Tesla's electric door handles — already banned in China for trapping occupants in burning vehicles — are now at the center of a wrongful death lawsuit after a father and his 14-year-old son reportedly burned alive when rescuers couldn't open the doors of their crashed Model 3.
The vehicle's Event Data Recorder captured something chilling: the accelerator pedal jumped from 0.0 at 63 mph to 100 percent with no apparent input while Full Self-Driving was engaged.
This case could accelerate a U.S. Congressional push to ban Tesla's flush door handle design entirely, and it forces every current or prospective Tesla owner to ask a deeply uncomfortable question about what happens when the technology meant to protect you becomes the reason no one can get you out.
A new lawsuit claims that father and young son were killed inside a Tesla Model 3 due to the vehicle’s Full Self-Driving mode and electric-powered door handles.
According to claims filed by the families of the deceased, the father, Margarret Smith, and his 14-year-old son, Karter Breon, were driving from Florida to Georgia on Highway 35 when the Model 3, which was in Full Self-Driving mode, “abruptly departed from the road, struck a tree, and burst into flames.” According to the Tesla Event Data Recorder (EDR), the accelerator pedal went from 0.0 at 63 miles per hour to 100 without any apparent reason. Once the vehicle had burst into flames, the battery system malfunctioned and the handles became inoperable.
Rescuers could...
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