New York, New York - American auto safety officials have opened a preliminary investigation into Tesla's door design following a complaint from a driver who said poor labeling worsened an emergency, authorities said this week.

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration received a petition from a customer who said the mechanical release on his 2022 Tesla Model 3 was "hidden, unlabeled, and not intuitive to locate during an emergency" in which the electric system failed, the agency said.

"A defect petition has been opened to evaluate the issue and determine whether to grant or deny the petition," NHTSA said in a public notice on December 23.

The action comes on the heels of recent news reports spotlighting cases where people became trapped in burning vehicles after an accident in which Tesla's electric-run door system went down, and they were unable to find a manual release.

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Bloomberg identified "at least" 15 fatalities "in which occupants or rescuers were unable to open the doors of a Tesla that had crashed and caught fire," according to a report this week.

Tesla didn't respond immediately to a query from AFP or to Bloomberg's request for comment.

But Bloomberg cited September remarks from a Tesla executive who said the company was working on a redesign of its door handle system.

Tesla's website includes a diagram of the manual door release, which is located near the window switches.

The NHTSA disclosed the complainant as Kevin Clouse, who survived after an emergency and fire, escaping by breaking a rear window with a witness helping to pull him out, Clouse told an Atlanta local television news show.