Yes, that must be it... they didn't think to break a window.

Many modern cars use laminated glass on their side windows now and, as far as I'm aware, this model has doors that won't open from the outside without power, making them very difficult to break open without tools even when the vehicle isn't on fire. 20 minutes in to the Tesla burning, when it was already sitting on top of a bomb of a battery... you're beyond fucked at that point. Difficult to just put the fire out for responders, a rescue was over about 15 minutes prior.

Thanks for serving a side of snark while teaching others.

I fucking hate cars, so this is a shit design feature (coming from a design engineer myself).

All the best lessons come with some sass, but on a serious note, I'd hate to think of how someone who had powerlessly watched a person burn to death would feel about seeing people second guess their actions. You would feel awful enough already.

Laminated windows are great for a lot of things (e.g. sound dampening), getting in to/out of the vehicle rapidly is definitely not one of them. The inability to unlock without power is just a chefs kiss though, obviously.