Tesla drivers buying escape tools and new cars to avoid getting trapped inside
Erin Geter’s toddler son became trapped inside her Tesla in May when the electric doors lost power. A few weeks later, she was at a Honda dealership buying a new family car."I was very traumatized,” said the 39-year-old from Huntersville, North Carolina. These days, she prefers to transport her kids in the CR-V, which has standard door handles.Geter’s case is a particularly extreme example of the lengths Tesla owners are now going to deal with a problem most had never imagined: being unable to open malfunctioning doors. Some are buying glass breakers in case they need to escape through the windows. Rideshare drivers are proactively showing passengers where to find Tesla’s built-in manual door releases, which vary substantially by model. Sellers on Amazon and Etsy are listing emergency pull cords and other third-party accessories to make the releases easier to use, and Reddit boards and YouTube videos have cropped up to provide step-by-step installation instructions. Nearly 35,000 people have signed a Consumer Reports online petition calling on automakers to fix their electronic doors.
