There has been significant pushback on electronic door handles lately. Multiple carmakers, especially Tesla, have been accused of making manual door releases too difficult to find and access during an emergency. Rivian is one company that reportedly decided to change this on its upcoming R2 SUV. A series of first-look videos released Tuesday finally give us a view of what the company has altered.
First, the front doors open from the inside 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 tucked into the front part of the interior handle.
The rear doors also have an electronic button, along with a change to the rear manual release. On R1 vehicles, passengers must first pull a panel off the door to access a release cord that operates the manual latch. On the new R2 SUV, Rivian moved this release cord to that same front-of-the-handle position as the front seat manual releases. However, it is still tucked behind a piece of plastic that must be popped out, making it slightly harder to access than the front door manual releases.
The R2 SUV is not set to go into production for several more months, so the company has not released proper instructions on how to access this release. But an image from a new video published by JerryRigEverything’s Zack Nelson offers the best illustration so far of what passengers will need to do if they are in an R2 that has lost power, limiting the vehicle’s electronic door release.
The manual release is still behind a piece of plastic, and it is not the most obvious or accessible way to open a door from the inside. But it is at least in a more logical spot than just being hidden behind a panel.
These kinds of situations do not happen often. But when they do, it is typically during a major crash. That means every moment can mean the difference between life and death.
Rivian is not alone in reworking how hard it is to access the manual releases. The most high-profile example is Tesla. Bloomberg News found at least 15 deaths in crashes where there is evidence that occupants or rescuers were unable to open the doors. The company has said it will change how it designs its handles in order to address the problem.
And electronic door latches can present other issues. Last year, Ford had to issue a recall to fix a power-delivery problem for the electronic door latches on the Mustang Mach-E.