Four Passengers Die in Burning Tesla After Electronic Doors Seemingly Won't Open

1. Not all Teslas have mechanical latches on all doors. Specifically some Model Ys don't have them on the rear doors, apparently. (This is addressed in the article.) ¹
2. The mechanical latches have often been panned on the safety front because they're inobviously located and operated. Point 4 addresses this further, but look at the instructions for the rear door in the Model Y in particular.¹ This is complex and confusing without panic and adrenaline. (This too was addressed in the article.)
3. Not everybody knows about the mechanical latches. While one could argue that the driver should know their vehicle, what makes you think the passengers are going to know this, especially given the poor placement of the latches. Especially given just how convoluted the rear door releases are. (This was also addressed in the article.)
4. When people are in mortal danger, figuring out complicated things, or remembering obscure things like where the manual release latches are, is not going to happen. If the control to open the door isn't open, obvious, and in your face, you will not remember it unless you've been specifically trained to have this in your immediate-recall memory. That's why pilots of aircraft spend so much time drilling the same thing over and over again. Or people in militaries. Or people in emergency services like fire departments. (This was addressed in the article as well.)

¹ From https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/modely/en_us/GUID-AAD769C7-88A3-4695-987E-0E00025F64E0.html "Not all Model Y vehicles are equipped with a manual release for the rear doors."

Moreover, with the Model Y in particular, not all vehicles come with manual releases for the rear doors, as Tesla warns in the car's manual. It's unclear if the Model Y involved in the crash was equipped with the emergency feature.

from the article

They were too preoccupied with dying in a fire to pull out and read the owners manual.