Why on Earth would that require a recall? Hundreds of gas powered cars catch fire every day. The only difference is first responders expect and know how to handle gas fires. They will learn to handle batteries too.

It is the door handles I wonder about. They seem overcomplicated since they are electric servos I believe instead of typical mechanical handles.

In a complete loss of power can the doors be opened? This is unclear to me. I don't own a Tesla and am genuinely wondering.

The difference to a gas car could be that you can't get out of a Tesla if there is a fire.

I think I read in a teardown of the Model 3 that the rear door handles didn't have mechanical options as a backup for safety.

Overall I don't particularly like flashy overcomplicated things which is what these door handles seem to me. I'm curious for any rebuttal though.

There are many cars that don't have rear doors, but do have rear seats. The worst case scenario in a Tesla, if the rear doors don't open, doesn't seem any worse than the inevitable situation in a 2 door 2+2.

Something else people worry about (or used to) was power windows not opening in a crash in case the door is jammed. But we don't mandate crank windows for that reason.

That's a great point, though since I have kids I can only dream of a 2 door car for a while. It is technically possible but hard to schlep with them back there when they are little. So I think of it more as a safety scenario in my present life situation.

Expectations and norms are clearly different than they used to be a few decades ago. When I was a pre-teen in the late 80s, and my family got an SUV, it had seating for five passengers like modern vehicles, bucket seats in the front and ones that folded down in the rear...but four doors were not an option. In fact of the several competitors only one offered rear doors.

Why would anyone rebut? Buy a car you like.

Curiosity? Also I'm captivated by all the swings in TSLA stock I suppose.

If you don't like "flashy overcomplicated things", why would I try to talk you out of that? I've known a lot of people with that opinion, they're not early adopters, they get great pleasure out of buying less complicated things, and my curiosity about why they are this way was satisfied a long time ago.

Oh I'm just curious if the door thing is a fire safety concern. Nothing more. I won't buy a Tesla for a while at least but I follow the stock from an investment standpoint. You don't need to convince me of anything, just answer if the doors can be opened in a power loss situation. Satisfy my curiosity - though admittedly I'd probably use this data to further confirm my dislike of overengineering...