Our 5 day old Tesla X today while entering a parking stall suddenly and unexpectedly accelerated at high speed on its own climbing over 39 feet of planters and crashing into a building.
The airbags deployed and my wife's arms have burn marks as a consequence.
This could have easily been a fatal accident if the car's wheels were not turned slightly to the left. If they were straight, it would have gone over the planters and crashed into the store in front of the parking stall and injured or killed the patrons
The acceleration was uncontrollable, seemed maximum and the car only stopped because it hit the building and caused massive damage to the building.
This is a major problem and Tesla should stop deliveries and investigate the cause of this serious accident.
Tesla roadside assistance, who was my only contact, asked us to tow the car to AAA storage facility.
If anyone has had similar experiences, contact me at Puzant@pricon.com
and you're posting it here and not talking to the NTSB why? or calling Tesla?
you realize the forums have _NO_ power - right?
I call spoof.
I googled it. It's not there. Ha!
"at yo speed"? That's what caused the accident.
I don't buy it...something like this would have made major headlines...The car just decided to suddenly drive itself???
I oarked twice and it was messy.... had to game a shower.
I've contacted Tesla, this happened this afternoon. I am happy to send pictures since I cannot post them here.
The reason I am posting is because, my delivery consultant referred me to Tesla roadside assistance, who in turn said someone would contact me, however I have not heard from Tesla. I am trying to bring some attention to this problem.
I will be calling Tesla corporate in the morning since i could not find and telephone numbers to call to report problems.
Sales
Toll free: (888) 51-TESLA or (888) 518-3752
Local: (650) 681-5100
Fax: (650) 681-5101
NASales@tesla.com
Tech Support & Roadside Assistance
Toll free: (877) 79-TESLA or (877) 798-3752 Local Service Center: (844) 248-3752
Phone numbers for other countries
ServiceHelpNA@tesla.com
Safety recall information
Puzant...if you'd like to show the pics here....go to imgur.com and upload them there....then either post the links here...or if you would like to post the pics... use the following:
(img src="enter url here" )
Replace the circular brackets with < and >
Make sure you use the "Direct link" that ends with ".jpg" ".png" etc. for the URL you enter above.
By the way, I did contact NTSB, they told me to contact National HighwayTraffic Sagety Administration. I call them and they were closed today. I will call again tomorrow.
You should be calling the police and file a police report, not posting here.
Sorry this happened to you and glad everyone is safe and hopefully you guys figure out what exactly happened.
So are you saying the car was auto-parking itself at the time (which I believe is only possible in reverse), or it was being driven by a human and just being parked? Pics please, per instructions above.
Here are the pics
http://imgur.com/a/MN8Et
The car was being driven and slowly being parked when it uncontrollably accelerated.
Thanks socalsam, luckily no one was hurt too badly beside the burns from airbags. Police report has been filed.
That seems like a bad accident...insides look untouched! Glad no one got hurt.
Still, the story behind how it happened seems off...so...it was "human driven" at the time...while slowly parking....the car on its own accelerated?
If that did happen....that is a serious issue....however...I just don't understand how that could have happened...
That is the question I want Tesla to answer. A software glitch or a computer malfunction, either way the results could have been much worse and needs to be fully investigated.
That is the question I want Tesla to answer. A software glitch or a computer malfunction, either way the results could have been much worse and needs to be fully investigated.
I don't know what happened but man that sucks. Glad no one is hurt and I hope you get to the bottom of this.
Y'all sure are hard on the guy, wait to see what really happened before passing judgement.. He came to the forum to share his story not to get his head chopped off , I'm sure he feels bad enough already, Thankfully no one was seriously injured
:speculation_on:
So, we know the car was not auto-parking - it was being human driven, since auto-park is in reverse and this is a forward impact.
So....maybe when trying cancel a turn signal from turning left into that spot (direction of crash), driver inadvertently hit "up" on the cruise control / TACC /auto-pilot bottom lever when trying to hit "up" on the top stalk. That's the only thing I can thing of (besides actually hitting the accelerator) that could do this, if the car is operating properly*. Hopefully that kind of information can be gathered from logs, which I understand are quite detailed.
:speculation_off:
I thought of that. That's not possible since autopilot will not engage at speeds less than 18 mph, since the car was being parked at about 3 to 5 mph it's impossible, plus it should have sensed the building and stopped.
Today I was coming to a stop to make a right turn on red and the car suddenly accelerated I'm thinking instead of pushing the lever for the turn signal I may have put it in cruise control I was able to brake and the car stopped .. Maybe something like that could have happened. Or maybe it did a CAMRY from a few years ago and accelerated on his own..Whatever occurred will be found out..
Glad no one was injured... Please delete your duplicate thread. Instructions can be found here:
https://forums.teslamotors.com/forum/forums/owners-manual-companion-0#using
Thanks for posting the pictures. I deleted the duplicate.
this is a manual parking job? could you have hit the resume cruise control command stalk while you were turning the steering wheel?
It only works above 18mph and only if the path is clear. The car was traveling much slower, almost parked and the building was in the path.
It only works above 18mph and only if the path is clear. The car was traveling much slower, almost parked and the building was in the path.
@puzant: I'm glad you guys were not seriously hurt. Sorry about your car. :(
First and foremost, I'm very glad no one was badly injured. You have got to be in shock after this.
I trust you reported the facts as you experienced them. I'm not saying this actually was the case here - this looks similar to accidents where people got confused and mistakenly stomped on the accelerator instead of the brake.
Hopefully the investigation will determine the exact chain of events. Sorry about the car, especially after such a long wait.
Thanks.
Thanks.
I wasn't aware of the 18 mph thing for cruise control / TACC resume. I'll have to try that out now to verify. I know that you can enable auto-pilot (with a double pull) below 18 mph for sure (I am sure that I have done it at about 3 to 5mph), but have not tried just cruise/TACC resume.
I have been wondering why the new autopilot/TACC stalk doesn't have an enable/disable switch altogether. In the older, pre-AP-hardware cars with the stalks reversed, cruise control has to first be enabled by pushing in on the end of the stalk, and a light indicates it is enabled. Only when enabled can you set/resume, so an accidental up/down does nothing. I'm in the habit of keeping it disabled unless I'm on the highway and it's actually on.
Sounds like that may be irrelevant to this situation, but now I'm even more curious.
Done with prius and now onto tesla
Sorry about the crash. This is a puzzle. Two things need to be explained.
1. Cause of the unwanted acceleration.
Possibilities: software/hardware malfunction or driver error. Car log may help.
2. Why did car not stop before hitting the buildings?
Possibilities: automated emergency braking did not activate and driver did not hit brakes or automated emergency braking did activate to reduce the force of impact while the driver failed to hit the brakes.
In my limited experience with crashes of this sort the cause in other cases has been driver confusion, hitting the accelerator rather than the brakes. In all three cases that I recall the driver's were quite elderly: over 80. This does not appear to be the case here.
My feeling is that the findings will point to driver error but a thorough investigation needs to be conducted to rule out car malfunction, if this is what happened.
"A software glitch or a computer malfunction"
Brain glitch or a human malfunction. This type of accident happens many times every day in every make of vehicle. There is no reason to blame the X.
Glad no one was seriously hurt.
@george:
The brakes would not work as the front wheels were either off the ground or on grass (slippery surface). Once such a large mass is at speed, stopping it needs enough grip - clearly not the case here.
as much as I hope tesla rips this story to shreds with vehicle logs, I really hope it doesn't happen to me when I get my Model 3 :/
@Puzant
I am very sorry this happened to you and am thankful that your wife's injuries were minor. I cannot begin to imagine how traumatic this must have been for both of you. You have my deepest sympathy.
In addition to the other possibilities already mentioned it is conceivable but extremely unlikely that the car was hacked. In the event that the explanation you receive from Tesla does not match what you know to be true then it might be worth exploring this remote possibility. Unfortunately there are miscreants out there who do these sorts of things either for financial gain or for the challenge of it.
I also recommend that you brace yourself for an onslaught of media attention. I predict this story is going to receive wide attention (almost certain now that pictures are posted). Many will question your motives, insist you caused the accident before the facts are known, and label you in all manner of unkind ways. I hope I am wrong about this. My advice would be to wait until consulting with Tesla about their findings before talking with the media. If Tesla is not cooperative or appears to be hiding something then I would escalate by involving the press.
Based on what I have read so far, I see no reason to doubt the veracity of your statements. If the crash is determined to have been caused by a SW defect then we will all have you to thank for finding it. If it is determined to be driver error then we will all breathe a sigh of relief. In that case, I hope we as a community can come together and be supportive of you as you deal with the aftermath.
Reading the post, I expected to see a vehicle with the mass of the X embedded in the building. The damage to the building and car that I see is not "massive."
@Greg, still totaled and potentially fatal.
@Greg, still totaled and potentially fatal.
@Puzant
One of things that is different about driving a car with regenerative braking is that you rarely need to use the brakes. As a result your foot is almost always positioned over the gas pedal. After a lifetime of driving we are conditioned to put our foot on the brakes when entering a parking space and preparing to stop. It is easy to imagine how you might have lifted your foot off the accelerator, experience the braking effect, and from years of preconditioning assumed your foot was in the right place to apply the brakes bringing the car to a complete stop.
I am not saying this happened. I am just offering the suggestion for you to replay in your memory.
Lets see what we can find out and conclude about this incident. The author appears to be Puzant Ozbag, the president and ceo of Pricon, inc. in Anaheim, California. I assumed the incident did occur even before we got pictures because of the person who started this topic. Now the question is was it driver error, sofrware error, or an intentional act. If is was software or model x error, the driver should have applied the brakes really hard. This may not have stopped the car but should have left enough evidence on the brake pads to indicate that the driver made every effort to stop the car. If the is no such evidence then things get suspicious. Why didn't the driver shift the car into neutral and apply the brakes? If the incident was intentional then the brakes were not applied and a good csi investigator should be able to determine this. Could Mr. Ozbag, being the ceo of a technologies company have a disgruntled employee that sabotaged his cars software? At this point we cannot conclude anything and need to sit back and see what a through investigation concludes.
@Puzant Please add my sympathies and well wishes to all the above.
@c3 Hacking? - Very unlikely. Tesla, along with other manufactures were subjected to hacking by a white hat group. Recommendations followed. Tesla did have some area to shore up, BUT the ONLY way the group was able to hack the Tesla was to have physical contact with the vehicle. i.e. they had to be connected to the car via a cable. So hacking is highly unlikely. None of the other manufactures fared as well as Tesla in these tests/investigation.
I'm not at all sure about the 18 mph limit. Might be true but I had thought I had engaged AP at lower speeds. Will test.
The most likely causes are either human error or activation of the cruise control.
The way cruise control works in the X is different that our Model S. In the Model S you have the ability to turn Cruise off by pressing in on the cruise stalk. This feature is not present in the X. So in the S if you turn it off then no matter what you do the the cruise stalk (san pushing it in and turning back on) nothing will happen. However in the X there is no way to turn the cruise off (at least not that I'm aware of) and thus if you inadvertently press on the cruise stalk you can indeed engage it. I hope this is something Tesla looks at and fixes on future Xes regardless of the outcome of this investigation.
Puzant, please keep us informed. Best of luck.
My other 3 cars have the cruise control buttons on the steering wheel. It is less prone to accidental activation. I have mistaken the cruise control stalk for the turn signal. This happened after driving a Model S where the two controls are transposed.
It looks to me that this poor person pressed the accelerator instead of the Brake...Probably s/he may have the performance version of Model X...they way s/he explains the acceleration ...
This reminds me of a person who drove the car into the store : http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Car-Crashes-Into-Sunnyvale-Health-S...
...Lynn’s husband, who was trapped by the car, was taken to the hospital, but was not seriously hurt. The people in the car were not hurt either.
....The driver reportedly mistook the gas pedal for the brake pedal.
Key learning - Read the manual ..Glad all are okay ...
@jss
I believe the statement I made was "extremely unlikely" but I will also agree with your "very unlikely" :-)
I'm sorry for your accident and I hope your wife recovers quickly.
We do see this from time to time, but we haven't seen it actually be a fault of the vehicle. Tesla does track the pedal positions. I'm not sure why you think it was the vehicle's fault. Most of the time this is the driver's fault, which I know is a difficult thing to hear, but it is the truth.
Note that in 40 feet, a Model X P90D can hit over 30 mph at maximum acceleration. That hit does not look like a 30 mph impact, it looks pretty low speed actually. The construction of that corner of the building looks like mostly timber framing. If the vehicle took out a cement block wall on the other hand, then it would be a pretty big impact.
The first thing to learn about a Model S or X is that letting go all pedals allows regenerative braking to kick in... so if you have the wrong pedal depressed, letting all pedals go will let the car slow down. Then calmly press the right pedal. Every new owner should practice that in a parking lot, as well as get a good feel for the acceleration pedal.
I'd assume Tesla should pretty easily be able to pull logs from the computer to see what happened whether it be a computer glitch or if the accelerator was pressed. From what i could gather, it appears to be driver error. If the car was under full acceleration, it would be inside that building.
I'm quite curious, and since my car is in the shop, can somebody with an X try the following with the TACC lever (in a safe place)?
- Set TACC to 45 mph (not auto-pilot, just TACC) by pushing up slightly on the stalk at speed.
- Verify that TACC pauses when you hit the brake. Slow to 20 mph and verify that it accelerates if you pull the lever toward you (the normal resume command)
- Brake and slow to 10mph, then pull the lever toward you (in a safe place). Does it resume?
- Do the same but slowing to 5mph and 3mph.
- Now...try the same exercise but instead of pulling the lever toward you, try pushing the lever up at each of the two detents (1mph and 5mph). Is it the same or different behavior? (I'm not sure myself - I know pulling the lever is a resume command, but pushing up on the lever seems to vary between "set speed" and "increment speed")
Why didn't car hit brakes on it's own? Surely it saw the building.
I could totally see myself hitting the wrong stalk for the turn signal as it's backwards on my model S. In fact I did it when test driving an X this weekend. Nothing happened though but this was at the start of the drive though when auto pilot had not been set at any point yet.
Don't you have to double pull the stalk to re-engage autopilot after disengaging?
Someone here should try to re-engage auto pilot when parking (for scientific purposes it would be best with a building and some planters in front of the parking spot but I'm not sure how many takers we will get. )
Pages