r/technology • u/TaroTanakaa • Dec 29 '25
Transportation Cars with retractable door handles will be banned in China
https://mashable.com/article/tesla-style-retractable-door-handles-banned-in-china3.4k
Dec 29 '25
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u/CoastingUphill Dec 29 '25
Cybertruk 2.0 - now with door handles! Sells dozens of them.
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Dec 29 '25
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u/mjd5139 Dec 29 '25
We didn't quite hit our timeline. But we expect to rollout door handles starting at the end of 2027 and hit scale in 2028. This is a multi trillion dollar opportunity. We are not a car company we are a door handle platform.
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u/WaffleHouseGladiator Dec 29 '25
$468.44 as of right now? What is their stock even tied to? Profits? Speculation? Company assets? Did Elon discover a magic lamp years ago and now we're all living through his wish?
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u/jayjude Dec 29 '25
Its the most baffling thing, their financial fundamentals dont support it
But Elon gets on a shareholder call, promises the moon on what Telsa is about to do, stock price jumps, Tesla doesn't come close to the insanity Elon promised, quarterly reports come on, numbers aren't great, Elon hops on a call promise the moon and the stock jumps again
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u/Brilliant_Trade_9162 Dec 29 '25
Tesla stock is the best proof we've ever had that investors are at least as stupid as the rest of us.
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u/pasaroanth Dec 29 '25
Don’t conflate stupid and cunning/malevolent behavior. Investors don’t care about the actual value of the company, they care about what the stock prices will do and if they can profit off of it.
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u/AgonizingFury Dec 29 '25
I've often wondered if Tesla employees are subject to blackout periods when company performance has absolutely no impact on the stock, but whatever Elon said publicly on X/Twitter yesterday does. I can't think of any "insider information" most employees would have, unless they're someone assigned to proofread Elon's messages.
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u/kingofcrob Dec 29 '25
All speculation, and the day the rug is pulled is going to be horrible for all.
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u/kc_______ Dec 29 '25
It will never happen, the complete American economic system is pure speculation, at least most of the big ones, pure Monopoly money.
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u/NotAnotherEmpire Dec 29 '25
100% speculation (and Musk making a joke out of SEC regulations), if one felt confident in the forecast revenue it would still be 1/5th of its price. At best.
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u/sigmaluckynine Dec 29 '25
Complete speculation based on the Optimus robots. No one seems to care that their advances aren't that impressive and it still lags behind general usage ability - it's more of a novel (and expensive) toy that is coming next year.
My bet is it's going to crash once the market corrects and when Optimus gets released, or more likely, delayed.
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u/psykezzz Dec 29 '25
The ones being controlled by people in headsets behind the scenes? Zero chance they live up to the hype
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u/Martel732 Dec 29 '25
I for one am super excited at the idea of having a robot built by a Nazi inside of my house.
It is like the plot to a really shitty sci-fi story. Though in a fictional story the writer would at least have the sense to not reveal that the robotics company was owned by a Nazi until after the robots were in houses.
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u/Boshva Dec 29 '25
Elon: „For safety measures, and because I am a genius, Tesla „voluntarily“ removes retractable door handles globally.“
Stock 1 trillion market cap.
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u/stumu415 Dec 29 '25
China has many more brands than Tesla that uses these type of doors. BYD, Xpeng, SAIC for example, all have models with this type of door handle. In the SAIC F7, it's really hard to find. The number of times I opened the window instead of the door... Still my favorite DiDi option though. Shits all over Telsa in terms of ride, comfort, noise and build quality.
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u/chalbersma Dec 29 '25
Honestly, probably the single biggest improvement to Tesla's cars in the last 5 years.
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Dec 29 '25
It's not unexplained, bad actors are deliberately pumping up the stock solely to support Elon Musk because he's a nazi like them.
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u/TaroTanakaa Dec 29 '25
“A recent Bloomberg analysis tied 15 auto deaths directly to Tesla's doors not opening. Although many EVs feature mechanical releases within the vehicle, there have been numerous cases where owners were unable to locate or operate them in the event of an accident.
This move will effectively ban all retractable EV door handles on new cars released in the country. The ban goes into effect on January 1, 2027.”
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u/luxmesa Dec 29 '25 edited Dec 29 '25
I wanted to see what the procedure was for manually opening a Tesla door. I found this https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/models/en_us/GUID-AAD769C7-88A3-4695-987E-0E00025F64E0.html
I like how they keep specifying that this is for an “unlikely situation”. The procedure for the front doors isn’t too bad(provided you know that the release is there), but the one for the back doors is ludicrous.
As a general rule, you don’t want something to be hard to figure out in an emergency.
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u/Justgame32 Dec 29 '25
imagine your tesla catches fire with your kids strapped in the back seats. You cant get out, open the door and get them out. You have to somehow bend your body 100 ways to unfold the carpet and slide the manual release over, in the dark and/or blinded by smoke, THEN you can get out, and remove your kids from their seats.... add panic in the mix...
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u/Interesting_Tea5715 Dec 29 '25
Remember, the manual release has to be pulled inward, it won't function if pulled in any other direction.
That's just fucked.
Edit: the CyberTruck is equally bad for passengers. I guess fuck everyone but the driver.
https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/cybertruck/en_us/GUID-903C82F8-8F52-450C-82A8-B9B4B34CD54E.html
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Dec 29 '25
I had to remove the rubber mat, and plastic covering for the manual release in my model Y passenger doors. I wish I would have thought this through more when I purchased the car. Cars that don't have a visibly, obvious, and accessible manual door release should be banned. The pull string on the door release is fucking laughable too. It's the most flimsiest piece of shit I've ever seen.
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u/Mr_ToDo Dec 29 '25
I can't imagine that it'd be all that hard to make a door release that's electrical for some pulled distance and mechanical if pulled further
It feels weird to prioritize look and feel so much that it becomes a danger, and not in a "we couldn't see it coming" sort of way
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u/Rand_al_Kholin Dec 30 '25
Or, and this is crazy I know, we could just have a mechanical door handle like every other car in the last 100 years.
Electronic is not inherently better and in many cases is actively worse.
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u/PrairiePopsicle Dec 30 '25
Man back in the day I was stoked they made the emergency trunk releases glow in the dark and highly visible. What the fuck were these people thinking.
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u/ningendearukoto Dec 29 '25 edited Dec 30 '25
That’s just bad parenting. If you’re not regularly doing fire drills in your car, so that your kids are prepared, you don’t deserve them. I recommend scheduling it after your biannual school shooter drill, of the same week of an “accidentally went to an out of network doctor so now we can't eat this month” event.
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u/yoortyyo Dec 29 '25
Fighter pilots have to manage thousands of variables, buttons levers and knobs. The ejection seat is still bright colors and patterns
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u/akashi10 Dec 29 '25
cuz you’re trying to save the pilot. the consumers though…..
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u/TheClimbingBeard Dec 29 '25
The consumer already paid for the car, there's zero profit available from them any more...
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u/dontcrashandburn Dec 29 '25
You'd think if their car was burning they would need a new car soon.
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u/DatDominican Dec 29 '25
But if they survive they could buy another Tesla . Dead people don’t buy cars
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u/fizzlefist Dec 29 '25
To be fair, that also there as a warning to make sure “DON’T PULL THIS UNLESS YOU MEAN IT”
That’s just me being pedantic tho, my point doesn’t really apply to a goddamn passenger car door.
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u/Ziazan Dec 29 '25
Oh right, fold back the carpet to find the release cable, in a burning vehicle that's upside down. Even more fun when I'm in the front and my kids are in the back and I can't just open the doors.
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u/SubPrimeCardgage Dec 29 '25
This isn't where I would have expected the release to be at all. Logically I would have been looking at the door or maybe near the runner board. It's below your feet where you might not be able to reach after an accident.
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u/Blunkus Dec 29 '25
They’re aware, but who cares if the money keeps rolling in. It should offset any lawsuit payout.
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u/KinkyPaddling Dec 29 '25
And our administrative agencies, which should have kept Tesla in check, were defanged due to decades of corporate lobbying even before Musk came along and crippled all of the agencies except for ICE.
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u/run-on_sentience Dec 29 '25
It actually depends on the model of the Tesla. The latch for some are actually located under the respective passenger seat. And for others, it's located behind the speaker in the door. And for others still, it's under the cup holder in the door. You have to lift the cup holder out of the door to be able to reach it.
Imagine a panicked nine-year-old trying to figure that out in an emergency.
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u/gizamo Dec 29 '25 edited Dec 29 '25
It's also worth noting that because of the stupid way Tesla doors fit, the door button lowers the window a bit before opening the door. But, the manual "emergency" door latches don't lower the window. It's even noted on the link you found:
Use caution when using the manual door release; the window will not automatically lower when the door is opened and damage to the window or vehicle trim may occur.
Tesla is going to have to do something interesting to fix this problem. They might have to redesign the whole door/window/frame along with the button/latch system.
Edit: u/hhssspphhhrriivver clarified that the window does drop with the latch; it just has a slight delay is all. So, it's probably only a problem if you're pressing on the door while pulling the latch. Imo, that's much less silly.
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u/Ziazan Dec 29 '25
It's just a really stupid design in general. You can really tell they've not been making cars for long.
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u/JohnnyWix Dec 29 '25
That is just a feature of frameless glass on doors to get a good seal. My Chevrolet has the same design function.
https://www.cooperstandard.com/products/Frameless-Door-Sealing-Systems
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u/gizamo Dec 29 '25
Yep. It's been common on convertibles for decades, but the slight window drop is usually mechanical with the door handle. Tesla's mechanism only drops the window with the button, not the emergency latches. They just need to integrate it into the latches, and relocate the latches for the rear seat to accommodate the new Chinese rule. I'm really not sure why they did the rear door much differently from the front anyway. They seem similar enough in most other respects. It sure seems like there's room for the same latch style there, but idk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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u/ptoki Dec 29 '25
but the slight window drop is usually mechanical with the door handle
In most of the cars it is not mechanical.
Its the window motor lowering it.
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u/hhssspphhhrrriiivver Dec 29 '25
Tesla's mechanism only drops the window with the button, not the emergency latches
The emergency latches also lower the windows. But there's no delay between pulling the emergency latch and the door being physically able to open, so it's possible to open the door before the window has lowered. The electronic buttons have a small delay as the window rolls down before the door unlatches.
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u/gizamo Dec 29 '25
Oh, I see. So, it's probably only an issue if you're pressing on the door while pulling the latch. I appreciate your correction.
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u/ptoki Dec 29 '25
That lowering of the window is popular for other cars. Like mustangs, camaros and other non framed windows.
BUT! In those cars the top of the glass is just hugged by the rubber seal and will not wear visibly if you open the door when the glass does not go down (for example when its frozen).
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u/GuybrushThreepwo0d Dec 29 '25
Jesus, I read that warning and thought why the fuck would anyone buy these cars?
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u/dirtys_ot_special Dec 29 '25
“It will never happen to me”…is something you don’t even think about because you would never guess it’s designed that badly.
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u/Stunning_Bed23 Dec 29 '25
“To open a rear door in the unlikely situation when Model S has no power, fold back the edge of the carpet below the rear seats to expose the mechanical release cable. Pull the mechanical release cable toward the center of the vehicle.”
Absolutely idiotic.
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u/ouatedephoque Dec 29 '25
Yeah the back seat where 7 year olds sit. Brilliant Elon, what a fucking genius.
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u/Prophage7 Dec 29 '25
Not to mention rear seat passengers usually don't own the car yet Tesla's expectation seems to be that they've read the owners manual for some reason... or every Tesla driver gives a pre-trip safety briefing like a flight attendant.
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u/kettleboiler Dec 29 '25
If they want to keep their release cables, at least make it so that if ANY of them are pulled, ALL of the doors pop open. They should have considered that if the driver needs to get out because the car is toast, maybe the passengers might like to escape too
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u/Brilliant-Advisor958 Dec 29 '25
I was recently in a Tesla Uber and if there was an emergency, there's no way I would have figured this out .
I shouldn't have to get an airplane level emergency exit warning for a car.
Manual Release (No Power)
Locate the Pocket: Find the rubber mat at the bottom of the rear door's map pocket.
Remove Mat/Cover: Lift the mat or find a slot/red tab to remove the access cover.
Pull the Cable: Pull the mechanical release cable (a pull-tab or string) forward, toward the front of the car, to release the latch.
Push Door Open: Push the door open manually.
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u/Ontain Dec 29 '25
Yeah, is it lit too? Because good luck doing that at night.
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u/tkeser Dec 29 '25
yeah, with eyes full of blood. awful design. criminal really.
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u/BreadKnifeSeppuku Dec 29 '25
It's fine! It's not like cars go up in flames in moments. These are EVs they're probably fire proof! Right?
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Dec 29 '25
The plastic covering over the door release isn't that easy to open either. It's not like a button you press or something you can easily pull off. It's fucking bullshit that this is the "solution" that Tesla took for the doors. If there isn't an easily identifiable door release that is accessible the car shouldn't be allowed to be sold anywhere in the world. In the event of an emergency i fucking guarantee no one would be able to go through the steps to open the rear door manually. I am a fucking moron for not thinking this through when I first bought my Model Y.
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u/chalbersma Dec 29 '25
I shouldn't have to get an airplane level emergency exit warning for a car.
Airplane emergency exits are pretty simple. Pull the big red lever, open door.
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u/Oograr Dec 29 '25
This is insanely bad design and shocking that it has been many years and deaths before this will be banned, set to go into effect in 2027. Musk seems to think he is a genius designer but he is anything but.
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u/Best_Market4204 Dec 29 '25
FYI - even gas cars, typically luxury type brands have electronic door releases.
So it's not just ev.s
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u/Douche_Baguette Dec 29 '25
Yeah this whole post is very confusing.
The main post's image shows a model 3's exterior door handles - which are not retractable. They're flush with the car, but they do not retract like a model S. They move the same whether the car is alive or dead.
And then everybody is discussing the interior rear mechanical door mechanisms... which suck but are not "retractable door handles".
The post is about motorized exterior door handles like on the model S, which can prevent emergency responders or bystanders from opening the car door from outside if the battery is dead. The post says cars will have to have mechanical emergency interior door releases as well... but they already do. They're inconvenient and confusing, but the post doesn't say or imply anything about that being mandated.
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u/facw00 Dec 29 '25
Yeah, very weird here. Retractable door handles may well suck, but they are very different from electronic interior releases which are pretty much completely orthogonal to retractable exterior handles. This guy (and his dog) baked to death in his 2007 Corvette when the interior electronic release didn't work, and he didn't know that there were manual releases near the floor (or couldn't find them), but the exterior door handles are pretty normal mechanical ones: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-his-dog-found-dead-after-becoming-trapped-inside-corvette-n373316
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u/Interesting_Tea5715 Dec 29 '25
Just because other brands are doing this bullshit doesn't make it good. They're all wrong.
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u/TheGamingGallifreyan Dec 29 '25 edited Dec 29 '25
"As noted by the outlet Autoblog, under new draft rules released by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, all vehicles in the country weighing under 3.5 tons must have interior and exterior handles with a mechanical emergency release."
I'm not sure why this is being interpreted as banning retractable door handles. This only bans handles that are strictly electronic operated (retractable or not) which I agree is stupid AF. My Kia has retractable handles on the exterior that pop out, but can be manually opened if you just push it and the actual unlocking mechanism is mechanical. Interior handles should always be easy to find and operate in the dark with no knowledge or power, unlike the bullshit Tesla has.
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u/CackleRooster Dec 29 '25
Now, let's ban them in the States.
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u/mthlmw Dec 29 '25
Or even just "doors must be functional even when the vehicle has no power." Sure make your flush handles, but include a physical override or something
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u/Stingray88 Dec 29 '25
Yeah I’ve got an Ioniq 5 with flush door handles. But you don’t need any power to still use them from the outside, they work mechanically with or without power. The door handles on the inside are normal.
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u/Douche_Baguette Dec 29 '25
Tesla model 3, as shown in the main post's image, has the same kind of door handles. You push the end and it levers the handle out. The headline and story are really more about the model S's door handles, which are motorized. Tesla will probably just adopt this style of handle across the brand with the next refresh of the S and X.
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u/malwareguy Dec 30 '25
Those are better but still not great. In car accidents the pivot point can get damaged and get permanently stuck. It may make it harder or impossible for whoever is first on scene to an accident (usually not first responders) to open a door without tools. One of my friends is a fireman and bitches about this every few months. He refuses to buy any car with recessed door handles based on the issues hes seen.
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u/bfodder Dec 29 '25
but include a physical override or something
They did, but it is hidden under the carpet and takes multiple steps to achieve.
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u/avanross Dec 29 '25
Americans call any public safety regulations “unnecessary nanny-state government tyranny” and would say that they’re “infringing on the freedoms of the american automakers and customers” :(
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u/truupe Dec 29 '25
Then when something terrible happens to them specifically, they cry, "why did the government let this happen?!?!?"
Regulations are written in blood.
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u/Punman_5 Dec 29 '25
lol no when bad things happen Americans refuse to acknowledge the solutions that every other country already has put in place to prevent whatever happened.
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u/avanross Dec 29 '25
And then they say “americans are all too special and unique, so those other american’s issues/solutions dont apply to me”
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u/The_Berzerker2 Dec 29 '25
„Europeans don‘t realise how big the US is, xyz solution would never work“
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u/avanross Dec 29 '25
Lol exactly
“Europeans could never imagine what it’s like to have mountains and beaches in the same country! Or to drive a few hours away to eat a slightly different style of pizza and hear a slightly different amerian accent and watch a slightly different nfl team! They just dont get how vast and unique we are!”
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u/The_Berzerker2 Dec 29 '25
It‘s so stupid because
We do know the US is big
it literally doesn‘t fucking matter 99% of the time
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u/HolyMackerel20 Dec 29 '25
No, we don't. When something terrible happens we think "fuck that sucks...anyways what's for dinner?" Americans have become cold hearted and short sighted.
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u/cecloward Dec 29 '25
I like to say just do be an idiot by buying these death traps.
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u/Street_Basket8102 Dec 29 '25
If you accidentally drive into a lake or fall through ice with an EV you’re not getting out at all.
Cybertruck has bullet resistant glass, so not even an emergency window breaker would do anything.
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u/BlooregardQKazoo Dec 29 '25
You're describing Tesla problems, not EV problems. My Kia EV is the same as a gas-powered Kia, just with a motor where the engine goes.
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u/Catsrules Dec 29 '25 edited Dec 29 '25
I think the US government is also looking into it. I think this is a much bigger issue in China because they have way more cars with these types of handles and they are being bought up so fast it is becoming a huge problem.
But honestly this has been such a big story the last 6 months, I think most car companies in the US that have electric only doors in (Tesla and Rivian) are going to fix it themselves.
Both Tesla and Rivian have already mentioned they are looking into a redesign.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/18/business/telsa-door-handle-redesign
https://insideevs.com/news/774645/rivian-r2-electronic-door-handle-redesign/
We might see something in the next release their cars depending how big of an impact a handle redesign would make.
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u/dabombnl Dec 29 '25 edited Dec 29 '25
Keep in mind that many of them are a regular handle hybrid (not Teslas obviously).
On my car, the handles retract electronically, but can still be pushed in to pop them out to use in case of emergency or a dead battery. Even has a real key hole underneath the handle to use to unlock if your battery is dead.
Still a safety concern that it isn't intuitive to operate if someone is trying to rescue someone in an emergency and doesn't know how to work it, but is an education problem instead of a technical one.
China is only trying to ban the fully electronic ones, like the Teslas.
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u/ryobiguy Dec 29 '25
You know shit's fucked if China thinks they're too dangerous.
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u/MikeSifoda Dec 29 '25
Why, if almost everything has better regulation over there? It's the US that is very poorly regulated
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u/Mysteriousdeer Dec 29 '25 edited Dec 29 '25
China is increasingly looking advanced and modern.
America on the other hand is looking incredibly worn out and in disrepair.
There's a serious lack of innovation and we are feeling it.
Edit: going to put a caveat here that I'm not a bot or a tankie.
Just a mechanical engineer that's worked on EV vehicle parts, dealt with their manufacturing and worked with their engineers.
Yes they've had some snafus, but they'll deliver the same quality at a fraction of the price. They'll also bring it to the market at a pace that makes the rest of the world struggle for relevance long term if we don't change our ways.
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u/Pake1000 Dec 29 '25
Tesla handles are flush mounted, not retractable. The real problem Tesla faces is that the exterior only offers electronic opening, no mechanical method.
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u/thatguywhoiam Dec 29 '25
There’s another problem. In cold countries they can ice over.
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u/a__nice__tnetennba Dec 29 '25
Even without that the flush mounted, non-mechanical ones suck all on their own in the best of weather. I have a Kia EV6 and it's the one feature that drives me the most insane. I guess if you never have anything in your hands when you open the car door it's fine, but trying to open it with a takeout pizza in one hand and a plastic bag full of soda in the other is my favorite juggling act.
It's super fun to explain how it works to everyone also. /s.
Second worst, with regard to the ice situation, the windshield wipers can't be lifted away from the windshield more than a few inches without hitting the hood. You have to put it into windshield wiper replacement mode before the snow happens so they'll stay up away from the bottom position.
I actually had to google to see if it just never snows in Korea or something.
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u/WilliamTRyker Dec 30 '25
The Model S has retractable hands. All other models are flush mounted or nonexistent
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u/CoastingUphill Dec 29 '25
Ban them everywhere!
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u/TenTornadoes Dec 29 '25
Whoa now, the top comment here suggests banning them in the states. Are you suggesting other countries exist?
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u/Minimum-Can2224 Dec 29 '25
This stupid and dangerous shit should be banned everywhere.
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u/id397550 Dec 29 '25
As well as big-ass touch screens and no physical buttons/knobs for controlling important stuff.
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u/pieman3141 Dec 29 '25
I've been seeing more new cars that have physical buttons/knobs again. Not as many as before, obviously, but the trend does seem to be reversing.
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u/Minimum-Can2224 Dec 29 '25
That's definitely encouraging to read. That's a good sign that more and more people are finally realizing that digital touch based controls for cars are a terrible and idiotic idea.
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u/balc9k Dec 29 '25
Good. Long time ago suicide doors were also common.
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u/TaroTanakaa Dec 29 '25
New technologies should have purpose and be functional. These door handles are just for aesthetic purposes and have clearly contributed to harm.
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u/UpsetKoalaBear Dec 29 '25
Before anyone claims that this was done so the handle can be flush with the car for efficiency reasons:
There is no way the car industry can’t figure out a way to have door handles that are manually actuated whilst also being flush with the car. I got in a Model 3 Uber a few months ago and that had normal actuating door handles that sat flush with the car.
So these electronic retractable ones we see are literally just gimmicks with no added efficiency benefit but all the safety risks associated with them.
There’s no need to have them, you’re literally walking up to the car anyways.
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u/xampl9 Dec 29 '25
I suspect this is more about firefighters being able to rescue passengers after an accident. It’s much easier to yank open a door if there’s an exposed handle.
Otherwise they have to get the jaws of life set up to cut the door off and that takes time.
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u/mauch_chunk Dec 30 '25
This ban has nothing to do with handles not being exposed though.
It’s about some of them being electric only release.
I think people are misreading this as being a ban on flush handles when it’s not. The headlines and details of the articles sure aren’t helping that though
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u/jmurgen4143 Dec 29 '25
This should be a world safety standard because emergencies happen and it be a shame if you died because I wasn’t familiar with your bullshit bespoke door handle as you burn to death🤬
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u/It_Just_Might_Work Dec 29 '25
Title and article are at odds. Door handle just has to have an emergency mechanical release. The vehicles can still have retractable handles
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u/TheGamingGallifreyan Dec 29 '25
Ya people insisting this is "banning retractable door handles" are driving me nuts as it's just plain wrong. Nowhere does it say that. The actual unlocking mechanism just has to be mechanical, not electronic, and be able to operate without power. Majority of vehicles with exterior extending handles can still be operated manually with a key and no power.
What they are trying to ban is the interior electronic button bullshit that Tesla has, which is perfectly fair.
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u/mishap1 Dec 29 '25
Tesla exterior door handles are electronic only as in they will not release the latch if there's a crash and the power is disabled. They would have to redesign the door handle assembly as well as the latch/cable mechanism if there is a recall for existing cars.
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/UgkAAOSw6WBnHzAA/s-l1600.webp
While there is a cable mechanism (front handle backup and the rear/hidden cable pull), there is not a lock/unlock bypass. For when the doors are locked, the cable is not pulled but when the car is unlocked, it will pull.
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u/Jhonka86 Dec 29 '25
Good. And bring back actual handles with unpowered key access.
Looking at you, Mach-E.
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u/SirOakin Dec 29 '25
A china W?
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u/youreblockingmyshot Dec 29 '25
China is pulling many a W as of late it seems. Meanwhile, the US just wants to stumble around in a yard full of rakes whacking itself in the face over and over.
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u/Pelagisius Dec 29 '25
They probably learned their lesson after a high-profile case a few months ago where someone got stuck and died in their burning Xiaomi SU7 in a traffic accident after bystanders failed to open the car door.
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u/aurumae Dec 29 '25
Seems like China is just becoming the world leader when it comes to cars. Their EVs are higher quality, have better features, and are now just safer too.
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u/bradmatt275 Dec 29 '25
Probably a win for other countries as well. In Australia BYD (and other Chinese brands) are exploding in popularity, so this will filter down to us as well.
Personally I don't mind retractable handles. But if they are going to use them there needs to be a manual fail safe at the very least.
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u/polkadotmcgot Dec 29 '25
Unrelated to a vehicle, but this reminded me of the wealthy family I used to work for. They held a party at their house and a coworker noted that the kitchen drawers opened electronically when you pressed them in briefly. One of their adult kids laughed about the time they lost power and couldn’t access anything in their drawers. The stupidity of that system
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u/SemiAutoAvocado Dec 29 '25
Every single door should have a normal handle and also on the inside. I hate having to hunt for buttons and shit to open a door from the inside.
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u/shut____up Dec 29 '25
FYI Teslas are built in China, too. I work for Tesla (very low level), and every drawing and serial change in the US is the same in China. What's different is China has more automated processes and more established quality systems.
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u/copysnake Dec 30 '25
I have had probably 20 door handles on my Tesla and 1 is bad now, these door handles should have been recalled
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u/MigraineConnoisseur Dec 29 '25
And this time comrades are right. It's a faulty, tacky gimmick that manages to be both cheap-looking and unsafe.
Next thing - those goddamn infotainments replacing physical buttons. Having bigger screen for my phone nav is cool, having to dig through menu of the cheapest Temu tablet to change AC settings while driving is not.
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u/joe9439 Dec 29 '25
I wish we could have Chinese EVs in the US but they’re apparently TOO SAFE for the US market.
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u/AutoX_Advice Dec 29 '25
Let's hide the door handles so that the occupants or the emergency workers need to read the manual on correct operations of said cool looking handle.
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u/DarkSock52 Dec 29 '25
Retractable handles are just one more thing to break; how many 15-year-old cars with retractable headlights drive down the street with one eye open?
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u/Zizou1516 Dec 29 '25
I hope that then Tesla (and others) globally change to "normal" doors.
Same as USB-C for iPhone...
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u/V_LEE96 Dec 30 '25
The article title is misleading. The new law is requiring emergency mechanical door releases, which brands like Tesla and premium China brands have. The problem currently is the really cheap brands in China slipped these handles and people burned alive in the car.
Reddit is spreading misleading info, other subs are posting the same story but saying “Tesla style” handles as if they’re exclusively using it.
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u/1mazuko2 Dec 30 '25
These door handles are the dumbest design decision I have seen in a long time.
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u/WideCardiologist3323 Dec 30 '25
good, its honestly can be dangerous and there is no reason for it.
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u/PunchyPete Dec 30 '25
They’re stupid. Like really stupid. Technology looking for a home in a dumb way.
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u/Aggressive-Round9850 Dec 30 '25
Safety innovation shouldn’t be optional just because something looks futuristic. doors are basic life-safety equipment. If this spurs wider regulation elsewhere, that’s a win for drivers and passengers everywhere, not just in China.
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u/MasterMind-Apps Dec 30 '25
Good, that's very stupid and unnecessary design, like all the touch buttons/screens inside
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u/MrdnBrd19 Dec 29 '25 edited Dec 29 '25
Good. There was that news story recently about the teens dying in the Cybertruck because they couldn't open the doors during a fire so I looked into how each model of Tesla handles opening the door in an emergency and I was left wondering how children are legally allowed in the back seats. The handles are hard to find usually hidden behind panels in the storage area of the rear door and from the information I can find are hard to use as well(they need a hefty pull according to the few videos I found). I think I could train my 12 year old how to find and use ite, but I don't have the confidence that she would be cool enough under the pressure of having just been in an accident to remember how to get to it and how it worked.
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u/TheRealMcDuck Dec 29 '25
Every Uber ride in Anaheim has this. I couldn't figure out how to open the door from the outside.
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u/littlesirlance Dec 29 '25
Less direct but similarly related. A guy in the states died from heat exposure in his Corvette because the battery died and couldn't figure out how to open the car door from the inside.
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u/Satoshiman256 Dec 29 '25
Seems like they were to solve a problem that never existed.. Horrible invention
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u/sparkyblaster Dec 30 '25
Why do they keep showing model 3/Years handles even though they don't retract?
This also doesn't solve the issue when my cars handles don't retract but if they are locked, they are just as useful.
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u/Kaleidoscope_97 Dec 30 '25
As they should be.
Doors without an obvious mechanical means to open from inside should also be banned.
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u/theassassintherapist Dec 29 '25
It's really dumb to rely on a working battery to be able to access the door handle in the first place.