A Scottsdale woman says her granddaughter got trapped inside a Tesla when the car's battery died.
Renee Sanchez says she’s a big fan of Tesla, but what happened to her recently has changed her mind. The Scottsdale grandmother tells On Your Side that she loaded her 20-month-old granddaughter into her car seat for a trip to the Phoenix Zoo. “And I closed the door, went around the car, get in the front seat, and my car was dead,” she said. “I could not get in. My phone key wouldn’t open it. My card key wouldn’t open it.” As On Your Side explained in a recent report, when the Tesla battery that operates electronics dies, a hidden latch on the driver’s side armrest will manually unlock the door. Many Tesla owners don’t know about this latch. But in this case, Sanchez was stuck outside of her Tesla while the toddler was trapped inside, buckled into a car seat. Sanchez tells On Your Side she had no option but to call 911, which immediately sent out Scottsdale firefighters. “And when they got here, the first thing they said was, ‘Uggh, it’s a Tesla. We can’t get in these cars,’” she said. “And I said, ‘I don’t care if you have to cut my car in half. Just get her out.’”
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