By MICHELLE CHAPMAN and BERNARD CONDON, AP Business Writers
Car safety regulators opened an investigation Tuesday into possible defects in Tesla doors that have reportedly left parents with children trapped in the back seat and forced to break windows to get them out.
Related Articles
Fed convenes meeting with a governor newly appointed by Trump and another he wants to oust Wall Street drifts around its record heights For 27% of California tenants, rent is more than half their income Why I won’t dip into my savings for an iPhone 17 Retail sales up 0.6% in August from July even as tariffs hurt jobs and lead to price hikesThe National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that the preliminary probe is focused on 2021 Tesla Model Ys after receiving nine reports of electronic door handles becoming inoperative possibly due to low battery voltage.
The company run by billionaire Elon Musk has installed manual door releases inside the vehicles but NHTSA noted that a child may not be able to reach or know how to operate the releases. In four cases, the parents had to break the windows to get inside.
The investigation into Tesla’s most popular model comes after numerous reported incidents in recent years of other problems with opening Tesla doors, sometime trapping drivers in a burning vehicle after accidents and a loss of power.
In April, a college basketball recruit said he was “fighting time” trying to get out of his Tesla Cybertruck that had caught fire after he had crashed into a tree and was unable to get the doors open. The University of Southern California player, Alijah Arenas, who was induced into a temporary coma after the accident, said he stayed alive by dousing himself with a water bottle as smoke filled the vehicle.
NHTSA said the investigation is only focusing on the operability of the electronic door locks from outside of the vehicle, not inside, as that’s the only instance in which there is no manual way to open the door. But it also said it will continue to monitor reports of people stuck on the inside — what it calls “entrapment” — and will take further action as needed.
The current agency investigation covers approximately 174,300 of the midsize SUVs.
The agency said the incidents appear to occur when the electronic door locks receive insufficient voltage from the vehicle. It said that available repair invoices indicate that batteries were replaced after such incidents took place. Of those who reported incidents, none saw a low voltage battery warning before the exterior door handles became inoperative.
NHTSA said that its preliminary evaluation will look at the scope and severity of the condition, including the risks that come from the conditions that have been reported to them.
The agency’s investigation will also assess the approach used by Tesla to supply power to the door locks and the reliability of the applicable power supplies.
Hence then, the article about tesla under investigation after parents say faulty door handles trapped their kids in the back was published today ( ) and is available on Los Angeles Daily News ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Tesla under investigation after parents say faulty door handles trapped their kids in the back )
Also on site :