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2015 Tesla Accelerated into a wall

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A lot of details missing here.

Same thing happened to me.
On Friday, March 15th at 1:05pm - coming home from Costco, came up the hill to my home, took my foot off the accelerator, car slows down as it always does (creep mode), getting ready to park it in front of the garage and touched the brake to put it in park. It accelerated so fast through the garage into the house. The car finally stopped by the wall it hit, I put it in park but the tires were still rotating; stopped when I opened the door and then motors then shut down.
Tesla would not return my calls until about one month later after posting all over facebook; also reported it to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). If you want to contact me, my email is [email protected].
How many people have to get hurt or killed by these malfunctions that Tesla will not acknowledge and always blame the driver?
Don't let all the bashing from people on this site bother you.

Did you get the crash data download? Can you prove you didn't have your foot on the accelerator? Did you remove your foot from whichever pedal it was on to then see that wheels were still turning? Once the car started accelerating, did you remove your foot and re-apply? Did you just let go? Or did you just push harder convinced your foot was on the brake?

As many of the participants in the thread point out, you really can't remember what you exactly did. But you are convinced that the car was at fault. It's the only way to rationalize the error you made. Sorry I can't believe your story.
 
First of all, that's not a brick wall, it's a just a stud wall, and no stronger than a stucco wall, you would find on any house. Second, If the car was going any where near 40 mph it would be through wall. So your wife's story does not reflect the evidence at all. I would say it hit the wall at closer to 10 mph or less.

That being said, I don't understand how the car could stop with that little of impact, if she was stomping on the accelerator. The car should have gone through the wall until it met something with strength, equal to the force, or got high centered. So I'm also not so sure about this wrong pedal theory, unless it was just for a spit second, but even then it would have to travel some distance to bring the speed back down enough to match the impact damage. Did she try to put on the turn signal, to turn into a space, then travel straight because of the acceleration? How far did the car travel from very slow or stop the the point of impact?
 
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I'm so sorry for the loss of your nearly "new" Model S, and I'm very happy your wife was not injured. But I'm also not buying it. I'm gonna say she mistook the accelerator for the brake, and then "doubled down", pressing it even harder. I also don't buy it because the airbags would have gone off on a 40 mph crash into a wall, and because the damage to the building (and car) is FAR less than what would have been caused by an impact at that speed. Just not buying it. At all.

I'll add that once -- and only once -- many decades ago, I mistook the accelerator for the brake pedal. In my mind I was so convinced I was stepping on the brake, that I stepped even harder, thinking my car must have suddenly become defective. I was absolutely, 100% sure of myself. Then, a few seconds later, I realized my mistake -- before anything dangerous happened -- and brought the car to a stop normally. If you think about it, it is statistically impossible for there NOT to have been at least a few occasions when someone mixed up the two pedals; in other words, this literally has to happen to someone, sometimes. It is unfortunate that it was you.

I have to add one more thing. IT. ISN'T. POSSIBLE. FOR. THE. MOTOR. TO. BE. STRONGER. THAN. THE. BRAKES. This is a feature of literally every car ever built.
 
This is partly why I keep creep turned on.

in parking lots, as a RULE, I always first let the car coast on creep before gently feathering the brake or accelerator. This after I ONCE mistakenly pressed the wrong pedal myself. Just like the previous post, I caught it just in time though it thankfully caused no damage, it scared me enough to never want to be in that situation again.

So now, creep is always on. In parking situations, I always feather the brake or the the accelerator because with creep on, I'm moving so slowly. Once the car slows or starts accelerating based on my feathering input is when I press that pedal harder. I've used his approach as a rule for a while now and it's just muscle memory. This gives me better control of the car in parking situations by default. Even god forborbid I hit something, I will do so at barely 5 mph as that's how slowly I move into a parking space or maneuver around a parking space.

These cars are not a Toyota Yaris where you can use harsh inputs and still have the time to recover. Best approach is to commit to muscle memory gentle input when parking before going further no matter how good of a driver you think you are.

AFAIC all these unintended acceleration reports are caused by driver error. Because they ALL happen in parking lots when someone is switching between the brake and the accelerator, mixes the two, and then doubles down on the wrong pedal.
 
@boaterva I don't know specifically what version firmware the Tesla has. Probably not the latest update since it's been blocked. What feature is this? I'd like to find out, and see if my car has it (when I get it from the tow yard).

Two things I *wish* for my next Tesla:
1. That is has a feature or menu option to ignore user input and *always* engage AEB if it detects an obstable. Especially at low speeds. Maybe this is that new feature you're talking about.
2. That it has a mechanical emergency brake. The police were amazed that it didn't have one (they kept asking my wife where it was). My wife said she would have pressed that in as well and that might have overridden the accelerator (if she was indeed pressing it). I'm talking about a third pedal on the left side, like my Leaf has. Even a hand pull brake on the center console.

@electracity I sure hope Tesla is more understanding than you. So far, the police, the fire department, Grocery Outlet and our insurance company (Progressive BTW) have all been very understanding and compassionate to my wife who bursts into tears every time she has to recount what happened. I hope Tesla is the same way.

They always give the user ultimate control for now. Think about the extreme case of being on railroad tracks with a train coming and your only option is to accelerate into the car ahead of you to push your way out.
 
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Same thing happened to me.
On Friday, March 15th at 1:05pm - coming home from Costco, came up the hill to my home, took my foot off the accelerator, car slows down as it always does (creep mode), getting ready to park it in front of the garage and touched the brake to put it in park. It accelerated so fast through the garage into the house. The car finally stopped by the wall it hit, I put it in park but the tires were still rotating; stopped when I opened the door and then motors then shut down.
Tesla would not return my calls until about one month later after posting all over facebook; also reported it to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). If you want to contact me, my email is [email protected].
How many people have to get hurt or killed by these malfunctions that Tesla will not acknowledge and always blame the driver?
Don't let all the bashing from people on this site bother you.

Because it IS the drivers fault. Every single solitary case, it has been confirmed with the manufacturer (even with other vehicles), that the driver was at fault. Sorry, but it’s the hard truth. You will see. I definitely encourage you to find out from the logs. Do you ever wonder why these things almost always happen when people are parking? Maybe because they are typically wanting to use the accelerator and brake at almost the same time.

Part of the issue is that EVs (especially Teslas) are quick and silent compared to gas cars. So you have less chance to react properly.
 
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Not all of them were driver error. https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319903#

And in this case (floor mat issue) the brakes were confirmed to be activated in a sustained braking event. So not the wrong pedal. Report reveals details on San Diego crash that led to recall

You may want to read this.

"Toyota's Killer Firmware" and the "Single Bit Flip That Killed"? Not!

Floor mats is a different story.

It's All Your Fault: The DOT Renders Its Verdict on Toyota's Unintended-Acceleration Scare – Feature – Car and Driver
 
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Floor mats is a different story.

I guess the problem with blaming the drivers in the floor mat cases is the NHTSA found that brake fade was a real issue when it comes to the high speed SUA events. Basically, the way a normal driver would react would bleed the vacuum system and cause the amount of braking force required to increase significantly, and in a critical situation, it might be more time than needed to stop.

https://one.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nvs/pdf/NHTSA-UA_report.pdf
Post-incident inspections of brake components removed from vehicles involved in high-speed, long-duration incidents have revealed evidence of this type of thermal degradation of friction materials indicative of prolonged braking at speed (Figures 4 and 5). This type of damage has only been observed in incidents that originated at highway speeds and involved prolonged open-throttle braking.45 These types of events were first observed by NHTSA in 2006 in MY 2007 Lexus ES 350 vehicles46 and, to date, such brake system overheating in UA incidents has only been observed in events involving throttles stuck wide-open due to pedal entrapment.

And:

Accordingly, in analyzing UA complaints, NHTSA finds claims of brake ineffectiveness credible only in situations involving medium to high initiation speeds and repeated pumping of the brakes (which can deplete the vacuum assist) and high speed, long duration events with repeated attempts to use the brakes (where brake fade can occur, particularly in high powered vehicles with stuck throttles).

So people do brake in these events, but they do it “wrong” and get themselves into trouble. I just don’t buy the narrative that 100% of SUA events are pedal misapplication. I think a good portion are, but not 100%.
 
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I guess the problem with blaming the drivers in the floor mat cases is the NHTSA found that brake fade was a real issue when it comes to the high speed SUA events. Basically, the way a normal driver would react would bleed the vacuum system and cause the amount of braking force required to increase significantly, and in a critical situation, it might be more time than needed to stop.

https://one.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nvs/pdf/NHTSA-UA_report.pdf
Post-incident inspections of brake components removed from vehicles involved in high-speed, long-duration incidents have revealed evidence of this type of thermal degradation of friction materials indicative of prolonged braking at speed (Figures 4 and 5). This type of damage has only been observed in incidents that originated at highway speeds and involved prolonged open-throttle braking.45 These types of events were first observed by NHTSA in 2006 in MY 2007 Lexus ES 350 vehicles46 and, to date, such brake system overheating in UA incidents has only been observed in events involving throttles stuck wide-open due to pedal entrapment.

So people do brake in these events, but they do it “wrong” and get themselves into trouble. I just don’t buy the narrative that 100% of the events are pedal misapplication. I think a good portion are, but not 100%.

Well....maybe one day we will see irrefutable evidence of that situation.
 
I experienced an unexpected acceleration in a test drive today. Here is what happened:

1. I had just used autopilot (auto steer) before in the highway.
2. I took off autopilot at the exit and slowed down for the stoplight.
3. As soon as the light turned green I lightly stepped on the gas. It started to move slowly.
4. It then unexpectedly accelerated into the turn without me changing foot pressure.

At first I was concerned. Now here is what we believe happened:

1. I turned autopilot / auto steer off by steering.
2. But traffic aware adaptive cruise control (TACC) was still on as evidenced by the speed limit sign encircled in blue.
3. Because TACC was still on, I assumed I was braking the car at the light but it was TACC.
4. Light turned green, I started to go through, and TACC started to automatically accelerate me to the previous cruise control speed limit.

I’m new to TACC and especially an adaptive cruise control that brakes to 0mph without me touching the pedal. So I was not expecting the car to accelerate on its own.

Now that I know what to look for (blue circle) and also that TACC exists - I think I’ll know how to handle this situation with confidence in the future. This was a case of the feature being new to me.
 
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I fixed that car 2 years and 60k miles ago. It had side damage on it. Why do so many of you bash salvage cars? It is just as safe as a car and drove just as good as non salvage car. I will try to pull logs of the car and hopefully will have an EDR video of it crashing into the wall. I'm sure it was user error.

Did you have to do any repairs that involved the seat sensor? Based on the OPs post, it sounds like the car continued to move forward after getting out of the driver seat. That shouldnt happen if the seat sensor was operating correctly.
 
That's from that thread, last page...

It's so hard... soooo hard..... I don't think you'd understand unless you were there. We are both 50+ years old. NOTHING like this has ever happened to us. It's so easy to blame the car. In my head I understand all the explanations out there and I think they're reasonable. But in my heart.... Oh god I want so bad for it to be Tesla's fault....

My son put it best: "This is a goddamn mess".

Progressive just decided on the pictures to total the car. The next step is for them to decide how much it's worth...

I was thinking about one thing you said that your wife said. She said she had BOTH feet on the brake and was practically standing on it. Well you can’t have both feet on the accelerator! No way.

Since the car had 60k miles since it was salvaged I doubt that had anything to do with what happened.
 
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I did my experiment again to see what would happen regarding the seatbelt and seat sensor and the accelerator.

Don’t try this at home...

On a slight hill that allowed me to give some accelerator input but still move slowly, I did two experiments

1) with no pedal input, car in drive, no seatbelt, lifted my bottom off the seat. Car immediately goes into park

2). With accelerator pedal input, no seatbelt, lifted my bottom off the seat. Car remains in drive.

I was not expecting this, but guess the story could be consistent with a foot or floor mat pressing on the accelerator when the driver exited the car.
 
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There is no way I would ever want a car to throw itself into park just because it doesn’t detect my butt. Think about it.
It’s not a conventional transmission tho. It’s simply floating rotor magnets in the motor. Without brakes there technically is no park in the traditional sense. Park is just a set of smaller calipers and rotors
Shouldn’t hurt a thing.