Dead Tesla traps toddler in boiling hot car as electric doors fail: 'Cut the car in half, get her out!'
A frantic grandmother begged firefighters to save her 20-month-old granddaughter from a faulty Tesla after it imprisoned the toddler alone inside the car as temperatures rose on a scorching Arizona morning.
Renee Sanchez was about to set off for a day out at Phoenix Zoo with the little girl in her Tesla Model Y.
She had just strapped the baby into the back seat and shut the door on her when the battery that opens the doors of the electric vehicle died without warning at her home in Scottsdale.
'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.'
A trip to the zoo with her baby granddaughter turned into a nightmare for Renee Sanchez when her Tesla trapped the baby inside, and Sanchez outside
The frantic grandmother could only wave at the little girl as temperatures rose in the car
The child could only watch as her grandmother struggled to open the door before realizing that she had an emergency on her hands and called 911.
'And when they got here, the first thing they said was, 'Uggh, it's a Tesla. We can't get in these cars',' she told azfamily.com.
'And I said, 'I don't care if you have to cut my car in half. Just get her out'.'
The firefighters took an axe to the $45,000 car, taping over a window to stop glass flying onto the little girl before climbing in and pulling her to safety.
'She was OK for the first few minutes,' Sanchez said.
'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.'
'After I knew she was safe, then the anger.
'Then, all the thoughts of, oh my God, this could have been so much worse.'
The incident took place just hours after another woman was trapped in her 2021 Model Y by a battery problem across town in Phoenix where temperatures have reached 115 degrees in recent days.
'I don't care if you have to cut my car in half,' she told firefighters, 'Just get her out'.'
The Tesla Model Y retails at $45,000 and is supposed to offer drivers three warnings if the battery is about to fail
'It was fully charged,' Diane told the station.
'I unplugged the car, went to get in my car, shut the door, and everything just shut down. I couldn't open the windows. I couldn't unlock the doors. I was trapped.'
And she could not consult the user's manual to see if there was a solution because it was in the glove box which had also snapped shut.
With her phone in the car she was able to log onto to a Tesla app which revealed the existence of a little-known lever tucked away on the driver's side which allows the door to be opened from the inside.
But that was little use to Sanchez as she watched her granddaughter getting hotter and hotter while buckled in the child seat.
'When that battery goes, you're dead in the water,' she said.
Last month a Tesla owner was trapped for 40 minutes in 103 degree heat outside a Chic-Fil-A in Costa Mesa, California when she tried to update the car's system.
Brianna Janel feared she might run out of air as she was unable to roll down the windows.
The internal temperature had reached 115 degrees before the car let her out according to a video of her ordeal has been seen more than 30 million times since she posted it to TikTok.
'I literally made it out of my car. Look I'm sweating,' she said.
'The AC has never felt so good and I've never felt better. I feel like I just took a bath.'
In February this year the sister-in-law of Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell died when she could not free herself from a Tesla SUV she had driven into a pond on her 900-acre ranch in Texas.
It took first responders 24 minutes to reach Angela Chao at the remote spot west of Johnson City as the vehicle filled up with water.
A Tesla owner was left horrified after she got stuck in her Tesla when she tried to update the car's system in a Chic-Fil-A parking lot
In February Angela Chao, pictured her husband, venture capitalist Jim Breyer, died when she could not free herself from a Tesla SUV she had driven into a pond on her Texas ranch
Drivers wanting to open the door of a dead Tesla need to find a three-inch circle at the front of the car called a toe-cover, pull out the cables inside and connect them to a jump starter, just to open the hood.
If they get the hood open they can then access the 12V battery the powers the electronics and try to recharge it.
'They need to educate the first responders because they had no idea,' Sanchez said.
'They were as much in the dark as I was.
'I give Tesla props. When it works, it's great. But when it doesn't, it can be deadly.'
