For years, Tesla $TSLA ( ▼ 2.62% ) owners have complained about doors that fail to open after crashes. Now Bloomberg has tried to put a number on the risk.
Because there are no official government statistics tracking whether electric door handles prevent escape or rescue, Bloomberg conducted its own investigation. The outlet found at least 15 deaths across a dozen US crashes over the past decade in which occupants or first responders were reportedly unable to open Tesla doors after the vehicle crashed and caught fire.
More than half of those deaths have occurred since November 2024, suggesting the issue may be becoming more common as Tesla’s fleet grows.
Why the data is messy
Crash scenes are chaotic, and it is often difficult to determine exactly what happened in the minutes between impact and fire. In many cases, it is unclear whether victims survived the initial collision or became trapped afterward.
To narrow the list, Bloomberg focused only on cases with documented evidence that victims were alive after the crash and that inoperable doors may have prevented escape or rescue. The reporting involved thousands of pages of police, fire, and autopsy records, along with 911 calls, body-camera footage, and court filings.
Even then, the figure likely understates the true number, since many crash reports do not document door functionality at all.
Regulators are stepping in
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation in September into whether door failures in certain Tesla vehicles can block emergency access. Tesla says its vehicles comply with safety standards and include manual door releases, while arguing that electric handles are an industrywide design trend.
Last week, Tesla said its vehicles automatically unlock doors after severe crashes, though it remains unclear when the feature was added or which models include it.
For now, Bloomberg’s findings highlight a blind spot in US crash data and a growing concern around the real-world risks of increasingly complex vehicle designs.