Tesla Redesigning Its Door Handles After Trapping Issue: Chief Designer

Tesla is rethinking its famously flush door handles.

Franz von Holzhausen, the EV giant’s chief designer, told Bloomberg’s “Hot Pursuit” podcast on Wednesday that Tesla was working on adding more obvious manual controls to help occupants get out of their vehicles in “panic situations.”

“The idea of combining the electronic one and the manual one together into one button, I think, makes a lot of sense. That’s something that we’re working on,” he said.

It comes after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched an investigation into the company.

The regulator cited multiple complaints from parents who said their children had become trapped in Tesla’s Model Y SUV after the electronic controls to open the doors from the outside became inoperable due to low power.

Regulators in China are also reportedly considering a ban on flush or concealed door handles. Von Holzhausen told Bloomberg that Tesla was studying the proposed legislation and will “have a good solution” for any new rules.

Tesla’s electronically powered doors have faced scrutiny over the years. The automaker does build its cars with a manual door release in case of emergencies, but owners have complained that these can be hard to find.

A Bloomberg report earlier this month found several incidents in which the complex door design of Tesla’s vehicles hampered attempts to evacuate during emergency situations.

In an interview after the Bloomberg report was released, Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm told the outlet that the company’s board takes all reports of safety issues “seriously,” adding that Tesla’s vehicles come with a manual override for any “power events.”

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment, sent outside normal working hours.