There’s been a lot of backlash over electronic door handles lately, as many automakers — especially Tesla — have been accused of making manual door releases too difficult to find and access in an emergency. Rivian is one of the companies that have reportedly decided to change this in the upcoming R2 SUV, and a flood of first look videos released on Tuesday finally give us a look at what the company has changed.
First, the front doors open from the inside in the same way as in the existing R1 vehicles. There is an electronic button that opens the door and there is a manual door release latch located on the front of the interior handle.
The rear doors also have an electronic button, as well as a change to the rear manual release.
On R1 vehicles, passengers must first pull a panel from the door to access a “release cable” that operates the manual latch. On the new R2 SUV, Rivian has moved this release cord to the same location in front of the handle as the manual front seat releases — though it’s still hidden behind a piece of plastic that has to come out, making it slightly more difficult to access than the manual front door releases.
The R2 SUV isn’t due to go into production for another few months, so the company hasn’t given proper instructions on how to access this release. But here is a picture from a new one video Posted by Zach Nelson of JerryRigEverything:
It doesn’t pull out the actual wire, but it’s the best illustration I’ve seen so far of what passengers should do if they’re in an R2 that has lost power for whatever reason, limiting the vehicle’s electronic door release.
The manual release is still behind a piece of plastic and isn’t the most obvious or accessible way to open a door from the inside. But it’s at least in a more sensible spot than just being hidden behind a panel.
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Such situations do not happen often. But when they do, it’s usually during a major crash. This means that every moment can mean the difference between life and death.
Rivian isn’t alone in reworking how hard it is to access manual releases. The most popular example is Tesla. Found Bloomberg News at least 15 deaths in accidents where there is evidence that the occupants (or rescuers) were unable to open the doors. The company has said it will change the way it designs its grips to address the problem.
And electronic door latches can present other problems. Last year, Ford was forced to issue a recall to fix a power supply problem for the electronic door latches in the Mustang Mach-E.
