Tesla Cybertruck Door Buttons Failed: Investigation Launched As Musk's Vision Creates Deadly Safety Gap

In the space of a heartbeat, a routine drive home transforms into a nightmare. On a December evening in 2023, Susmita Maddi was trapped inside her burning Tesla Model Y, flames creeping through the cabin whilst rescue workers desperately tried to find a way in. The doors wouldn't open. The electrical system was dead. Every second meant the difference between life and a lifetime of recovery—a reality that continues to haunt her today.

Maddi's ordeal is not an isolated incident. Across the United States, Europe, and Asia, a troubling pattern has emerged: Tesla's revolutionary door designs, once celebrated as the epitome of futuristic engineering, have become a liability in moments when occupants need them most—immediately after a crash.

When Innovation Outpaces Safety: The Tesla Door Paradox

The story begins nearly a decade ago in Palo Alto, California, where Tesla's engineers faced a pivotal decision. During the development of the Model 3 in early 2016, founder Elon Musk had a clear vision: virtually everything in the vehicle—including the doors—should be controlled electrically through buttons and touchscreens. He admired how Apple had simplified the smartphone interface, and he wanted Tesla's cabin to reflect that same minimalist, technology-driven aesthetic.

The problem was plain to some engineers from the start. Mechanical door handles, they argued, offered a backup when systems failed. But Musk's directive was unambiguous. Wire-release mechanisms buried inside door frames and hidden beneath carpeting would serve as emergency exits. No visible handles. No mechanical fallback in plain sight.

The consequences of this choice have taken years to fully materialise. Complaints about Tesla's electrically powered doors now number more than 140 in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's database since 2018. Owners report being locked inside their vehicles. Children have been trapped in car seats as parents desperately searched for emergency releases they didn't know existed. And when crashes occur, the delays in exiting vehicles have proven catastrophic.

The Cost of Concealment: Real People, Real Consequences

Max Walsh, an off-duty firefighter in northern Virginia, arrived at a burning Tesla Model Y in December 2023 to find Venkateswara Pasumarti trapped inside, smoke billowing from the cabin. The driver's door wouldn't budge.

Walsh smashed the window with his bare hands, burning himself in the process, and managed to extract Pasumarti through the jagged opening. But Pasumarti's wife, Susmita Maddi, remained pinned in the passenger seat as flames consumed the interior.

'I'm trying to open the door and it's like, "What the hell, where is the backup thing?"' Walsh recalled in an interview. By the time rescue workers arrived with hydraulic cutters, Maddi had inhaled enough toxic fumes to cause lasting lung damage and suffered third-degree burns across her face.

Today, Maddi's recovery continues. Custom-fitted masks cover her face as her skin heals. Reconstructive surgeries lie ahead. The couple's dream of adopting a child has been indefinitely postponed. In a lawsuit filed against Tesla, she alleges the vehicle's door design created an 'unreasonable safety risk.'

'Buying a Tesla was the worst decision of our life,' Maddi says quietly.

Her case is not alone. In November 2024, college student Krysta Tsukahara became trapped in a Cybertruck that crashed into a tree near San Francisco. Her friend Matt Riordan, following behind, watched helplessly as he pressed the exterior buttons repeatedly—nothing opened. He managed to drag one passenger to safety through a broken window, but Tsukahara and two others perished from smoke inhalation and thermal injuries. The Cybertruck had no traditional door handles at all; it relied entirely on electrical buttons mounted at the bottom of the windows.

Regulators in three continents are now scrutinising these designs. China's top regulator is reportedly considering a ban on fully concealed door handles. Europe has mandated incremental improvements to rescue protocols. In the US, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently opened a formal investigation into Tesla's Model Y door handles, whilst the company announced plans to redesign the system—nine years after Musk's original directive.

The Hidden Mechanic: A Game of Hide-and-Seek with Your Life

For most Tesla owners, the reality of their vehicle's emergency system comes as a shock. Manual releases exist—but their location varies by model and is rarely intuitive. In some models, the mechanical cables are buried beneath carpeting on the vehicle floor. In others, they're tucked between window switches. For the Cybertruck, there is no manual release whatsoever inside the cabin.

'If you are a passenger, or jump into a rental car or a Model Y that is a robotaxi, you are not going to be aware of this,' says Michael Brooks, executive director of the Centre for Auto Safety. 'It shouldn't be a game of hide-and-seek.'

Consider the case of Dakota Knox, who buckled her 18-month-old daughter into a Model 3 on Halloween 2023. As she moved to the front seat, the low-voltage battery died. All doors locked. The child was trapped inside, hyperventilating and screaming. Knox's calls to 911 brought police who didn't know how to open the doors. A call to Tesla resulted in a quote for a six- to eight-hour wait for roadside assistance. It took two hours, a search through YouTube tutorials, and a lockout tool snaked through a cracked window for rescuers to free the toddler.

These are not theoretical problems. They represent the gap between innovation and responsibility—between what Musk envisioned and what real families experience when systems fail.

As regulators prepare their responses and Tesla redesigns its door mechanisms, one truth becomes undeniable: sometimes, the simplest solution—a mechanical handle you can pull—may be the most important one of all.