An investigation from Bloomberg have discovered that the recessed door handles on Tesla-cars may have been responsible for 15 deaths following accidents that were considered non-fatal.
In the report informs Bloomberg that they have analyzed data on fire-related traffic accidents in the United States since 2012 to estimate how many deaths involved malfunctioning doors.
Data from the period 2012 to 2023 was provided to the media by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), while Bloomberg carried out an independent analysis of the data for 2024 and 2025.
according to Bloomberg the process included reviewing thousands of pages of police, fire and autopsy reports. When possible, photographs, audio recordings from emergency calls and recordings from police body cameras were also analysed.
Although Tesla is not the only car manufacturer to have adopted recessed door handles, the company is clearly the one that receives the most complaints of this type from its customers.
Bloomberg– the investigation revealed around a dozen incidents where passengers or rescue personnel were unable to open the doors Tesla-models that had collided and then caught fire.
Although Bloomberg points out that the 15 deaths represent only a small proportion of the hundreds of fatal electric car accidents over the past decade, the list of deaths linked to electric door handles is growing.
according to Bloombergs analysis, more than half of the deaths have occurred since November 2024, indicating a worsening trend.
The outlet emphasized that there are no comprehensive and publicly available statistics from state or federal authorities that track how many people have been trapped by car doors that won’t open. This is attributed to the fact that it is often difficult to determine exactly what happens in the moments immediately following an accident.
After the fatal accidents involving the doors on Tesla-cars, NHTSA started an investigation into the recessed door handles on 15 September this year Model Y-vehicle.
The electric door handles on Tesla-cars are powered by a 12-volt battery. However, in crash situations where the battery dies or is disabled, the system becomes virtually useless.
Although the vehicles have manual emergency release mechanisms for the front doors, these lack clear markings and can only be found in the car’s owner’s manual.
It is worth emphasizing that, according to Bloombergmodels 3 and Y do not have the same release mechanism for the rear doors. On some Tesla-cars equipped with manual backup releases in the back seat, the releases may be located under floor mats, behind speaker grills or under plastic parts, making them difficult to find – especially in an emergency.
To solve the problem published Tesla an article on its website in which the company states that the cars will have a system that automatically opens the doors after accidents. However, the company did not specify which models will receive the security update.
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