In the November 2024 Piedmont, California Cybertruck crash—profiled in Bloomberg's probe into 15 Tesla door-related deaths—firefighters faced 'poor access' to the burning vehicle, whose electronic doors and stainless-steel exoskeleton trapped occupants, contributing to three fatalities. Families of victims Jack Nelson and Krysta Tsukahara have sued Tesla over design flaws, intensifying scrutiny on emergency egress amid ongoing door failure reports.
Building on Bloomberg's investigation into Tesla's flush electronic handles failing post-crash (disabling due to 12V battery loss), the Thanksgiving 2024 Cybertruck incident underscores rescue-specific hurdles. A bystander couldn't open the handle-less doors via capacitive buttons or touchscreen and shattered 'bulletproof' glass too late; three died from burns/smoke, one escaped.
The unintuitive emergency pull cord, hidden under a storage liner (labeled only in markets like China), evaded quick use. Firefighters noted pry marks failing against the exoskeleton, marketed as bullet-resistant and hard to cut.
Safety expert Phil Koopman (Carnegie Mellon) remarked to The Washington Post: 'It is more obvious how to get out of a trunk than... the back seat of a Tesla after a crash.' Attorney Merick Lewin added: 'How does a rescuer get in in the event of a crash?'
Tesla denies liability, asserting compliance with standards and driver misuse. With at least 12 similar entrapments since 2019, NHTSA probes hidden releases. EV fires burn hotter from lithium batteries, though rarer than gas-vehicle fires, highlighting design-safety tensions in Tesla's fleet expansion.
