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this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2025
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After renting a couple cars with electronic door poppers, I find them plainly worse than mechanical door latches. They're a solution in search of a problem, and some implementations are hazardous.
I think having an electric popper on top of an mechanical door latch (actual door handles are standard mechanic, but there's solenoid that can actuate them independently) is okay if you can find an actual usecase.
I mean sure still stupid but at least it isn't dangerous.
Same way electric locks have worked for the past 30 years on cars.
An old civic might be able to unlock from a key fob, but that's only an electronically controlled solenoid controlling a lock which is mechanical in nature, and who's main user-accessible interaction point is mechanically linked to the lock.
The problem with having both is that the electronic one is always the primary one, and the one people will use daily. In particular Tesla hides the mechanical ones really well. So in an emergency situation, people panic and have no idea where it is or how to use it.
Electric locks actually serve a purpose though. And they're not a danger to passengers inside. What purpose do electric door handles serve? Other than being more prone to failure, more expensive, and dangerous?
The purpose of the electric latch is to save the frameless window panes. It can lower the window slightly in the instant before it opens, to break the seal and avoid torsion on the glass.
Now, frameless windows are stupid and not necessary, so theres that. One dumb idea propagates another.
You don't need an electric latch to have frameless windows. Pretty much every car before with frameless windows did not have them.
This doesn't pass a sanity check.
A mechanical handle that actuates when deflected 30 degrees can trip a microswitch at 10 degrees to slightly open the window.
im occasional ride in my parents leased ioniq5 and the door handles are lik teslas, very flimsy to the feel.
They were hazardous when they were on Corvettes too. They should have banned them back then.
The rental cars in question were, in fact Corvettes. Corvettes are still using them.
I hear they are a solution to the problem of increasing mileage/efficiency. I am no fan of Tesla, but we have to admit, there is some merit to that argument, however debatable the efficiency benefits are.
That's not to say safety isn't a serious issue. The biggest problem is the reliance on electronics. Now if someone can reinvent the design with a highly reliable mechanical system, with multiple redundancy.
I've seen three designs for purely mechanical flush door handles in production use:
The push-then-pull central hinge is probably not a great choice for the application because its operation will be less obvious to a rescuer trying to get the door open quickly. It's still better than something that requires electronics.
The Model 3 / Model Y are push to pull, it's just not a centred hinge, it's more to the left side, within the 1st 1/4 or so.
There's no reason they couldn't have done that but also make it mechanical if they'd wanted to.