Congress Is Coming For Pop-Out Door Handles—The Feature Nobody Asked To Regulate
A congressional bill just landed to regulate electronic and pop-out door handles on new cars, treating a design trend as a safety issue. The move targets the exact kind of theatrical hardware that Tesla, BMW, and others leaned into as differentiation. If it passes, you're looking at a hard reset on how manufacturers approach entry systems—function over form, cost over character.
The government finally found something to regulate that actually exists, but for the wrong reason. Pop-outs aren't the problem. Legislation written by people who've never owned a car they cared about is.
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