The hidden dangers of power-operated car doors

As of today, there are more than 100,000 vehicles on Australian roads with power-operated doors, a feature whereby occupants can, at the press of a button, open a door to exit the vehicle.

But while this tech – which you’ll find in cars ranging from Teslas to a Chevrolet Corvette – can be convenient, it can also be potentially deadly.

That’s because, if a vehicle’s 12V battery dies or, for example, becomes disconnected following an impact, occupants still need to be able to open the doors to escape.

That’s where manual door release mechanisms come into play, providing those occupants with a means of exiting the vehicle via a secondary manual handle or cable.

The major problem here is that not every power-operated door on every vehicle is fitted with a manual door release, and it appears as though some manufacturers have overlooked what amounts to an important safety feature.

And with purely power-operated doors becoming more prevalent, it’s a concern that should be addressed.

What’s more, many of the vehicles that do have manual door releases on every passenger door aren’t clearly labelled. In fact, you might not even know where it is unless you went looking.

Many people – owners included – simply don’t know about this back-up safety feature, let alone how it operates or where to find it.

Now imagine how many people get into the back of a rideshare vehicle and are unfamiliar with the car’s features. What hope do those people have of quickly escaping a burning or submerged vehicle if there’s no power and their door buttons don’t work?

The major player here is Tesla, with several models (old and new) that feature power-operated doors. That includes the Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV currently on sale in Australia, as well as older cars like the Model X and Model S. The quirky Cybertruck also has powered doors.

New EV models including the XPeng G6 and Zeekr X also have electric doors, while even combustion-engined vehicles including high-end sports cars like the Chevrolet Corvette and Ferrari Purosangue, as well as the Maserati Grecale and GranTurismo, have the feature too, as do several new Lexus models.

The Ford Mustang Mach-E also has power-operated doors, although from the outside, which could also pose an issue if the car lost power and you needed to get into the vehicle in a hurry.

While it appears as though every vehicle with power-operated doors in Australia today has a manual door release for the front doors, our calculations suggest there could be around 65,000 vehicles that only have a manual release for the front doors, leaving back seat occupants vulnerable.

And they all come from Tesla.

According to the online user manual for the Tesla Model 3 (2017-2023), there are no manual releases fitted to the rear doors. We confirmed this with an owner of a 2022 Model 3, who admitted they’d never even thought about looking for the feature, despite knowing how the front door releases work.

When it comes to the Model Y SUV – the best-selling EV in the world – its user manual states that not all Model Y variants have the manual door release on the rear doors, so carsales reached out to Tesla to clarify.

Tesla Australia told us, “All current Model Y [sic] on sale today are equipped with the manual door release in the rear doors.”

When questioned further on whether Ys built in 2022 or 2023 have the feature, the company failed to respond.

The investigation then took us to our local Tesla supercharging station, where we spoke to the owner of a 2023-built Model Y. They confirmed their car only had manual releases in the front doors. Nothing in the rear.

When quizzed on how much – if at all – that owner worried about the safety of their family (which included two young children, one of which they were cradling at the time), they said: “I’ll just use the app to open the doors”, not understanding that if the car had lost power, the app wouldn’t work.

Upon explaining the difference between an EV’s lithium-ion battery used for driving range and the low-voltage (12V) battery that powers ancillary equipment (electric doors, climate control, lighting etc), they continued to tell us of the app’s benefits, seemingly unfazed about the potential safety risk.

An experience at a Tesla showroom only made things murkier.

When we mentioned the safety feature, we were told by a salesperson that Tesla removed the rear manual releases because kids kept “playing with them” and opening the doors.

However, further investigation in the showroom revealed that, though somewhat tricky to find, both the 2024 Model 3 and Y do in fact have manual releases in the rear door pockets.

That leads us to believe that several pre-2024 Model 3 and Y vehicles only have a manual release in the front doors – curious given the 13-year-old Model S sedan even gets them in the rear.

Our own evidence as well as some online forums suggest earlier Model 3s are fitted with releases in the rear doors but it’s unclear at which point exactly, Tesla removed them. Older versions of the Model Ys have a different design again.

The location of the manual door release depends on the car, but in the front doors of most Teslas it’s located on the front edge of the door’s armrest, just ahead of the window switch or switches. It’s a simple lever-style pull handle.

In the second row of 2024-built versions of the Model 3 and Model Y, it’s buried deep in the door pockets, where people would normally store drink bottles and other odds and ends. In the Model 3, you need to pry out a piece of carpeted trim and then pull on a yellow loop, which should unlatch the door.

The Y’s is a little easier to find but only once you’ve lifted out the plastic door pocket lining, where you’ll find a big red tab to open a hatch. You’re then presented with a white tab which you’ll need to pull to unlatch the door. Trouble is, you’ll need small fingers to reach it thought the small hatch.

In the XPeng G6, it’s a small lever up front (at the rear of the door trim) that again, isn’t obvious unless you’re looking for it. The rear door is worse because the manual release is covered by a piece of plastic trim, which you need to take off to access a black pull loop to unlatch the door.

It’s a system you could argue the average car user would have trouble operating, especially without the use of tools.

The current C8 Corvette – a two-door sports car – offers a clearly labelled pull lever on the floor for manual operation, while the Zeekr X has relatively hidden levers that you’d probably need to be told about to know where to find them.

This is not news for many people and for years people have been calling for improved safety regulations around cars with electric doors, particularly in the US.

In the last decade, there have been several fatalities, with some blaming the power-operated doors for ‘trapping’ occupants.

One man and his dog were found dead inside a Chevrolet Corvette almost a decade ago, after he reportedly became trapped in his vehicle with a flat battery. It’s unclear whether the man knew about the emergency manual door release or how to use it.

Sadly, in many instances, it’s a question that can never be asked.

This ongoing issue has prompted some owners and online shopping sites like Temu and AliExpress to come up with aftermarket solutions, like fabric pull handles that connect to the rear door release in a 2024 Tesla, so occupants can avoid a multi-step process to exit the vehicle in the event of an emergency.

carsales does not recommend using these aftermarket or DIY options.

When carsales contacted the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts (DITRDCA) for more information around legislation relating to power-operated doors, we received this response:

"The national road vehicle regulations, also known as the Australian Design Rules or ADRs, provide that doors should be openable after a Dynamic Side Impact (ADR 72/00) and an Offset Frontal Impact (ADR 73/00).

These regulations require that no door should open during a dynamic side or offset frontal impact, but all the doors provided for normal entry and exit of occupants should be openable without the use of tools following the impact.

The above regulations are mandatory for typical passenger cars and light goods vehicles, i.e. MA, NA, MB and MC category vehicles (ADR 72) and all MA category vehicles of less than 2.5 tonnes (ADR 73)."

Further correspondence confirmed the intent of the regulations is that the doors should be ‘openable both from the outside and the inside following an impact’.

As per ADR 72/00 5.3.2.1, the regulations also state that ‘a sufficient number of doors provided for normal entry and exit of passengers’ must be openable (after the impact, without the use of tools).

So, are two operable doors out of four satisfactory for you in an emergency?

Asked how a 2022 Tesla Model 3 could be deemed ADR compliant without manual door releases in the rear doors and if there was someone we could speak to further on the matter, DITRDCA provided us with this response:

"Hi Alexander [sic]

We don't have an appropriate spokesperson available.

Please email through all of your last follow up questions for a final written response.

That would be much appreciated.

In the meantime, we’ll seek a written response from our experts on your particular scenario you’ve outlined below in your email."

Days later, the government body responded:

"Generally the information on opening doors with no power is covered in the owner's manual of the car.

The owner's manual of Tesla Model 3 is available on their website."

We've since reached out with further questions.

We believe several changes need to occur, starting with manual releases being installed to every power-operated passenger door in any vehicle which does not currently have them.

It’s one thing to assume in good faith that vehicle manufacturers have your best interests in mind and will ensure your safety, but the onus is on vehicle owners to know their car and how it works, as much as it is on manufacturers to include these safety features in cars in the first place.

Each year, far more people die in car accidents than they do in airplane crashes, yet anyone who has flown anywhere will know that an aircraft’s safety briefing is detailed and that the aircraft’s emergency exits are clearly labelled.

In many instances, even for the vehicles that do have a manual-release safety feature on every door, they aren’t always easy to find or operate and you could argue some would require the use of tools.

carsales also reached out to the peak automotive safety body in Australia, ANCAP, which conducts crash testing of new vehicles and rates cars for safety accordingly. It said it is now looking into the issue.

We feel that if aspects like autonomous emergency braking (AEB) and vehicle submergence are being assessed by ANCAP, the basic issues of how to escape a vehicle in an emergency should probably be assessed too.

We also believe there needs to be clearer regulations and automakers need to be held to account.

After all, even if you don’t own a vehicle with power-operated doors or know someone that does, you or a loved one could find yourself in a rideshare vehicle one day that doesn’t – with potentially life-threatening consequences in the event of an accident.

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