R2 Manual Releases on All Interior Doors, But…

[Gen(R3)Xer]

Bearded Tesla Guy has confirmed that the R2 will indeed have manual releases on all interior doors (front and rear). He demonstrated how they work.

All of the releases are tucked away and not in the most obvious spot (see pics) and unfortunately the rear door releases are a pull cord that Bearded Tesla Guy had to fish around to find after popping a protective cap off.

I don’t understand. Why can’t they just make the front and rear door manual releases the same?

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[iamnid]

You really don't understand? The cable is CHEAPER than a hinge and a molded lever.

 

[macb00kemdanno]

You really don't understand? The cable is CHEAPER than a hinge and a molded lever.

And?

The consumer-friendly solution would be to make the manual release the same for all doors instead of making you remove panels.

It won’t stop me from getting an R2 but it is a stupid design and I blame Tesla for starting this crap and everyone else thinking that this is acceptable. There is no need to defend the indefensible.

I really wish that the NHTSA would step in and mandate this like China recently did with physical exterior door handles.

 

[srkz]

My theory is they already signed a contract with a supplier for these door parts and need to sell them all before switching to real door handles like the rest of the industry. I’m hoping the handles get fixed in the 2027 or 2028 model with everything else.

 

[Mos Eisley]

My theory is they already signed a contract with a supplier for these door parts and need to sell them all before switching to real door handles like the rest of the industry. I’m hoping the handles get fixed in the 2027 or 2028 model with everything else.

It's gonna take a change in federal/NHTSA law to mandate manual handles.

 

[NY_Rob]

...unfortunately the rear door releases are a pull cord that Bearded Tesla Guy had to fish around to find after popping a protective cap off.

I'm guessing you could probably just drill a 3/8" hole in that plastic pull off panel and pull the cable through that hole then attach a key ring loop to the end so it can't pull back through the hole and back inside the cavity again. It's ghetto, but it would probably work and would be much easier to find in a flipped over vehicle at night.

 

[Gen(R3)Xer]

You really don't understand? The cable is CHEAPER than a hinge and a molded lever.

I understand THAT, but it’s a safety issue. Is saving a few bucks on a hinge mechanism worth all of the lawsuits and damage to your reputation? Did they learn nothing from Tesla or the Chinese, who are now opposed to these types of door handles?

In an accident people are going to be panicking. The lever hidden on the opposite side of the digital button is one thing, but a protective cap and a pull cord are not intuitive.

Think about who might be sitting in your rear passenger seats: people who aren’t familiar with the vehicle; children strapped into car seats or booster seats; elderly people who may have lost dexterity in their hands, etc. Do you really want to explain to every new passenger in your vehicle how the door handle works in an emergency? That’s crazy and completely unnecessary.

China is actually banning these types of door handles on all new EVs. I bet the rest of the world will follow. Manufactures are not going to want to create more extra parts for different regions if they don’t have to.

 

[Gen(R3)Xer]

I'm guessing you could probably just drill a 3/8" hole in that plastic pull off panel and pull the cable through that hole then attach a key ring loop to the end so it can't pull back through the hole and back inside the cavity again. It's ghetto, but it would probably work and would be much easier to find in a flipped over vehicle at night.

I’ve seen people attach brightly colored braided cords to the loop and hang it out of the opening. Manufacturers need to resolve this ASAP.

 

[Dasoss]

Bearded Tesla Guy has confirmed that the R2 will indeed have manual releases on all interior doors (front and rear). He demonstrated how they work.

All of the releases are tucked away and not in the most obvious spot (see pics) and unfortunately the rear door releases are a pull cord that Bearded Tesla Guy had to fish around to find after popping a protective cap off.

I don’t understand. Why can’t they just make the front and rear door manual releases the same?

Vehicles with mechanical rear door release handles that are similar front and back must have a disable device (child lock) that is inaccessible from the rear seat. It's usually a toggle lever in the edge of the door by the latch. When it's set to lock, there is no way to open the rear doors from the inside at all. Most 4-door cars are like this. Some crew cab trucks (and the (MINI Countryman) require the front door to be opened before rhe auxiliary rear door latch can be released.
I leave it to you; would you rather have a rear door that can't be opened from the inside at all, or the hard-to-reach Rivian solution? You can blame the SAE and goverment regulation for this. The intent was to keep children safe.

 

[ElGuano]

So...it's better than the current Gen2 R1 rear release. Let's at least give them that.

But I'm disappointed that there is still this "malicious compliance" element where it is clear they just don't want to do it, and are doing the absolute minimum to be able to say they're doing it.

It's disappointing.

 

[godfodder0901]

I leave it to you; would you rather have a rear door that can't be opened from the inside at all, or the hard-to-reach Rivian solution? You can blame the SAE and goverment regulation for this. The intent was to keep children safe.

This is a flawed argument. In the former case, the decision lies with the owner and can be easily turned off, providing traditional egress. With the latter, the decision is removed from the owner entirely and there is no viable method to restore traditional egress.

 

[iamnid]

And?

The consumer-friendly solution would be to make the manual release the same for all doors instead of making you remove panels.

It won’t stop me from getting an R2 but it is a stupid design and I blame Tesla for starting this crap and everyone else thinking that this is acceptable. There is no need to defend the indefensible.

I really wish that the NHTSA would step in and mandate this like China recently did with physical exterior door handles.

I'm not defending what's in place (though, for the record, I don't see it as an issue any more than cars with child-locks enable and/or coupes with no rear doors), I was simply responding to OP's statement that they didn't understand why it was done this way.

 

[Milermore]

In an accident people are going to be panicking. The lever hidden on the opposite side of the digital button is one thing, but a protective cap and a pull cord are not intuitive.

While I completely agree that there should be a manual release and dislike the push-button door latches; It's not much different than cars have been for years. If the child safety locks are engaged in the back seat with the little slider on standard doors, there's also no way to open them from the inside either.

I don't have anyone riding in the back seat of my car that I worry about opening the door while driving, so I have not had child locks engaged for years. I figure if I need to, I'll keep a window-break tool in the back seat pocket for use in case of emergency.

 

[ENVErider]

My theory is they already signed a contract with a supplier for these door parts and need to sell them all before switching to real door handles like the rest of the industry. I’m hoping the handles get fixed in the 2027 or 2028 model with everything else.

I agree with this "educated guess." I also expect that by the time all this started to blow up for Tesla, they had already gone too far down the design, NTSA approvals, and supplier agreements to change course without a substantial release delay and a release date delay is serious money. I doubt they would have chose to continue this design path if it were only an issue of what is likely a few $100 of added costs. Time will tell, they will have the time to change this in a Gen2 R2 in 4 years or so.
Personally, I'd prefer to see my Gen1 indoor handles show up in the R2.

 

[srkz]

I agree with this "educated guess." I also expect that by the time all this started to blow up for Tesla, they had already gone too far down the design, NTSA approvals, and supplier agreements to change course without a substantial release delay and a release date delay is serious money. I doubt they would have chose to continue this design path if it were only an issue of what is likely a few $100 of added costs. Time will tell, they will have the time to change this in a Gen2 R2 in 4 years or so.
Personally, I'd prefer to see my Gen1 indoor handles show up in the R2.

The biggest flags for me are that I know I saw Wassym's account comment in a Reddit thread about it (a while ago before it really blew up, at least a year or two, in one of his AMAs I think) saying something along the lines of "we agree it can be better; we're redesigning it for R2" but that comment among others has since been deleted and scrubbed from his user profile. I think we can agree that the design in the current launch edition R2 is essentially the same design as in the Gen 2 R1 - there's no way this counts as "redesigned". The comment deletion could just mean they changed their mind and decided not to redesign it at all, and that's why they had his account post that gaslight comment about how "our vehicles are different than our competitors and have redundancy so the eLatch is totally safe we promise trust us" (competitors with eLatch also have redundancy, and it's also not the point.) Or it could mean that like you said it was just too late to make the change without losing money so they're going to push it back to the post-launch-edition model like lidar and RAP1 and whatever else they learn in the launch ramp.

The other flag is that they want to sell the R2 globally but with China banning unsafe door handles it's really not a stretch to assume that Europe will soon follow. Dual-stage electro-mechanical handles are quickly becoming the new standard and even Tesla's latest "cybercab" build uses them, so the writing is on the wall for button latches with separate mechanical releases I think. I have to believe they're smart enough to know being the only one left with these widely panned interior button doors even after Tesla ditches them is a huge liability long term and will have a solution hopefully sooner than later.

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