To open the Cybertruck’s rear doors, the passenger must lift a rubber mat on the bottom of the door’s storage pocket, then pull a cable underneath.
“Rear passengers like Jack were left with only a concealed mechanical release that was obscure, non-intuitive and highly unlikely to be located or operated in the smoke and chaos of a post-crash fire,” according to the lawsuit filed on behalf of Nelson’s parents, Todd and Stannye Nelson.
The doors of the Cybertruck are controlled electronically.Credit: Paul Rovere
The New York Times confirmed the filing of the lawsuit brought by the Nelsons on Friday.
A friend who was following in another vehicle saved a fourth passenger who was in the front seat by smashing the Cybertruck’s window with a branch.
The suits threaten another blow to Tesla’s reputation after a Florida jury decided in August that the company should pay $US243 million ($368 million) in damages for a crash involving its driver assistance system. The jury found that the company’s software had contributed to an accident in 2019 that killed one person and severely injured another.
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Tesla did not respond to requests for comment this week and did not respond to a request for comment after the suits were filed.
In the Piedmont case, Tesla may seek to place blame for the crash on Dixon, the driver of the Cybertruck. He was drunk and had consumed cocaine and amphetamines that night, according to a coroner’s report. The company may also argue that the doors might not have opened because of damage to the Cybertruck’s body, rather than flaws in the company’s design.
Electric vehicles are far less likely to catch fire than cars that run on gasoline. But when the batteries do ignite, they burn intensely, and the flames can quickly envelop cars, requiring quick escapes or rescues.
Tesla is working on new designs that will make it easier to open doors if a vehicle loses power, Tesla chief designer Franz von Holzhausen said in September on Bloomberg’s Hot Pursuit podcast.
“That’s something we are working on, and it’s in the car soon,” von Holzhausen said on the podcast.
The lawsuits filed this week claim that deadly flaws in the design of the door latches have been obvious for years, yet Tesla failed to make improvements even in the Cybertruck, its newest vehicle.
“For more than a decade before the crash,” the Tsukaharas’ suit says, “Tesla had repeated and direct notice that its reliance on electronic door systems created a serious risk of entrapment. Owners, bystanders, and first responders documented instances where Tesla occupants survived crash forces but could not escape when electrical power failed and fire ensued.”
Andrew McDevitt, a San Francisco lawyer who is representing the Nelsons, said: “It’s just absolutely unforgivable. You know people have died and you continue to do it.”
Last year, Tesla settled a lawsuit brought by the family of Kevin McCarthy, the chief executive of a software firm in Indiana, who died after a Tesla Model S driven by one of his employees struck a tree and caught fire.
The driver died on impact in that crash, which was in 2016 in Indianapolis. But witnesses reported seeing McCarthy struggling to get out of the front passenger side of the car before it was engulfed in flames.
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“Ours is not an isolated case,” Carl Tsukahara said. He is represented by Roger Dreyer of the Sacramento firm of Dreyer Babich Buccola Wood Campora. “This company is worth a trillion dollars,” he added, referring to Tesla. “How can you release a machine that’s not safe in so many ways?”
Tesla doors are the focus of an investigation opened in September by United States federal regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is examining 2021 Tesla Model Y sport utility vehicles after owners complained that, after leaving the front seats and getting out of the car, they were unable to open the rear doors. In four cases, owners reported that they had to break the cars’ windows to free children trapped inside.
Other manufacturers, including Ford Motor, Toyota and Stellantis, the maker of Jeep vehicles, have adopted electronic doors. Those companies have used various designs that allow doors to be opened in the event of a power failure or emergency.
Electronic door handles on some Lexus models operate manually by being pulled twice, and there is a manual release tab on the exterior handle. The handles on Volkswagen’s electric ID.4 operate manually if simply pulled harder.
On Ford’s electric Mustang Mach E and some Jeep models, electronic doors have a capacitor near the door mechanism that retains enough power for it to open in case of a battery failure, according to the companies.
The Piedmont crash shattered the bedroom community set in hills above Oakland, where streets wind past homes with carefully landscaped yards, many with Teslas parked out front.
“The four young people in the Cybertruck were close friends and outstanding individuals, each on the verge of making meaningful contributions to the world,” Todd and Stannye Nelson said in their statement. “They were all victims of Tesla’s unsafe design.”
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Carl Tsukahara said, “Our life is never going to be the same, and there are other families just like us.”
Both families have also sued the estate of Dixon, the driver, but the Nelsons said that was for procedural reasons and that they “do not seek to punish any families”.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
