Tesla’s chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen, confirmed on Wednesday that the company is “working on” a redesign of its door handles to make them less likely to trap people inside the company’s cars. The announcement comes just one day after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened a probe into Tesla’s door handles and a week after a Bloomberg News investigation highlighted multiple instances where owners or passengers were stuck in their cars following a crash.
Von Holzhausen did not specify when the company decided to rethink the design. The redesign is likely a response to safety concerns, including a push from China’s top regulator to reconsider the use of fully concealed door handles.
The Problems with the Current Design
There are two primary concerns with Tesla’s current door handle design. The first is that they rely on electronic locks, which can fail if they are not receiving power from the car’s battery. The second issue is that while Tesla cars do have manual door releases, they are often difficult to find and hard to access, especially for children.
Von Holzhausen told Bloomberg that he believes “the idea of combining the electronic one and the manual one together into one button, I think, makes a lot of sense,” and that “that’s something that we’re working on.”
Official Probe and Company Response
The NHTSA opened its investigation after receiving nine complaints from Tesla owners who experienced a door handle failure. In four of those cases, the safety agency said the owners had to break a window “to regain entry into the vehicle.” Tesla’s owner’s manuals include instructions on how to use an outside power source to activate the electronic locks. However, the NHTSA noted in its preliminary report that none of the owners who contacted the agency reported seeing a low-voltage battery warning, meaning they would not have known what was causing the problem.
Author’s Opinion
Tesla’s decision to redesign its door handles is a necessary concession to the fundamental principle of user safety and practicality. While the company’s “minimalist” and sleek design aesthetic is innovative, it appears to have compromised on a critical safety feature. The fact that this change is happening after a government probe and media investigation highlights a need for companies to prioritize user-centered design and universal usability from the start, rather than waiting for a public safety crisis to force a change. This move is a reminder that even the most forward-thinking design must be grounded in the basic realities of human behavior and emergency scenarios.
Featured image credit: Tesla Fans Schweiz via Unsplash
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