There's a fair amount of BS, under the guise of logic, being posted here. As is that black-MS crash pic where the 12V battery never got hit. But, it is possible to work through whether access should be made available from the outside in a serious crash.
Like Az_Real's posting, here is a 2016 MX on the salvage lot, one I now have, after it got totaled from what looks like it hitting a pole and lighting up like several hundred little 18mm x 65mm candles went off (which they did).
Yes, the picture should scare you straight (I don't know if the occupant (s) survived). IMO, a 400+ horsepower car should require a skills endorsement on the driver's license and zero alcohol tolerance, much like they do with a pilot's license....too many former Volvo & Subaru drivers (most are inept, in my observation, which is why I believe they buy 'the safest car') are taking the reigns of the most expensive car they could throw options on (Ludicrous has a lot more success and class association than a peasant's MS 60 does) and totaling them after less than a few thousand miles. No endorsement, the car gets perma-dialed down to 250HP (the
P100D badge stays). I digress.
There is **no 12V battery ** left in almost any high speed front crash where an object, like a tree or pole, has hit hard between the frame rails (don't know anything about M3, since I don't have one yet). The 12V battery gets *annihilated*. The problem was made orders of magnitude worse when they moved the 12V battery from its original PITA-to-R&R location in the MS to the current one (2015+ ?), presumably to make it easier & cheaper (labor) to change that battery out. However, most cars have their batteries even further forward of the station where Tesla put theirs. In my '18 (not a typo, there's a second one) MX, the battery was put on the firewall -- I can only guess it's always been in that location on a MX, and the battery still got annihilated on the '16 (as did the DC-DC converter that charges it. The front end got crushed so badly the front drive motor was pushed up into the display/computer...).
In fact, a crushed 12V battery is probably a key ignition source in such crashes (in my '16 MX, which my 4yo granddaughter has affectionately named "Burnie", the crash took out the 12V battery *and* lit the HV pack when it, too, got partially crushed...modules at the rear of the pack had their mounting tabs broken, as well), if you ignore the front jumper cable locations (which I think are also deleted in the newer MX) that facilitate a short in a front-end crash. Again, I digress. Sorry.
The door handles stayed retracted on Burnie, as you can clearly see. All four of them. The 12V power was interrupted in milliseconds to where even a computer commanded handle extension would be impossible. Despite being in the safest battery location forward of the firewall.
The Tesla retractable door handles appear to be one of the finest points of engineering idiocy in these cars, where Elon's (presumably it was his idea) novelty appears to have won out over adult supervision (there are a lot of places in these cars where it's obvious the adults took a week or two off) during design and where basic function appears to have been ignored (like being pulled OUT of a battery-disabled car).
With no 12V power you'd expect that the doors should be openable from the outside -- and that's been stated here in several motherhood and apple pie postings. BUT -- in that case, anyone can open a Tesla's frunk and kill the 12V power to the car, enabling them to get into the car, so remedying the apparent idiocy becomes a major vehicle security issue. The notion that the handles should present on 12V power loss now starts to become tenuous.
Then you have to take into account that, in *any* car, if the doors were locked, you can't get in or out (there are a few exceptions for egress capability while locked, Tesla being one - they did egress BETTER than most cars, IMO, and it IS mechanical) without unlocking the car first -- if a non-Tesla car was locked, even though it doesn't have retract handles, a good Samaritan or responder cannot get in from the outside without breaking the window glass.
So, non-presentation of handles after a crash becomes complete nonsense because all locked cars have been unopenable from the outside, and most also from the inside, before and after crashes ever since cars were equipped with door locks *many* decades ago.
It could even easily be argued that the Tesla's retracted handles after a crash is a distant indicator to good Samaritans and responders that the car is locked and a window needs to be broken to get people out. It's easier and quicker (seconds count) to find and grab something to break a window while running toward a crash vs running right up to it, then realizing the doors are locked, and then going back and searching for something to bust a window.
All Tesla needs to show, IMO, is that the doors were locked at the time of the crash, which should be in the crash recorder data. If they weren't, then they *might* be in deep doo-doo, IMO, but even then, *any* car with auto-locking doors during the first forward movement would also be unopenable.
Sadly, with no insurance coverage for drunk drivers, I think the plaintiff's only recourse is to sue the driver's estate. But, the plaintiff's lawyers (I am not one, by the way) go after the deepest pockets, relying on a settlement. Tesla shouldn't cave on one, IMO, but defending litigation costs a lot of money and the math is that it's cheaper to pay money out than prevail and try to recover fees and costs from whomever initiated the suit. I still think Tesla can prevail in a motion for summary judgement, though. But, I'm not a lawyer.
As an engineer, can this lack of handle presentation after the 12V battery has been disabled be remedied? Of course it can. We engineers can solve almost any problem, provided it is presented to us as a problem vs frivolous request that paints us into an ugly or expensive (consumer products) corner. But, presentation of outside door handles never ***had to be*** remedied by the standards and expectations, by consumers, for locked car doors that were set almost a century ago.
One of the key ownership rules for an all-aluminum Tesla is, 'Don't hit anything.' People also shouldn't drive cars beyond their skill level (significantly reduced when impaired), no matter how 'safe' the cars are claimed to be....but ego and status prevail over common sense and 'safest' is blanket coverage for any inept or impaired selfish moron behind the wheel.
EDIT: coupla typos