On a hot day in Scottsdale, Arizona, Grandma Renee Sanchez was planning to take her 20-month-old granddaughter to the Phoenix Zoo.
However, the trip quickly turned into a nightmare when Renee's Tesla suddenly malfunctioned and trapped the toddler inside.
Grandmother freaks out after defective Tesla locked up toddler in sweltering car
According to Renee, as soon as she closed the car door to put the child in, the car's electric door locks suddenly stopped working, leaving her unable to open the door again.
Renee quickly tried calling for help and using the smart key, but nothing worked. While she called the fire department, the child was suffering in the sweltering heat inside the car.
When the fire crew arrived, they immediately recognized it was a Tesla and knew they couldn't simply open the doors.
However, they sprang into action, using an ax to break the window and rescue the child. Luckily, the toddler was only frightened but unharmed.
After the child was freed, Renee was furious about the Tesla's system failure.
She emphasized that if the firefighters hadn't responded so quickly, the consequences could have been tragic.
'I closed the door, went around the car, get in the front seat, and my car was dead. I could not get in. My phone key wouldn't open it. My car key wouldn't open it,' she frighteningly recalled.
In a similar case, a Tesla owner was also trapped in her vehicle for 40 minutes while the car was updating its software.
Brianna Janel, a Tesla owner, explained that the car's update was only supposed to take 24 minutes, shorter than the usual 30 minutes.
However, the update process left her stuck inside the car, unable to open the doors or windows out of concern for potential damage.
Brianna was sweating profusely and worried about running out of air. She couldn't access her Chick-fil-A order that had been ready for 30 minutes.
After the unexpected incident, Brianna shared a video on TikTok, advising other Tesla owners not to update their cars while inside the vehicle.
She emphasized the need to do software updates at 2 AM instead.
In another case, a woman in Arizona was trapped inside her Tesla after the car's battery died, even though it was fully charged at the time.
When she got into the car and closed the door, all of the vehicle's functions shut down, and she couldn't open the windows or unlock the doors, leaving her trapped inside.
She tried to find the owner's manual to figure out how to get out but was unable to open the glove compartment to retrieve it.
She then called a friend for help, but they also couldn't find a way to get her out of the vehicle.
The woman eventually contacted Tesla's emergency roadside assistance, and they informed her about a 'secret latch' inside the car door that would allow her to exit.
She described the experience as scary and very unnerving.
The woman believes that Tesla should provide more detailed information about this safety feature to its drivers.
She also suggested that when a Tesla's battery dies, the doors and windows should automatically unlock, rather than locking the occupant inside.
