Took a friend and his nephew on a ride yesterday to demo some features of the Tesla. They are into exotic and performance cars and wanted to learn more about it. In the parking lot, I went through a lot of the features of the car and they asked a lot of questions. Then, I took them for a ride on the highway to show them autopilot and they were amazed. Next, I took them to a very quiet back road where we could do some launches. I had Max Battery ON and did a launch with Launch Mode (brake, accelerator, release brake) and it hooked pretty well. I turned around and was going to do another launch, but this time without Launch Mode - just stomp on the pedal - like I do most often. When I punched it, the accelerator pedal broke off, regen kicked in hard, and I quickly coasted to the shoulder. I was in shock at what just happened. I have never seen anything like that before.
I called roadside assistance and they towed the car to the Service Center and got me an Uber home. It was a long night, but all ended well. Tesla took care of me. Hope to get the car back today if the part is in stock.
As I thought about it more, I felt very fortunate that it happened on that quiet road with no traffic. I'm so glad I didn't punch it up on the highway and have the accelerator pedal break there. I imagine that it would have slowed down pretty quickly and I would somehow need to navigate to the shoulder without getting in someone's way. Maybe I could have activated autopilot to at least keep the acceleration going and somehow pull over, but I really doubt I would have been able to think that clearly at the moment.
I assume this is very rare and hope it was some type defect in my pedal. I do a fair amount of launches and have been to the drag strip a couple times, so maybe it was cracked for some time and I just finally broke it when I punched it this time.
I called roadside assistance and they towed the car to the Service Center and got me an Uber home. It was a long night, but all ended well. Tesla took care of me. Hope to get the car back today if the part is in stock.
As I thought about it more, I felt very fortunate that it happened on that quiet road with no traffic. I'm so glad I didn't punch it up on the highway and have the accelerator pedal break there. I imagine that it would have slowed down pretty quickly and I would somehow need to navigate to the shoulder without getting in someone's way. Maybe I could have activated autopilot to at least keep the acceleration going and somehow pull over, but I really doubt I would have been able to think that clearly at the moment.
I assume this is very rare and hope it was some type defect in my pedal. I do a fair amount of launches and have been to the drag strip a couple times, so maybe it was cracked for some time and I just finally broke it when I punched it this time.