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Teslas have half mechanical door releases: If you're inside the vehicle it's easy to open the doors without power--at least the front doors. The mechanical latches in the rear doors are difficult to find.

But the mechanical latches are not accessible from the outside, and they should be. That's why I call them half mechanical.

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Lots of cars have mechanical latches that automatically lock when driving over 10mph.

I’ve heard a lot of complaints about the safety of non-mechanical doors. But are these auto-locking mechanical doors any better?

The autolock disengage either 5 seconds after the airbags, or when current is cut. I think autolock feature is mandatory in the EU, as keeping doors close during a crash help with structural integrity.

How would an external mechanical release not result in every car equipped with it getting continually broken into? The Kia ignition fiasco was bad enough.

Seems pretty simple, the lock overrides the release, and when the vehicle detects a collision it unlocks the doors.

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