Halloween morning two years ago in Tampa turned from cute costumes to full-blown panic when a local mom says her 1-and-a-half-year-old daughter wound up locked inside the family’s Tesla Model 3 after the car’s 12-volt battery died. In frantic cellphone video, the family can be heard pleading for help as they struggle to open the doors. Those minutes stretched into nearly two hours before rescuers finally located a manual release, an ordeal that has since become a local reference point in a growing national fight over electronic door systems that can strand people when a vehicle loses power.
According to Tampa mom Dakota Knox, her daughter Salem was already buckled into her car seat in a Tinkerbell costume for a school parade when the Tesla suddenly went dark and the doors stopped responding. With the car refusing to power back up, the family tried everything they could think of before first responders arrived. Police eventually found and pulled a small mechanical lever that opened the doors, but Knox says the rear-seat emergency release was buried under a door mat and felt impossible to locate in the chaos, as reported by WPTV. Screenshots and video the family shared with the station have since been used in testimony and advocacy campaigns pushing for clearer, low-tech backup exits.
Federal probes into electric door systems
The Knox family’s scare is unfolding against a backdrop of federal scrutiny. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched several official reviews into electronic door systems that stop working when power cuts out. According to NHTSA, the agency opened a preliminary evaluation in September 2025 covering about 174,290 2021 Model Y vehicles after owners reported that exterior door handles could become inoperative if the low-voltage 12-volt battery failed.
Reuters separately reports that regulators are also considering a defect petition targeting roughly 179,000 2022 Model 3 sedans. That request alleges that the cars’ manual emergency releases are too hidden and not intuitive enough to locate or use in an actual emergency, raising questions about how drivers, passengers, or rescuers are supposed to get people out quickly when electronics go down.
Lawmakers push a fix
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers are trying to get in front of the problem with a bill that would force carmakers to build in obvious, mechanical escape routes. The Securing Accessible Functional Emergency (SAFE) Exit Act would direct NHTSA to set performance and labeling standards that require each vehicle to have a fail-safe manual release inside and a reliable method for first responders to gain entry from outside, as outlined by Consumer Reports.
Supporters of the bill have cited investigations tying door failures to deadly outcomes. Hearings have referenced at least 15 deaths in incidents where doors would not open after crashes, a tally described by Bloomberg. Advocates say those cases show how sleek, hidden hardware can become a serious liability when every second counts.
Lawsuits and warnings
The fight is also playing out in court. A Florida class action filed this January accuses Tesla of selling 2014–2016 Model S sedans with retractable door handles that are prone to failure, according to Road & Track. Plaintiffs argue that the eye-catching handles may look futuristic but can leave drivers locked out of their own cars.
National safety organizations and consumer advocates have been urging automakers to redesign door systems on their own instead of waiting for Washington to tell them what to do. Local coverage of the Tampa incident has quoted child-safety advocates calling for immediate fixes, saying the Knox family’s brush with disaster should be treated as a warning rather than a fluke, as reported by WPTV.
What owners and first responders should know
NHTSA’s opening summary in the Model Y investigation notes that Tesla’s owner’s manual spells out a multi-step “jump starting” process to restore low-voltage power to the locks. The procedure calls for applying 12 volts of direct current to two exterior contact points, which might be tough to pull off on the side of the road and nearly impossible in many crash scenarios, according to NHTSA.
The agency also points out that while manual releases do exist inside many vehicles, they are often tucked away or unlabeled. An unconscious occupant or a very young child is unlikely to locate or operate them on their own. Safety officials say owners should read their manuals, physically find the emergency releases, and practice using them before something goes wrong. Keeping a charged portable jump pack in the car is another option. First responders add that specific training on where each model hides its mechanical releases can shave precious time off a rescue.
For the Knox family, the lesson is straightforward: high-tech convenience should never come at the expense of basic escape routes. Knox says her family feels fortunate their story did not end worse, and she is hoping manufacturers and regulators move faster so the next family in trouble is not relying on luck. Until that happens, owners are left with some homework of their own: study the manual, learn where the manual releases are, and keep emergency gear close.
