Oct. 23, 2019—Tesla's door handles are being blamed for a fatal crash in which a police officer was unable to pull a man to safety from his burning car, per a report by Bloomberg.
A 48-year-old anesthesiologist was driving his leased Tesla in February when he lost control on a south Florida parkway and the car slammed into a palm tree. A police officer couldn't open the doors because the handles were retracted. The wrongful death lawsuit alleges that the fire started with the Tesla vehicles' battery.
The door handles on the Model S are flush with the car and pop out -- “auto-present” -- when they detect that the key fob is nearby.
Consumer Reports said in 2015 that broken door handles were one of the most common problems with the Model S.