In case you thought cars would become safer as technology developed… rest assured, Tesla is finding newer and ever-dumber ways to make their cars dangerous to occupants (and others).
TL;DR: If you’re in a Tesla and it loses power (like in a fire), the only way to open the doors is often an unlabeled wire behind either two panels or a speaker grill. Tesla owners are DIYing janky rip cords to make that wire easier to pull to escape.
Hiding the emergency release behind a panel should be illegal. These things are death traps.
That’s why they call it a “manual” release, not “emergency”. To try and sneak under the radar for doing something so dangerous.
But the worst part is that at peak Tesla popularity, people were blaming the victims for not knowing that it was a small cable, hidden inside the door, under the liner in the door pocket.
I wouldn’t even feel safe if I had a close electrician friend strip the batteries for use as a house battery.
I’d mount them outside or in our detached shed.
They have a huge safety-orange pull tab that disconnects the two banks of the battery. But even then you shouldn’t operate on them unless you are trained. 350 VDC is no joke.