The opening of the doors inside of a Tesla Model 3 is not trivial for the first time users. New passengers often wonder on how to open doors on Model 3. Well, there are two ways to open the doors from inside.
The correct way on Model 3 to open doors from inside is to always use the open door button, marked with a green check mark.
However, this button is not so obvious in year 2018-2020 models. There are some stickers that you can purchase to make it more obvious. For 2021 models and above, Tesla has changed the open icon to make it more intuitive.
What is that second door latch to open the door?
In addition, the latch marked with “x” also opens the door on Model 3. But, you should not use this to open the door. This is strictly for emergency purposes. For example, to get out when there is absolutely no charge left in the battery. Or the button has stopped working after a collision or just a random malfunction.
What if you use this latch to open doors daily? Well, I asked this question to a friend of mine who was a former Reliability Engineer at Tesla. This latch method of opening the doors should not be used on daily basis, he stated. They only conducted limited durability tests on it. You will damage by repeated use and will likely need a replacement.
Well now you know : )