A toddler in Arizona was trapped in a Tesla in scorching temperatures when the vehicle’s battery died.
Renee Sanchez said her granddaughter got locked in the car after putting her in the carseat and going around to the drivers side.
“My car was dead,” Sanchez told AZFamily. “I could not get in. My phone key wouldn’t open it. My card key wouldn’t open it.”
“When that battery goes, you’re dead in the water,” she said.
The Tesla service department confirmed that Sanchez did not receive any alerts that her battery was about to die, even though the vehicles are supposed to give the driver three warnings.
According to AZFamily, there is a way for Tesla owners to unlock their cars if they become locked, “but it’s a complicated series of time-consuming steps involving wires and battery chargers.”
“They need to educate the first responders because they had no idea,” Sanchez said. “They were as much in the dark as I was.”
“The first thing they said was, ‘Uggh, it’s a Tesla. We can’t get in these cars,’” she continued. “And I said, ‘I don’t care if you have to cut my car in half. Just get her out.’”
“She was OK for the first few minutes,” she told the outlet. “But as soon as the firemen came and all the commotion started and the windows getting broken into, she started crying because she was scared.”
A firefighter eventually was able to get the young child out of the car.
“After I knew she was safe, then the anger,” Sanchez said. “Then, all the thoughts of, oh my God, this could have been so much worse.”
“I give Tesla props. When it works, it’s great. But when it doesn’t, it can be deadly,” she said.
