Crunch! Falcon Wing Doors fail to sense obstacle

[Tozla]

Looking at @Tozla 's picture, I would probably only open the driver side falcon door if possible. It should open very low profile, but hopefully there is no one parked to the left of her spot.

We are located in Australia sir. The driver side is on the right.

Yeah I would not recommend that my wife open the doors with cars right next to her. All videos I have seen of the FWD opening in situations where cars are right next to each other have the door opening straight up then out. Our situation needs them to open out and not so much up.

Luckily out home garage ceiling is huge.

 

[Tozla]

How good are the sensors in recognizing/detecting street signs (and other suburban obstacles like trash cans and trees/plants when parking on the street? I imagine that that would be a common everyday issue with the FWD.

 

[CmdrThor]

We are located in Australia sir. The driver side is on the right.

Yeah I would not recommend that my wife open the doors with cars right next to her. All videos I have seen of the FWD opening in situations where cars are right next to each other have the door opening straight up then out. Our situation needs them to open out and not so much up.

Luckily out home garage ceiling is huge.

Lol, I didn't even look at your location when I posted. I was originally going to say on the left side, but changed it to driver's to try to be more clear. Oops.

How good are the sensors in recognizing/detecting street signs (and other suburban obstacles like trash cans and trees/plants when parking on the street? I imagine that that would be a common everyday issue with the FWD.

The side sensor is in the falcon wing door. If there are thin obstacles on the street like a tree or sign, I would stand next to the obstacle directly in front of the falcon door to allow it to detect you at the same distance as the obstacle. Plus if things seem like they are going bad you can always stick your hand out and stop the door.

 

[Tozla]

Can the FWD be "forced" open or closed?

 

[CmdrThor]

Can the FWD be "forced" open or closed?

Yes. Holding either the open/close switch in the second row or the button on the touch screen will result in a loud beep and then the doors will open or close on your command. I would assume once they actually hit an obstacle they might stop, but I've never gotten that far.

 

[ohmman]

Regarding street signs, we've had our door hit a sign and get scratched. It was the very back portion of the door. My son continues to be afraid to open the doors when we're parked streetside.

One other important note is that the on-screen graphic will show either a "fully open" icon or a "restricted open" icon for the doors, depending on what it senses. Your wife could use that as guidance.

I'd wait until you have the car before stressing out about this edge case. You'll figure it out rapidly once you have it.

 

[Tozla]

Yes. Holding either the open/close switch in the second row or the button on the touch screen will result in a loud beep and then the doors will open or close on your command. I would assume once they actually hit an obstacle they might stop, but I've never gotten that far.

I meant opened by hand.

 

[CmdrThor]

@ohmman is right that this is an edge case. I've had two impacts with my doors. One was with a front door that went crazy and hit the side view mirror of my LEAF parked next to my X in my garage. The other was a bizarre impact of my passenger side front door and Falcon Wing Door. Both instances only involved damage to the paint protection film I had installed and Tesla took care of the cost of replacing. I definitely recommend getting paint protection film installed on the full front and all doors of your Model X.

 

[Tozla]

Regarding street signs, we've had our door hit a sign and get scratched. It was the very back portion of the door. My son continues to be afraid to open the doors when we're parked streetside.

One other important note is that the on-screen graphic will show either a "fully open" icon or a "restricted open" icon for the doors, depending on what it senses. Your wife could use that as guidance.

I'd wait until you have the car before stressing out about this edge case. You'll figure it out rapidly once you have it.

Thank you for your comments. Yeah I'll be doing a lot of testing in the wide open spaces of my garage before opening in the wild.

 

[CmdrThor]

I meant opened by hand.

I had never tried before, but yes to a certain extant you can open the falcon wing doors by hand. But you can not open them 100% by hand. At some point the door resists manually opening. As far as I know using the buttons/switches will cause the doors to open until impact.

 

[Tozla]

I had never tried before, but yes to a certain extant you can open the falcon wing doors by hand. But you can not open them 100% by hand. At some point the door resists manually opening. As far as I know using the buttons/switches will cause the doors to open until impact.

That's what I'm trying to avoid.

 

[vandacca]

Try geofencing her work parking space to automatically set the suspension to Very Low. Then do a test in the garage, standing outside the car. Open the FWD, but be prepared to override it if it looks like it is not sensing the beam.
Because the beam looks large, I think you'll find that the doors will work, but will only open 2/3 to 3/4 of full open. This is still enough to get in and out.

I didn't know you could geofence very low? I thought just high and very high geofenced.

Looking at @Tozla 's picture, I would probably only open the driver side falcon door if possible. It should open very low profile, but hopefully there is no one parked to the left of her spot.

@CmdrThor is correct, you can only GeoFence High and Very High, which is a real shame. I've sent Tesla a request to include Low and Very Low, but still waiting.

 

[Solarman004]

@CmdrThor is correct, you can only GeoFence High and Very High, which is a real shame. I've sent Tesla a request to include Low and Very Low, but still waiting.

@CmdrThor , @vandacca You are correct... I tested this today and there is no option to geofence Low and Very Low like I had done with High.
Thank you for correcting my error.
I still believe that OP's car will sense the massive beam in the photo and stop before fully opening. I've had my car detect much smaller overhead obstacles.

 

[martinicus]

PSA: Watch out for hanging cords from your garage door. This little red handle managed to get itself stuck in the top glass while it was closing; the door closed fully and cracked the door's roof glass.

Thankfully, the replacement glass is only $400, and the SC is able to install it next week. So not too expensive a lesson.

 

[rallykeeper]

PSA: Watch out for hanging cords from your garage door. This little red handle managed to get itself stuck in the top glass while it was closing; the door closed fully and cracked the door's roof glass.

Thankfully, the replacement glass is only $400, and the SC is able to install it next week. So not too expensive a lesson.

Hmm.

I think I had something very similar happen this weekend. Long story, but caught an obstruction on closing and glass cracked -- though in my case the FWD never actually closed. Until your post, I was puzzled as to how the crack could have happened.

Is the FWD now closing so forcefully that if it hits an obstruction it will continue to push hard enough to crack the glass?

What happens if it caught a limb?

 

[martinicus]

Hmm.

I think I had something very similar happen this weekend. Long story, but caught an obstruction on closing and glass cracked -- though in my case the FWD never actually closed. Until your post, I was puzzled as to how the crack could have happened.

Is the FWD now closing so forcefully that if it hits an obstruction it will continue to push hard enough to crack the glass?

What happens if it caught a limb?

Yea the thought of a finger in the top is frightening. There were some YouTube videos someone claiming a safety hazard after some top sensors were disabled, not sure how valid they were.

 

[Electroman]

Interesting that very same thing happened to my Lexus tailgate yesterday where the red thing got tangled in the rear wipers with the gate in open position. Luckily two things happened:

- Since that chord dangling from the garage door is precisely there to stop the mechanism when you pull it, it did its job and stopped the garage door instantly from opening.

- I then foolishly tried to close the car tail gate without realizing what had happened. But this time the car sensing some pressure stopped and then retracted back.

No damage done.

And all this after 10 years I never got into this trouble with that car parked daily in the same location, until yesterday.

 

[Tozla]

Why did the FWD open fully with snow covering the top sensors?

 

[ohmman]

Why did the FWD open fully with snow covering the top sensors?

Top sensor (single). And I'm assuming it could sense through the snow layer.