Tesla exec says the corporate will redesign door handles that reportedly pose security dangers

Yesterday, the US Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration opened an investigation into Tesla following a report by Bloomberg that its electrical door handles may cease working when a car’s low-voltage battery fails. That created a security hazard that the publication discovered may lure passengers when a Tesla automobile was in an emergency state of affairs, corresponding to a crash. Now, Bloomberg is again with the information that Tesla plans to redesign these problematic handles. 

Tesla design head Franz von Holzhausen appeared on Bloomberg‘s Sizzling Pursuit! podcast and mentioned the corporate is contemplating a brand new strategy that mixes the electrical and handbook launch mechanisms. “The thought of mixing the digital one and the handbook one collectively into one button, I believe, makes quite a lot of sense,” he mentioned. “That’s one thing that we’re engaged on.” He did not specify why Tesla was engaged on a redesign, but it surely’s laborious to think about the timing of the federal probe is not related. 

The corporate has already been within the NHTSA’s sights this 12 months. Final month, the regulator opened an investigation into how Tesla was reporting crashes with its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving techniques. Though Tesla claimed the inconsistencies in experiences had been as a result of a system error that it has fastened, the NHTSA mentioned it will proceed the probe.