- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has vowed to mandate a new set of rules about how door handles work in all motor vehicles.
- There have been numerous issues with people attempting to exit a vehicle after an accident, where the door handles did not work as expected.
- The issue stems from the rise of electronic door handles, which can become compromised in an accident.
In our ever-increasing digital world, even seemingly simple items become electronic. Take, for example, the humble door handle. On lots of vehicles these days, that handle operates electronically instead of mechanically. And that can become a big problem if you’re in an accident.
Automakers are required to have mechanical backup systems just for such scenarios. But they’re often in odd places or difficult to find at all. The owners of a car with such a setup might not even know their car has mechanical backup door handles.
According to The Drive, it’s become enough of an issue that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) plans to mandate a smarter, more obvious system to help people escape a vehicle in the event of an accident.
This isn’t something that will happen overnight, of course. Rewriting a major safety component to be required in all new motor vehicles requires lots of planning and development. It also needs to be done with input from the automakers to see what is and isn’t feasible.
Regardless, this problem needs attention. If you can’t exit your own vehicle in the event of an accident, that’s a glaring problem that will only get worse as more vehicles adopt electronically actuated door handles.
Motor1’s Take: One simple solution could be found in the way automakers have integrated regenerative brakes into hybrid and electric vehicles. The system there uses an electronic drag brake. When you push harder on the brake pedal, you engage the hydraulic brakes, and you stop the car in a very familiar manner.
Perhaps automakers could utilize a door handle that functions electronically when you use a light touch on the handle material. But if you actually pull the handle hard, you engage a traditional, mechanical system inside the door.
The operator and passengers of the vehicle instinctively reach for the handle already, so why not make it work in the manner in which they assume it will?
There you go, NHTSA… this doesn’t need to take years, after all.
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