In case you thought cars would become safer as technology developed… rest assured, Tesla is finding newer and ever-dumber ways to make their cars dangerous to occupants (and others).
TL;DR: If you’re in a Tesla and it loses power (like in a fire), the only way to open the doors is often an unlabeled wire behind either two panels or a speaker grill. Tesla owners are DIYing janky rip cords to make that wire easier to pull to escape.
Oh no, you’re right, Teslas have a mechanical fallback system. We also detailed where those latches are located in the article. With videos of some of them, like how-to-use them sort of footage, too.
The DIY rip cord doesn’t add the emergency door release, it just makes the existing door release easier to find in a rush.
Ah ok. I confess I read a few paragraphs and looked at the pictures but didn’t watch the video. Thanks for the info, I’ll have to look closer in the back seat next time I get the chance. If they don’t have the same well-hidden mechanical release that the front seats have then that’s absurdly dangerous.
Yeah, nah - it is well into the absurdly dangerous territory :j
The front seat levers aren’t so bad (just unlabeled), the back seat levers are totally bananas