Woman Learns About Frozen Tesla Door Handle's Unlatch Feature

An Ontario woman who found her Tesla Model 3 doors frozen shut on December 23 learned from an abundance of Twitter replies that the electric car’s doors can be unlatched through its app.

This video of Rachel Modestino of Oakville, Ontario, pressing an icy door handle to get into her vehicle – along with the caption “@elonmusk bet ya didn’t think of ice in the Tesla design” – was viewed more than four million times and received more than four thousand comments.

Modestino told Storyful that she had been defrosting the car for 30 minutes when she “attempted to pry open the aerodynamic door handle,” but eventually managed to get into the car through the back.

After posting the video, she later tweeted, “I’ve done it! Just needed an app update and to walk through Twitter fire but more Ws from here on out.”

Modestino told Storyful that “constantly having to learn” about updates was part of the reason she chose the car. Credit: Rachel Modestino via Storyful

Video transcript

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