
Top ranked for the people inside the cars. Not so safe for the people mining the material to replace cars that get totaled, etc. but most people don’t give enough of a fuck to count anyone but the occupants of the car
You mean like that cybertruck shit made of rusting “stainless” steel, with no crumple zone and a body that reflects the sun in other drivers eyes?
Yeah, doubt it. They aren’t even legal in Europe because of safety.
Who told you that? Elmo?
Lol dude, the cybertruck is a 5 star rated vehicle.
It’s the one of the safest trucks for occupants in crashes ever built.
Edit: Just to add, that they also keep updating based on results from saftey agencies. The CT initially scored a 5 for driver and 4 for front passenger, but it has been updated to now to be 5/5.
Yeah but fuck the victims this 7000lb tank crashes into right?
Cybertruck does not meet EU minimal safety standards. NHTSA is a joke.
So how do they deal with routine and unexpected defects that every manufacturer deals with for every model?
Well, it was found that water pools in the chassis of the Cybertruck, corroding it. They dealt with this by telling consumers not to get it wet and make taking it through a carwash void the warrantee.
Fix them after 5 years of course! /s
They’re not being expected to design a whole new car from scratch though, are they.
they got lazy, they fully adopted the electronic one, and dint want to “waste money” bringing back the old one, in thier recent and future models.
Whatever. Luxury e-cars are the new Bimmers.
They wish. My 30 year old $2500 bmw e36 was nicer inside than the last model 3 I had the misfortune of sitting in, and was the most reliable car I’ve owned. Straight 6 And 5 speed, beaten and slid daily until I sold it with 200k miles. My biggest problem with that car was keeping back tires on it. Man some days I wish I never sold that car… Moved north and a slammed 2wd car isn’t gonna get me to work over the mountain pass in the winter. Now I drive a POS 2012 Subaru with fried oil control rings. If the bimmer had a LSD I probably would still be driving it 🤬
Like zim zimma? That kind of bimma?
Nah, BMWs were actually pretty great, for a time. Well put-together, fairly reliable, engaging to drive, very comfortable, pleasantly designed.
I daily drive a 2003 E39 5 series with 260,000 miles on the clock. Mechanically it’s great.
I did have to sort some rust out a while back, but that’s par for the course in the UK. Salted roads, never far from the sea, constantly damp roads spraying all that salty road grime under the car. For the love of god people, rust protect your cars.
I’ve been telling people to look for a shop that can do a wax film coat when they do the oil change. Super simple job when the car is already on the lift.
I’m saying so rather sarcastically because where I live, e-cars, especially BYDs and Teeeeezlus, are becoming status symbols for people with fuck-you money.
Will it? I’m skeptical of the translation since it’s obviously loose and casual, and more optimistic with the quote from Tesla saying they’re redesigning it …
- article says mechanical release handles inside and out. Tesla model y could already be here depending on the details
- articles says a hand must fit behind the handle, ruling out flush handles, but depending on the details, the model y may a Ready be there, as is the Opel Corsa in this thread
- no mention of the electronic latch. I don’t get it, wouldn’t this be the actual most dangerous part?
Load of uninformed B.S. from the supply chain expert. There’s not a door out there that isn’t full of empty space.
Bus door
Points! :-)
Inside or outside? Ik they have issue with inside door handles and safety but I don’t see a need to redesign outside handles?
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-tesla-dangerous-doors/
Non-functional outside handles are just as bad as non-functional inside ones. Not always is the person on the inside able to open the door on their own.
So those would be the model S and X electric outside handles and not the 3 and Y mechanical ones? Yeah, that seems like a safety issue.
The rear interior handles on the 3 and Y absolutely need to be redesigned tho
As long as the model 3/y were mechanically operated, I’m not sure their push to pull mechanism is bad or a problem, but the model s/x have electronically presenting handles that need power to present themselves as they pop out horizontally, not with a hinge like 3/y, and you can’t really just make that mechanical like you can the model 3/y ones, and the CyberTruck doesn’t even have exterior handles.
harder than it sounds… yeah the technology isn’t there yet! we need research and scientific breakthrough to invent a door handle that you can actually handle. no one’s even thought of the concept before.
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Do go on
You’ve posted this in multiple places without explaining yourself, and your subsequent follow-ups have also just been questioning the person’s credentials and offering nothing of your own. You’re a classic example of the bullshit asymmetry principle, flooding the thread with low effort trolling.
i very much did, actually. it’s just the bullshit recycled from the seatbelt mandate, except this is about something cars already had a century ago.
I can’t wait for elon musk to invent the door handle. I hope it’s another display
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Big government is oppressing small businesses again! Thanks Obama!
Wtf is “willingness to work from design-first principles”? Do Wired realize that the form of the handle follows the function of designing for better aerodynamics?
Pretty sure they’re using “design” to mean “aesthetics” in that sentence. I do think we need to less often use “design” to refer specifically to aesthetics or graphic design; every object and system that humans have made are designed.
After renting a couple cars with electronic door poppers, I find them plainly worse than mechanical door latches. They’re a solution in search of a problem, and some implementations are hazardous.
They were hazardous when they were on Corvettes too. They should have banned them back then.
The rental cars in question were, in fact Corvettes. Corvettes are still using them.
Oof
im occasional ride in my parents leased ioniq5 and the door handles are lik teslas, very flimsy to the feel.
I hear they are a solution to the problem of increasing mileage/efficiency. I am no fan of Tesla, but we have to admit, there is some merit to that argument, however debatable the efficiency benefits are.
That’s not to say safety isn’t a serious issue. The biggest problem is the reliance on electronics. Now if someone can reinvent the design with a highly reliable mechanical system, with multiple redundancy.
To my knowledge, there are designs which allow you to pop out the latch without the need for electronics.
However, if I’m reading the article correctly those wouldn’t be allowed either because in their default state they don’t have “enough room for a hand to grip behind them”. That wording alone explicitely bans flush doorhandles, and not just electronic doorhandles
The ones that work on springs are inherently dangerous because in the event of a crash it’s very possible that some very important bits of plastic will get misaligned and the handle will get jammed behind the frame. The steel construction of the latch is much less likely to be damaged in a crash
I’ve seen three designs for purely mechanical flush door handles in production use:
- A handle with a central hinge where one side is pushed inward to make the other side stick out to be pulled. This design has been used on aircraft for many decades, and has also made its way to a few cars.
- A pull-up door handle with an additional flap in front of the access area. This was used on the Subaru XT/Alcyone/Vortex.
- A handle that pushes in to open, usually found on a portion of the door that’s more horizontal to the ground. Used on the C3 Corvette, among others.
The push-then-pull central hinge is probably not a great choice for the application because its operation will be less obvious to a rescuer trying to get the door open quickly. It’s still better than something that requires electronics.
The Model 3 / Model Y are push to pull, it’s just not a centred hinge, it’s more to the left side, within the 1st 1/4 or so.
There’s no reason they couldn’t have done that but also make it mechanical if they’d wanted to.
Yeah I’m sorry, I’ll take normal door handles over a 0.01% increase in efficiency
Insert that meme of the dude with: You get 0.001 more mileage, I get customers with crap door handles.
I think having an electric popper on top of an mechanical door latch (actual door handles are standard mechanic, but there’s solenoid that can actuate them independently) is okay if you can find an actual usecase.
I mean sure still stupid but at least it isn’t dangerous.
Same way electric locks have worked for the past 30 years on cars.
An old civic might be able to unlock from a key fob, but that’s only an electronically controlled solenoid controlling a lock which is mechanical in nature, and who’s main user-accessible interaction point is mechanically linked to the lock.
I think having an electric popper on top of an mechanical door latch is okay
The problem with having both is that the electronic one is always the primary one, and the one people will use daily. In particular Tesla hides the mechanical ones really well. So in an emergency situation, people panic and have no idea where it is or how to use it.
Same way electric locks have worked
Electric locks actually serve a purpose though. And they’re not a danger to passengers inside. What purpose do electric door handles serve? Other than being more prone to failure, more expensive, and dangerous?
The purpose of the electric latch is to save the frameless window panes. It can lower the window slightly in the instant before it opens, to break the seal and avoid torsion on the glass.
Now, frameless windows are stupid and not necessary, so theres that. One dumb idea propagates another.
This doesn’t pass a sanity check.
A mechanical handle that actuates when deflected 30 degrees can trip a microswitch at 10 degrees to slightly open the window.
You don’t need an electric latch to have frameless windows. Pretty much every car before with frameless windows did not have them.
What purpose do electric door locks serve? Other than being more prone to failure, more expensive, and dangerous?
An oligarch’s fancy?
I’m sure in product meetings it’s been brought up that it’s a dumb thing and they could save money and make the cars safer by not having them, then the oligarch speaks up.
The problem with having both is that the electronic one is always the primary one, and the one people will use daily.
Yeah that’s the design flaw. Thats literally what im saying they shouldn’t do. You can make a mechanical-first door with an internal solenoid thats capable of popping the door.
The main and only handles on all the doors should be mechanical only, with door popper buttons for all four doors on the driver-side arm rest (where window controls go)
What purpose do electric door handles serve? Other than being more prone to failure, more expensive, and dangerous?
Electric door poppers ARE NOT the same thing as electric door handles, pick a thing to complain about.
POPPERS (IE:solenoids) allow the driver to open doors for passengers, while also ensuring the main way in and out is NOT dependent on electronics (when properly implemented).
Unnecessary luxury? Sure, but so are cars in a lot of the world. Solenoids are cheap, and the idea is not inherently a danger when done right.
Your issue isn’t electronically controlled door poppers. Its cars being made by silicon valley, y-combinator sucking, tech-bro douchebags who thought replacing the mechanical handle with a button was a good idea.
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The problem is this bullshit was allowed on the road in the first place.
I hate fucking “flush handles”. Good riddance to terrible garbage.
I knew. A guy with a fully shaved mr2 (yes that means no door handles). Doors opened with a remote to operate the latch. He also had a cable run down under the side skirt, so if it failed you could manually pull the cable to get the door oprn. This was put together by a 24 year old in school, not some “genius”
I find them cool. But if they become unusable in freezing weather or kill people because of an overcomplex emergency release from the inside?..
They’re like an idea a twelve year old Steve Jobs / Jony Ive wannabe would come up with.
At least they work as a quick visual cue that a car is designed with zero utilitarians in the room
I had a 1989 Ford Probe without a handle that stuck out like a typical car. It was recessed instead.
Better for fuel efficiency, which was also the intention of these stupid flush mount ones Tesla has been fawning over. But these were still manual door handles designed 40ish years ago…
I read the article. It sounds like the auto makers concern is that they don’t think they have been given enough time to solve the problem (the problem being one which may kill people while we wait for a solution).
I think we should give them all the time they want, as long as they stop selling cars without safe door handles RIGHT NOW.
“We meed more time even though door handles are a solved problem.”
Your comment is giga based because it doesn’t let the overton window get shifted by being too suggestible.
Your brain still went where logic goes, not where was suggested. So important at times like this.
All in all, quality
Oh cool, we should start looking into shit that matters.
There are billions of us. We can do many things at once.
This may not matter as much as nuclear disarmament, but it matters to everyone that owns one of these cars.
Being able to quickly get out of a burning car is important. If you only ever use the electronic door handle and your electrical system is damaged by…the fire, then you are much more likely to burn. The same problem exists on the outside of the car as rescuers have a harder time getting in to save people.
Getting stuck outside of the car in the winter is also pretty common when there is not a good place to grab when the door is covered in ice.
Car manufacturers have been making normal door handles for forever. Tesla ‘fixed’ something that wasn’t broken.
I was more talking shit on news organizations. Agreed, that should be no brainer legislation that already exists, similar to fire code in buildings.
Then just skip this post if it doesn’t interest you?
