Overview
- On July 24, NHTSA denied a citizen petition for a defect investigation into 2022 Tesla Model 3 door releases after finding one matching complaint tied to the petitioner’s VIN and concurrently granted a separate petition to start formal rulemaking.
- The rulemaking will examine a requirement for a “robust and obvious” mechanical door egress system that works even if vehicle power is lost and would apply industry-wide to cars that use flush, electronically operated handles.
- Investigative reporting has linked failures of flush electronic handles to at least a dozen crashes and roughly 15 deaths in cases where occupants or rescuers could not open doors after power loss.
- Some automakers are already changing designs—Tesla has said it is reworking its handles and Rivian has moved manual releases to more visible locations—while Congress and regulators in China, the EU, and Hong Kong push for faster rules.
- Because NHTSA opened rulemaking instead of a defect probe, new federal requirements would take years to finalize and would mainly affect future vehicles, leaving owners of existing cars unlikely to get immediate recall repairs.