Tesla owners say they’ve been locked inside their cars after it lost power
Topics: News, Technology, Tesla
Keryn Donnelly
Featured Image Credit: ABC7. Sean Gallup/Getty Images.
Topics: News, Technology, Tesla
Several Tesla owners have claimed they've been locked inside their car after it suddenly lost power.
In June, Rick Meggison became stuck in his Tesla Model Y inside his garage after the power died and he was unable to escape the vehicle.
“It’s definitely a safety concern; it was one of the hotter days,” the 73-year-old told Arizona-based TV station ABC15.
“I couldn’t open the doors. I couldn’t lower the windows. The computer was dead, so I couldn’t open the glove box. I couldn’t open anything.”
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He called his sister who was able to open the passenger side door using the Tesla app, but that also cracked the window.
Meggison told ABC15 his main lithium-ion battery had plenty of range at the time but he later learned that a separate 12-volt battery in his Tesla Model Y had died.
Employees at the Tesla service centre later showed the 73-year-old where he could find the manual latch to open the doors.
In December last year, YouTuber Tom Exton claimed he was driving down a freeway in London when his Tesla Model Y ordered him to pull over before it suddenly lost power and left him unable to exit the vehicle.
"I couldn't open the door by conventional means," he told Business Insider. "So I had to use the emergency manual-override latch on the door."
While Exton was eventually able to open the door using the manual-override latch, he also ended up with a broken window.
"Safe to say horror stories of @Tesla cars being appalling seem true. Brand new fully charged car just cut out on the motorway. Had to use emergency door release to get out, which somehow broke the driver's window," Exton tweeted at the time.
He added: "Just relieved gf/dogs are not with me. In minus 3, middle of nowhere. Been 2 hours so far waiting for AA."
The YouTuber told Business Insider he had only been driving for 15 minutes and the car was showing that it was almost at full charge.
According to the owner's manual, you can find the manual latch for the Tesla Model Y front seats in front of the window switch panel.
Not all Model Y cars come with a manual release for the rear seats. For those that do, it is located in the rear doors' pockets.
Meggison says there needs to be more information about the latch made readily available to Tesla owners.
“It’s not labeled. You don’t know it’s there unless you know it’s there,” he told ABC15.
UNILAD has reached out to Tesla for comment.