Tesla is also giving up the hidden door handles that have angered the public.

As the automaker that has contributed the most to hidden door handles worldwide, Tesla has recently made a decision that "goes against its ancestors' teachings":

It's going to completely get rid of hidden door handles.

Multiple media reports indicate that due to pressure from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and other departments, Tesla's design director, Franz von Holzhausen, admitted that Tesla is currently "redesigning the door handle system." The main purpose of the new design is to allow passengers to operate the doors more intuitively in "emergency situations."

It can only be said that the hidden door handles that are about to be phased out by Tesla don't deserve our pity. Every young and inexperienced person who buys a new energy vehicle will be "educated" by those hidden door handles before experiencing the powerful electric motor and the intelligent in - car system.

Of course, car owners are unlikely not to know how to open the door, but it's hard to say about their girlfriends, mothers, aunts, and other female relatives who are passengers.

Therefore, it's essential to give multiple demonstrations and instructions every time before getting in the car. There are specific angles for how to place your hand, which slot to pull, and how to pinch your fingers to open the door. When getting out of the car, you also have to teach them which button to press or which pull - ring to pull to open the door smoothly.

It's clearly inconvenient to use and has a high teaching cost. So why did Tesla cherish it for more than a decade and only now plans to get rid of it, and also led new energy automakers to follow the trend?

A Dreamy Start

Actually, most people don't know that hidden door handles weren't invented by new energy automakers. When they first appeared, they were even a very popular novelty.

The first appearance of hidden door handles can be traced back to the Mercedes - Benz 300 SL (W194) racing car in the 1950s. In pursuit of ultimate speed and minimalist body design, it removed the protruding traditional door handles and replaced them with a very concealed hidden opening device.

Since then, Mercedes - Benz has inspired many of its peers, and some models that pursue ultimate speed also adopted hidden door handles, such as the Chevrolet Corvette C4/C5 and TVR.

Even some American youths who are keen on modified cars would remove the original door handles, fill in the sheet metal, and open the doors via a remote control or hidden buttons to achieve an extremely smooth car body side.

And Tesla, the protagonist of this story, got inspiration from old - fashioned fuel - powered cars more than sixty years later and turned the hidden door handle into a "symbol of advanced technology."

When the Tesla Model S was first unveiled in 2012, the automatically retractable door handles brought a huge shock to the entire automotive industry. In an era when most cars still used traditional exposed door handles, the emergence of this design fulfilled people's imagination of the future.

The brilliance of Tesla's hidden door handles lies in the fact that most previous designs were mechanical, requiring manual pressing or pulling. But what about the Model S? When you approach with the key, the door handles will automatically and gracefully extend from the door, full of a "welcome" sense of ceremony.

This unprecedented interactive experience made people around the world go crazy. In China, many tycoons were willing to spend millions and even get a blue license plate just to get a Model S.

Moreover, many studies have shown that hidden door handles can indeed improve the drag coefficient a little. Although it's just a negligible amount, for electric cars with range and charging anxiety, it's completely understandable to seize any opportunity to reduce drag and increase range.

A Bizarre Mix

However, to date, hidden door handles have changed from the "sweetheart" at the beginning of the rise of new energy vehicles to the "unwanted one" that everyone dislikes.

Mainly because the evolution of hidden door handles has gotten out of control in the past decade or so.

The main problem with hidden door handles is not only their "hidden" nature but also their "diversity." Although the core of current hidden door handles still falls into two types: electric pop - out and seesaw - type, various automakers have made great differences in the specific product forms in order to create differentiation.

Just talking about seesaw - type hidden door handles, there are types like Tesla's "press the front to lift the back", Zeekr 007's "top - flip", Toyota BZ3's "bottom - flip", and Xiaomi SU7's "semi - hidden with a gap at the bottom".

| Guess how to open it?

The opening logics of the above designs are all different. Not to mention that ordinary passengers have difficulty identifying them, even someone like me in the Internet industry sometimes gets a headache.

Last year, when I took a taxi in a BZ3 for the first time, looking at the door handle covered by a lid, my first reaction was whether it would pop out electrically like the BYD Han.

After waiting for a while with no response, I realized that the lid might just be a "cover." So, following my instinct, I put my hand in with my palm and fingers facing up, but I found that my fingers were immediately blocked, and I couldn't open the door at all.

Later, the driver had to come out and teach me in person. Only then did I know that the way to open the BZ3's door is to put your hand in like a "dragon - claw hand" with your palm facing down and pull.

Once you've been "played around" by hidden door handles, you won't have a good impression of them anymore.

It's undeniable that hidden door handles do have a certain historical value. However, if the initial reason was to reduce drag and extend range, which was a practical reason, then later, all kinds of hidden door handles with complex designs that seem to create difficulties for users have become a display of skills by automakers with little practical value.

The cost of this "skill - display" is sacrificing users' muscle memory and reliability in emergency situations, which is the essence of the aversion.

Fatal Door Handles

If your aunts and other female relatives don't know how to open the door with hidden door handles before getting in the car, you can just teach them and have a laugh. But if rescue workers don't know how to open the door with hidden door handles in an accident, it can be really life - threatening.

Every time the topic of "hidden door handles causing deaths" comes up, we have to mention the Tesla Model S tree - crashing and fire - causing fatal accident in Texas, USA. This is one of the most well - known and most - cited relevant cases globally.

On April 17, 2021, in Harris County, Texas, USA, a Tesla Model S crashed into a tree at high speed while driving and then caught fire, resulting in the deaths of two men in the car.

Although the direct cause of the accident was the high - speed impact and the subsequent fire caused by battery thermal runaway, "unable to open the door" was repeatedly mentioned by the media and subsequent accident analyses as a key obstacle during the rescue process.

This incident directly triggered in - depth investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the United States into the post - accident safety of Tesla cars. The fact that we can see Tesla's decision to modify the door handle design today can be regarded as the "butterfly effect" of this accident.

However, compared with the accident in the United States across the ocean, the WENJIE M7 fire accident in Yuncheng, Shanxi last year is more well - known.

This accident caused a great stir because the video taken by passers - by clearly showed that after the accident, several kind - hearted passers - by rushed forward to try to rescue the victims immediately. They pulled the car doors hard, but the hidden door handles of the WENJIE M7 did not pop out automatically as designed after the collision.

Facing the smooth car doors, the rescuers were helpless and could only desperately try to smash the car windows with hard objects.

These two accidents clearly demonstrate the "vulnerability" of hidden door handles in accidents: Not only are the diverse hidden designs likely to leave rescuers helpless and not knowing where to start, but also the "electric pop - out" mechanism of most hidden door handles may indeed fail due to factors such as collision and power outage.

Although the national standards have always stipulated that vehicle doors should automatically unlock after a collision. For mechanical door handles, it means the door can be opened; for hidden door handles, it means they should pop out and the door can be opened.

However, accident situations vary widely, and automakers cannot list all possible situations to ensure that the door handles will always function normally.

For example, Tesla's best - selling Model 3/Y uses a push - seesaw - type hidden door handle. When you press the wider end of the door handle, the other end will lift up for you to pull. This action itself is mechanical, and in theory, rescuers can also manually lift it to open the door during a rescue.

But the lifted end of the lever triggers an electronic signal to release the door lock. If the vehicle doesn't recognize your key or the vehicle is completely out of power, you still can't open the door.

Although automakers generally prepare a small 12V battery for separate power supply to ensure the normal operation of the circuit, after a vehicle collision, they still can't guarantee that the 12V battery will remain intact. Coupled with the possibility of motor damage or wire breakage, the door handles may not pop out or open normally.

Purely mechanical door handles are directly connected through a mechanical structure and are not affected by the circuit system, so their reliability after a collision is relatively higher.

However, the most outrageous thing is that some automakers (yes, I'm talking about you, Jiyue!) completely removed the door handles and only rely on a capacitive button or voice to open the door. Fortunately, no other automakers in the market have followed this example, and Jiyue's own cars don't sell well. Otherwise, once an accident occurs, the consequences would be unimaginable.

The Big Ship Turns Around

Repeated bloody lessons have verified that it's really time for the design of hidden door handles to make a big turn.

Compared with Tesla, China took the lead. As early as early September, there were reports that relevant departments were considering banning traditional hidden door handles from a policy perspective, targeting all automakers in the Chinese market.

Actually, many automakers have planned ahead before the policy. Since the WENJIE M7 accident and WENJIE M8 reaped the benefits of public opinion, Chinese - brand cars have started to embrace "minivan - style" hidden door handles, which have physical grips and combine electronic and physical unlocking.

Cars like Shangjie and Zeekr 9X have even switched back to the most traditional pull - ring door handles. After all, this type of door handle is the easiest to use, has the