Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Crunch! Falcon Wing Doors fail to sense obstacle

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
I guess the honeymoon on my Model X is over :(

ModelX_FalWD_dmg1.jpg


ModelX_FalWD_dmg2.jpg ModelX_FalWD_dmg3.jpg ModelX_FalWD_dmg4.jpg ModelX_FalWD_dmg5.jpg ModelX_FalWD_dmg6.jpg
 
Again, not to beat a dead horse, but what a terrible, TERRIBLE idea those doors were. Time to abandon them now. They're gonna suck every dime out of Tesla (repairing/fixing them). They need to stop deliveries for a few months and retool. It hurts, but there's no sense in prolonging the misery. Every Model X that ships is more money wasted for Tesla.
 
Again, not to beat a dead horse, but what a terrible, TERRIBLE idea those doors were. Time to abandon them now. They're gonna suck every dime out of Tesla (repairing/fixing them). They need to stop deliveries for a few months and retool. It hurts, but there's no sense in prolonging the misery. Every Model X that ships is more money wasted for Tesla.

First off FoxXxy, it's sad that this happened and I hope Tesla does fix the damage free of charge since the door sensors did not work correctly, apparently.

That said, I really like the falcon wing doors and actually think that it would cost Tesla much more to redesign the Model X now than to fix the sensor issues. Tesla needs to ensure that both the top and sides of the door areas have excellent sensor coverage out to the correct distance so that these situations can be prevented. In addition, they should have sensor failure detection as well if they don't already have it, since I think that part would just be a software update.
 
Last edited:
If a passenger was exiting from inside, he/she probably wouldn't have seen the beam. And even if the passenger knew the beam was there, one would expect the falcon wing doors to work as advertised and not hit it. That wasn't just a thin pipe or rafter running across the ceiling; that was a large, substantial obstacle that the doors should have been able to avoid.

So he didn't think about it.

I'm pretty sure FoxXy is a "she" ;)
 
Why did you try to open your door under a huge beam?

I assume because the owner needed to access the car. The OP did nothing wrong as you should be able to open your door whenever you want. It looks like the parking position and beam location added up to the perfect storm of the sensor not detecting it. The owner has to have some faith that the doors will work as designed. Owner is not to blame here.
 
I agree that the doors were a terrible idea. Cool at first, but their drawbacks FAR outweigh their benefits.

Benefits - cool factor...um.. maybe you can fit into slightly smaller parking spaces?
Drawbacks - added cost, development time, no roof storage, snow on roof, lots of tech that will become troublesome, and accidents like these.

Benefits: easy access to the back. (The whole point of it.)
 
It would be tremendously expensive to redesign the Model X without these doors, and probably couldn't be done in less than two years.

It would not be possible to retrofit existing cars with doors of a different design.

Much more likely: better sensors and/or better software.

And maybe rubber moldings to absorb impacts, though this might cause the designer (and any owner with design sense) to lose the will to live.
 
Again, not to beat a dead horse, but what a terrible, TERRIBLE idea those doors were. Time to abandon them now. They're gonna suck every dime out of Tesla (repairing/fixing them). They need to stop deliveries for a few months and retool. It hurts, but there's no sense in prolonging the misery. Every Model X that ships is more money wasted for Tesla.

Sorry for the OP buy you're absolutely right. I like their look but they scare me. Always thought how is love the x with 5 normal doors!

 
  • Like
Reactions: Jake-R
Maybe the angle of the beam caused the sensor not detecting it. The sharper end caused the damage but other part of the beam might be still too far for the sensor to pick up.
My thought as well -- 90 degree angle exactly in the wrong place, split the radar beam and deflected it away from the receiver. This is basically how much of the F117 aircraft's stealth works.

I'm so sorry the the OP. I'd say make sure Tesla is aware of this incident as they should probably add a warning about unusual ceiling surfaces / angles (probably especially in underground garages, evil, sadistic parking garages).