Four dead in fire as Tesla doors fail to open after crash

Another similar incident happened around a week after that one: https://www.channel3000.com/news/dane-county-sheriffs-office... .

One thing to note is that the car doors in Teslas are electrically controlled and a different failsafe method of opening the doors is required when the electrical system isn't working. Here's the steps for manually opening the Model Y's rear doors (car in the story the post links to): https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/modely/en_us/GUID-AAD769C... and here's the steps for manually opening the Model S's rear doors (car in the story I linked to): https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/models/en_us/GUID-AAD769C... . Note that this involves removing the rear carpet in the Model S and the door pocket mat in the Model Y, and that the Model Y instructions note that some cars aren't even equipped with manual rear door releases. It seems like Tesla didn't account at all for what happens if passengers who aren't familiar with the car need to quickly exit in an emergency, especially if the driver's incapacitated and can't give them directions.

     * Remove the mat from the bottom of the rear door pocket.
     * Press the red tab to remove the access door.
     * Pull the mechanical release cable forward.

It doesn't feel very panic friendly to have the emergency release hidden?

Especially egregious considering it's likely kids will be back there. And the release is in a place thats probably impossible to get to from the front seat (in the model Y)

I have written this before [1].

I had to kick the rear door of the family car after an accident when I was about 11. The car blocking both doors on the other side was on fire, and I was later told our car was also on fire.

I wouldn't have known to lift the carpet and pull some release tag, and with the door badly damaged from a collision I also wouldn't have been able to kick it while pulling the tab. It was night, so finding and using a glass-smashing tool also seems unlikely.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25941750

You probably can't break the glass either. Newer vehicles, especially Teslas, often have laminated glass that glass breakers have been found to not break.