Tesla's Model Y is known for its swooshing handles that sit flush with its doors. Now, US auto-safety regulators are investigating whether some of those handles are putting children at risk of getting trapped inside the vehicles.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation on Monday into potential issues with the door handles of an estimated 174,290 Tesla Model Y vehicles from 2021. The investigation listed nine reported incidents, none of which resulted in injuries or fatalities.
In a document published Tuesday from the NHTSA's Office of Defects and Investigations, the safety regulator said in the "problem description" field that "Electronic door handles become inoperative due to low battery voltage in the vehicle (12VDC low voltage battery), impeding vehicle reentry."
Of the nine reported incidents, the most commonly cited scenarios involved parents exiting a vehicle after driving to retrieve their child, or placing their child in the vehicle before driving, the NHTSA said. These parents reported being left stuck without access to the vehicle their child was inside, the auto-safety regulator said.
"Although Tesla vehicles have manual door releases inside of the cabin, in these situations, a child may not be able to access or operate the releases even if the vehicle's driver is aware of them," the ODI summary read.
Four of the vehicle owners reported breaking a window to regain access.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment; the NHTSA referred back to the ODI report. Bloomberg and The EV Report newsletter reported earlier on the investigation.
The NHTSA investigation was filed five days after Bloomberg published a report asserting that certain Tesla design fixtures like flush handles and mechanical releases were "flummoxing occupants and first responders," turning the moments after crashing into deadly races against time."
Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm said in an interview with the news outlet that Teslas did have a manual override and that safety was their "number one factor." She said that the board "takes very seriously any safety-related reporting."
In its preliminary review, the NHTSA concluded that the lockout condition occurred when locks received "insufficient voltage from the vehicle."
"Available repair invoices report replacement of the vehicle's low voltage battery after the incident," the NHTSA report read. "However, no VOQs reported seeing a low voltage battery warning prior to the exterior door handles becoming inoperative."
Numerous Tesla owners have reported being stuck inside their vehicles after the EV loses power. Tesla includes mechanical releases — though these can be difficult to find if you don't know where to look.
This isn't the first time Tesla has come under scrutiny from NHTSA, an agency that CEO Elon Musk has criticized in the past.
The auto-safety agency previously launched a probe into Tesla in August over allegations that it was incorrectly reporting crashes involving Autopilot and its Full Self-Driving beta software. Tesla recalled 46,096 Cybertrucks in March after an NHTSA report said that the vehicle's exterior panel could detach and become a road hazard.
During Musk's cost-cutting push from the Department of Government Efficiency, NHTSA laid off 4% of its workers in February.
