Electronic door handles: the problem is inside!

Inside door handles.

There was another mention in the press about flush electronic door handles and that China would be banning them in 2027 (or 2029!). While following up on this, I was struck by the fact that the bulk of the discussion revolves around those handles being difficult to use or failing outright.

But the problem is inside!

At DashboardSymbols.com we have railed on this issue for a decade, since the death of a man in the Texas daytime heat who could not get out of his Corvette. There is nothing intuitive about a mechanical door opening lever on the floor of a motor vehicle (top right)!

This is the true safety issue surrounding electronic locks and latches. Every manufacturer ends up making a mechanical option for exiting the car, but with only a few notable exceptions (see the Audi video to the right) nearly all of them are hidden and need to be memorized before getting the vehicle.

Tesla hides mechanical back door pulls behind the carpet in the Model S and speaker covers in the Model X. The company hides them under plastic doors in the Model 3 and Y and under a mat in the map well in a Cybertruck.

Rivian requires the removal of an entire door panel to get at the mechanical back door back up, and we were unable to find a means to accomplish this.

The doors are often ignored by manufacturers — you know, where you keep your children — but Lincoln goes a step further, offering a mechanical back-up on the driver’s door only.

Admittedly and fortunately, the Lincoln‘s doors are designed to unlatch in the event of a power failure. And, as with the Corvette, we see that this is by no means exclusive to electric vehicle issue.

And on and on. The point is that the majority of attention is on the outside door handles. And while it is true that it can be difficult for emergency services to get inside to help trapped passengers, passengers should have an obvious and immediate means of escape.

And what that means is that its well past time for the U.S. to follow China’s lead and ban the use of electronic locks and latches on motor vehicles, period.

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