NHTSA Complaint #11604985 — 2017 TESLA MODEL X

The rear doors on the Model X are powered "Falcon Wing" doors. The motorize up in order to enter/exit the vehicle. The doors have ultrasonic sensors that allow the doors to sense if there is an obstacle in the way of the door's path of travel. When the vehicle is in a sunny hot location, the sensors on the doors either overheat, or the heat of the sun warps the door panel just enough that the sensors are fooled into thinking that there is an obstacle in the way of the door, so the door will not open when the rear seat passenger attempts to exit. Under these conditions, pushing the button to open the rear doors causes them to open a few inches, and then the door beeps, and the door won't open any further. In order to get the door to open further, the occupant must hold the "door open" button for a few seconds, the door will beep, and assuming you've held the button continuously, the door will then slowly open. The process from first attempting to open the door, and actually getting it open so you can escape the rear seat, IF DONE PROPERLY, will take 20-30 seconds. That is an awful long time in an emergency situation. While I am glad that Tesla was able to fix my car, it seems insane that this issue isn't a life-safety recall. It is even more insane that I had to pay to be able to safely exit my vehicle. If a "regular door-ed" car had a latch mechanism, that when hot, would warp in such a way that pulling the inside latch would not reliably open the door, would that be recalled?