I'm really sorry that this has to be my first post on this forum. I've been lurking outside of Tesla for years, afraid that if I joined in I'd get too involved and overextend myself trying to afford one... I'd been saving for seven years and finally had enough money put together to outright purchase a used 2015 Tesla Model S 85. Great car, we owned and enjoyed it for five days and then...
My wife was driving, in a parking lot, turning into a spot to park and get out, when the Tesla started accelerating on it's own! She stood on the brakes trying to get it to stop, but it would not, so she steered it to try to control as it accelerated and finally crashed into the side of the building. Even afterwards, when my wife was out of the car and the police and tow truck was there, the car was STILL trying to drive forwards.
The police were not too familiar with a Tesla so they did not know how to turn if off. My wife kept telling them "you have to walk away from the car" meaning take the fob away so the car will turn off. They took the fob all the way to the other side of the parking lot but the car would not turn off. They got into the car and found the menu option to turn it off, but it immediately turned back on and started trying to move forward again. When I arrived, I told them about the "fireman disconnect" wire on the front left side of the car (BTW Thank you to the forum about this! I had just learned about it the other day from a thread here when I was researching features on the 2015 Model S). The firemen had to use the "jaws of life" to pry up the hood (it drove *into* the building through a brick wall. My wife said it was going nearly 40 mph by the time it hit). Anyway, once they got the hood popped they cut that wire and the car finally stopped moving.
I thought I'd search the forum before posting this and found a bunch of posts so similar! In fact one was so much like mine:
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/sudden-unexpected-acceleration-today.114650/ I want to try to answer some anticipated replies:
Creep mode was on. My wife said she just took her foot off the brake and let creep mode move the car into the spot. At that time the car started accelerating on its own, she never touched a pedal. She remembers signalling her intention to turn into the spot so it's possible she accidentally engaged the auto pilot, she doesn't remember.
When the car started accelerating she put BOTH feet on the brake. She clearly remembers putting both feet on the brake and nearly standing up she was pressing so hard. So I don't believe she touched the accelerator at all.
I'm not posting here to bash the Tesla. I still love the car and I'd buy another one. I'm posting to ask some questions:
1. Why didn't the car stop when it detected something in front of it (like a brick wall)? Isn't there some sort of auto stop feature in the Tesla? I really don't know the features of the car that well.
2. Why would the car continue to try to accelerate after she left the vehicle? Why wouldn't it shut off? Why did it turn back on again when the police officer found the "Shut off" command in the menu?
3. Here's the question that will make all of you blame me: This is a salvage/previously totaled car that was repaired. It was purposely disconnected from Tesla so it wouldn't be blacklisted (I got this info from the private party I bought the car from). Do you know if Tesla will be able to extract the logs to find out what happened even though it's been "blocked"?
My wife was driving, in a parking lot, turning into a spot to park and get out, when the Tesla started accelerating on it's own! She stood on the brakes trying to get it to stop, but it would not, so she steered it to try to control as it accelerated and finally crashed into the side of the building. Even afterwards, when my wife was out of the car and the police and tow truck was there, the car was STILL trying to drive forwards.
The police were not too familiar with a Tesla so they did not know how to turn if off. My wife kept telling them "you have to walk away from the car" meaning take the fob away so the car will turn off. They took the fob all the way to the other side of the parking lot but the car would not turn off. They got into the car and found the menu option to turn it off, but it immediately turned back on and started trying to move forward again. When I arrived, I told them about the "fireman disconnect" wire on the front left side of the car (BTW Thank you to the forum about this! I had just learned about it the other day from a thread here when I was researching features on the 2015 Model S). The firemen had to use the "jaws of life" to pry up the hood (it drove *into* the building through a brick wall. My wife said it was going nearly 40 mph by the time it hit). Anyway, once they got the hood popped they cut that wire and the car finally stopped moving.
I thought I'd search the forum before posting this and found a bunch of posts so similar! In fact one was so much like mine:
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/sudden-unexpected-acceleration-today.114650/ I want to try to answer some anticipated replies:
Creep mode was on. My wife said she just took her foot off the brake and let creep mode move the car into the spot. At that time the car started accelerating on its own, she never touched a pedal. She remembers signalling her intention to turn into the spot so it's possible she accidentally engaged the auto pilot, she doesn't remember.
When the car started accelerating she put BOTH feet on the brake. She clearly remembers putting both feet on the brake and nearly standing up she was pressing so hard. So I don't believe she touched the accelerator at all.
I'm not posting here to bash the Tesla. I still love the car and I'd buy another one. I'm posting to ask some questions:
1. Why didn't the car stop when it detected something in front of it (like a brick wall)? Isn't there some sort of auto stop feature in the Tesla? I really don't know the features of the car that well.
2. Why would the car continue to try to accelerate after she left the vehicle? Why wouldn't it shut off? Why did it turn back on again when the police officer found the "Shut off" command in the menu?
3. Here's the question that will make all of you blame me: This is a salvage/previously totaled car that was repaired. It was purposely disconnected from Tesla so it wouldn't be blacklisted (I got this info from the private party I bought the car from). Do you know if Tesla will be able to extract the logs to find out what happened even though it's been "blocked"?