Has Tesla ever explained the emergency door handle design choice?

[JCtx]

So if you use the 'emergency' interior door handle, do you still get an error message on 2021s? Why, if window lowers? And how do you remove it? We inadvertently used the mechanical handles when we test-drove a 2020 M3 (for what we remember), but never saw any error messages. We figured the button was for door locks . The mechanical handle looks perfectly positioned, so hard to know for a newbie it's the 'emergency' one.

 

[Robinxlee]

Yes. The message still comes up. I accidentally used it first time I got my car.

 

[JulienW]

So if you use the 'emergency' interior door handle, do you still get an error message on 2021s? Why, if window lowers? And how do you remove it?.....

Could be that the mechanical release is a few milliseconds slower to react than the electronic release and just increases the chance of damage marginally.

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

The mechanical release does not have any electrical connections to tell the computer to lower the window. Pull it slowly and you'll see that it gets pretty far before encountering the resistance of the latch - the window does not lower until the latch physically releases.

That's because there's a sensor built into the latch and the computer ensures that the window is down anytime the latch is in the open position. This is mostly to ensure proper closing of the door, but it does offer some belated help with opening.

So no. Internet rumor mongers are not more informed than Tesla's own computer. The warning message is still as valid today and will never be fixed by software.

Hopefully a future production change will include a sensor on the emergency handle but until then we'll just have to keep explaining to each passenger why that $1 sensor would have priced the car beyond our reach.

 

[SummerlinChiro]

Hopefully Tesla will invest more into door production and give us framed doors

Honda pushed the Civic more upscale with this move in 1992

Framed doors are just better at isolating noise, but they are harder to build

Automakers have been rolling the window up and down on unframed doors since the 90's, that is nothing new

 

[Kevy Baby]

Hopefully Tesla will invest more into door production and give us framed doors.

Yeah, I don't see this happening any time soon. Tesla's #1 priority right now is making a profit. Something like this is I am sure very low on the priority list.

I hope I am wrong and they do change this; I am just not optimistic about it.

 

[DaveG_NJ]

It never gets old - having to explain to casual passengers how to open the doors. Every.single.time.

The people who make the little stickers for the minuscule button should instead make a warning sticker for the mechanical latch - the one every single person pulls. Imagine when Model 3s are robotaxis how many times the mechanical handle will be pulled.

 

[JCtx]

Yes. The message still comes up. I accidentally used it first time I got my car.

Thank you. We have managed not to open the doors from that handle in 2 weeks, so we're probably home free by now. Ha ha. And what happens with that warning? Does it go completely away, or triggers a 'soft' DTC (diagnostic trouble code), or something?