NHTSA Complaint #11695120 — 2024 TESLA CYBERTRUCK

On [XXX], [XXX] was a right rear passenger in a 2024 Cybertruck. The driver lost control and struck a tree with the driver side against a wall. The truck immediately caught fire. The operation of the doors was powered by a small battery pack which was no longer operational after the impact. The passenger side doors operate off of that battery. Without power, the passenger doors could not open, trapping the driver and passengers in the Cybertruck. The fire moved quickly to the passenger compartment and towards the trapped passengers. The design of the electric doors required passengers who are not familiar with the vehicle to find the location of a manual release hidden from view beneath a panel to remove that panel and pull the manual release mechanism. There are no instructions present to explain to a passenger how to access the manual release. The truck has no exterior door handles. The only means to open the door from the outside was a button located at the base of the B&C pillars. When the electric system failed, that door release button became useless. A rescuer arrived but had no way to open the passenger side doors from the outside. The truck’s “armor glass” windows made forcing entry extraordinarily difficult. The rescuer was able to break the passenger side window with repeated strikes and attempted to rescue [XXX] by extracting her through the front passenger window but was unsuccessful due to the heat from the fire. She was forced to retreat back to the rear seat. She survived the initial collision with no injuries and was fully conscious. She was unable to escape the Cybertruck and was killed due to smoke inhalation and thermal injuries. The failure of the vehicle’s design to provide emergency egress in the event of crash, power loss, and fire created a foreseeable and unreasonable risk of occupant entrapment and death in the event of a collision resulting in power loss. It is available for inspection by the NHTSA. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5