Autobayng News Team
- Some Rivian owners are turning to DIY solutions to keep their kids safe.
- In a panic situation, it’s tough to reach the emergency release cord for the rear doors of the Gen 2 R1S and R1T.
- So owners are adding carabiners and cable ties to fix the issue on their $70,000+ EVs.
Making the perfect door handle for a new car is surprisingly difficult. At least, that’s what some car companies are suggesting. It might have something to do with cost-cutting, and it could also be linked to electric car manufacturers’ pursuit of the highest possible efficiency.
The result is simple: electronic door handles that look cool and help the car slip through the air with ease. But the same door handles can quickly turn into a safety hazard if power cuts out for whatever reason, and the passengers get trapped inside.
Tesla has been in the news several times because passengers couldn’t locate the manual door releases after a crash. Instances of first responders struggling to open the doors from the outside during emergencies are also well known.
But Tesla is not alone in this. Rivian also uses electronic door releases, and when the R1T and R1S went through their comprehensive mid-life upgrade for the 2025 model year, a potentially dangerous change was made to both. The emergency release for the rear doors was relocated inside the door panel, which requires taking out a piece of trim and fishing for the cord blindly. Before the facelift, the regular door handles would open the door even if the power went out, but now only the front door handles retain this functionality. Rivian’s manual states that passengers have to remove a trim panel to gain access to the emergency release cord for the rear doors. Photo by: Rivian
Some owners of the 2025 and 2026 Rivian R1S and R1T are finding out about this change, and they’re understandably not happy about it, especially if kids travel in the back. It would be close to impossible to access the release cables for an adult in an emergency, let alone a child. So owners are jerry-rigging the manual releases to ensure that people can safely exit the vehicle anytime.
“I’m a Rivian fan and supporter, but the current rear door manual latch design in the Gen-2 vehicles is a huge miss,” said dublew_dubs, a Reddit user who posted a do-it-yourself guide on how to add a paracord to the manual release cord inside the door panel. “In an emergency, it’s very hard to access. The trim panel takes a lot of force to remove, needs a pry tool (at least in my case), and even after removal, the release cord sits deep inside the door. I don’t see how anyone–especially kids–could realistically access this.”
Another member of the Rivian subreddit, who goes by the AlsonCentral handle, posted another guide, where they used a steel cable, a small carabiner and a metal ring to extend the door release.
“We showed our kids and made them solemnly promise not to use it except in an emergency, because it can open the door even when you’re going 70 mph,” the Rivian owner said at the end of his post.
Other users who commented on the two DIY guides said that a window smasher has found a permanent place in their vehicles, just in case they need to exit in an emergency. It’s a similar story for some Tesla owners, too, as this Bloomberg story showcases. After going through traumatizing experiences, some parents who used to drive their kids in Teslas bought other cars that have traditional door releases inside.
For what it’s worth, both Tesla and Rivian said they would redesign the emergency release mechanisms for their upcoming cars. Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s design chief, said that the company was looking to combine the electronic and manual releases into a single mechanism, while Rivian said the upcoming R2 SUV would feature redesigned door handles.
The stance change comes after many instances where owners have been trapped inside their vehicles after a crash. Earlier this year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened a preliminary investigation into Tesla’s door handles, which operate electronically, to see if they constitute a safety defect. More Stories Like This We want your opinion! What would you like to see on Insideevs.com? – The InsideEVs team
