NHTSA complaint #11473454

Owner complaint summary

Safety Issue 2022 Hyundai Tucson: All cars I have previously owned had a safety feature that alerted me through a continuous dinging or beeping sound immediately if a door was left open and the car was put into gear. I unknowingly became reliant on this feature because I have young children that sit in the back seat. If I did not see that a door was open, the car would alert me through sound before I could drive off with a door open. The Hyundai Tucson only has this safety feature for the driver’s door, but not for the passenger door, rear doors or lift gate. While the small screen in front of the steering wheel shows a visual that a door is open, an alert beeping sound does not happen. The incident: My two children got into the back seat and I was already in the car. I thought I heard both doors shut but I did not turn around to check. I put the car into reverse and immediately looked at the backup monitor and did not look at the screen behind the steering wheel. There were no indications on the back up monitor or any audio alerts to indicate anything was wrong. I slowly backed up at 1 to 2 mph just taking my foot off the brake to exit my garage. Then the car was jolted to a stop and I put on the brake. When I looked behind me, I saw the driver’s side rear door was jammed into the side of the garage because my son had not closed the car door all the way. The door frame was slightly bent and about 6 inches of metal bent inward almost an inch by the latch so it could not shut. Luckily my son had his seatbelt on when this happened and was not injured. I think an auditory alert is a necessary safety feature on ALL doors (not just the driver door) to prevent this or something worse from happening. I assumed this was a standard safety feature on all cars to prevent people from falling out of cars and losing car doors while driving. I did take the car to the dealership to see if it was a setting issue, but they determined this is how the car was designed.