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Comment by azinman2 | Hacker News Reader

There’s a physical mechanical open mechanism for doors.

Curious how it worked, I found https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/model3/en_us/GUID-A7A60DC...

> At the bottom of the rear door pocket, there is a slot in front of the release cover. Slide your finger into the slot and lift to remove the cover. Pull the mechanical release cable forward.

I wonder how people are supposed to be able to find that when in an emergency sitting in the backseat of someone else's car.

Front doors are just regular handles.

That's awesome for the frantic people in the front seats, but I somehow feel like you missed the context.

Yeah but the back seat is more likely to have children or passengers unfamiliar with the car too so an esoteric emergency procedure is worse there. IMO these cable unlocks shouldn't be allowed for safety, there should be an obvious easy mechanical release people understand which is a normal handle.

They're in even worse luck if they are in any number of cars that have rear-seat "child safety" locks that prevent opening the door from the inside. There's no way to bypass that except from outside the car.

Yeah, that's terrifying as well, but I think it's the same for all car manufacturers about that, isn't it? Or is some makers worse than all the others because of design decisions?

That sounds pretty good in comparison to the Cybertruck, because that one can't be opened from the outside ever, if the battery dies.

The manual bypass for the driver and passenger seat is much easier to find than the one in the rear. Too bad the driver can't help rescue everyone else, because the door handles are electric.

The front doors have a way easier and more obvious way than the rear doors. In fact, for the front doors it's so obvious that most passengers think it's the normal way to open the door. The reason the rear doors have it much more hidden is because child safety locks are an important safety feature, and they'd be useless if small children could easily bypass them.

For the back seats you can order webbing strips from Temu for five bucks. They are easy to spot (bright yellow).

I point them out to any passengers in the back seat.

If you have kids that are likely to pull them ... different story.

Rescuers are unable to open the door from outside. I guess its a feature (in a Mad Max world).

https://people.com/woman-dies-after-allegedly-being-trapped-...

https://nypost.com/2025/09/19/world-news/tesla-driver-and-tw...

I don't have them in my back seats. I had to train my kids to use a glass breakage hammer because Tesla didn't bother to put them on my car.

Which model?

2019 model 3

> There’s a hidden physical mechanical open mechanism for doors.

FTFY

It's only hidden for the back doors so that it doesn't render the child safety lock useless. It's in the most obvious spot possible for the front doors.

I wouldn't say its hidden given its right beyond the window switches, I guess those are hidden as well then

This depends on which seat you're in, which model, and which year. Some models have no emergency release in the backseat for certain years.

Here's a model x, this feels pretty hidden to me: https://youtube.com/shorts/cfPhUY9erLM

This model 3 version has nothing: https://youtube.com/shorts/FWUWm9KaHzE

Here's the model y: https://youtube.com/shorts/FVwuOdMBpfo

I'm aware of at least three different versions of emergency release on the model 3 which vary greatly.

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