Aptera fixes infamous opening door safety issue by simply recessing a button

It's that time of month again when Aptera releases its latest newsletter. This one focuses on a hilarious yet embarrassing event that occurred during the Automotive X Prize Shakedown Stage last month. Perhaps appropriately termed, the Shakedown Stage nearly shook the door right off of the Aptera 2e, or so it appeared. Aptera has announced a fix for this door-swinging-open-for-no-apparent-reason problem that plagued the team during the competition. According to Aptera, the opening door can be attributed to poor design of the release mechanism and driver carelessness. Aptera has redesigned the release mechanism by recessing the push button into the door panel so that it cannot be inadvertently hit any more. Now that's ingenuity at work. As Aptera stated:

This is a rather embarrassing way to learn a lesson on design, but we learned nonetheless...The good news is the team has redesigned the door trim panels so this shouldn't happen again.

Aptera is also focusing on removing additional weight from the latest 2e prototype. The "notably overweight" prototype performed poorly during the X Prize's accident avoidance test, indicating that something was still wrong with the vehicle. Aptera hopes to work out any remaining issues and finalize a production-intent design soon, as any more setbacks seem sure to delay the launch yet again.

[Source: Aptera]