The only survivor of the October 24 fire was a woman in her 20s who was able to get to safety after a quick thinking passer-by smashed a window of the burning Model Y car to free her
There are manual releases but they're hidden. They need to be more obvious because these cars are rented to people and obviously the owners aren't taking the time to figure out where they're at.
I would also think just having secondary power packs in each door would help in the event power is cut to ensure the doors can continue to function for a few minutes while also a speaker could explain how to use the emergency release if none of the doors are working.
All this added complexity and cost isn't worth it to me, manual doors just make sense for so many reasons.
Or, how about this: it’s a door, have it work like every other car door for the last 70 years.
Redesigning stuff to make it “cool” and “futuristic” is fucking stupid and is clearly not safe. Doors have handles, the handles are pulled to open the door. Keep it simple.
I thought that was more in reference to the release being hidden under a mat to access. The fact that 'a whole other story' could be misconstrued two ways I think just shows how bonkers this is 😂
When I rode as a passanger in a Tesla Model 3, the owner told me not to use the big pull handle because it was the manual release, and instead to use the button at the top of the grab bar.
I don't know about the other models but the manual release was a more obvious way to open the door than the intended way.
Only for the front seats, and on something like the Y not all models even have manual releases in the back. The ones that do have them covered with a mat and no indication where they are.
On the model Y you need to removal a speaker grill to manually release the doors in the back.