Auto Park Accident

[3s-a-charm]

All these autopark accidents can be easily solved by changing how autopark works.


In my pervious BMW, in order to autopark you will have to keep brake pressed, switch to reverse then slowly release brake and see what the car is doing.

Your foot had to always be on the brake and just release it bit by bit (dose it off) and see what the car is doing (the steering was fully automated). If you feel the car goes on a collision path, just press the brake harder and it stops for the moment, you can check your surroundings/mirrors/etc and if all is ok you can slowly release the brake again and the car will keep continuing on the same path.

I am not using the autopark in my Tesla just because I don’t trust it not having my foot on the brake, as soon as I touch the brake it cancels the parking maneuver (very counter intuitive).

By always having to keep your foot slightly on the brake during autopark you get the following:

- No more hitting the accelerator by mistake (your foot is always on the brake)
- Having the chance to slow down or stop without canceling the maneuver (if you think something is wrong or someone walks around your car for example)
- Feeling more in control but not having to figure out the right parking path yourself

My wife has been using the autopark in the BMW almost daily for the last 4 years without inccidents, so hats off to BMW for properly implementing the autopark function in their cars

Funny, I went from Tesla Autopark to my wife's new BMW and tried Autopark only to not quite realize I had to do the braking input myself... nearly drove right into the car behind me! Scary situation to say the least. I still like/trust the Tesla system.

 

[3s-a-charm]

Are you sure? I usually drive long distances with my shoes off and I've felt behind the pedal before, and my pedal doesn't seem to move at all unless the car is braking quite heavily. there is a "dead zone" if you brake while the car is braking, so there does seem to be some spring action that holds the pedal up. Maybe there's some car-to-car variance on that?

Yes... quite sure. I can even hear the noise of the pedal moving (kind of a light clunk) when it engages for the stop/go traffic. I don't have my car right now to test it though.

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

Yes... quite sure. I can even hear the noise of the pedal moving (kind of a light clunk) when it engages for the stop/go traffic. I don't have my car right now to test it though.

The brake pedal definitely moves when TACC is active. For sure, no question about it.

 

[Chrisizzle]

I rarely use auto park because it's so much slower than parking myself. However, I used it as a novelty two days ago between a parked car and a cement pole/structure. The car almost hit the pole and was way off center before I took control back.

I assumed the pole didn't provide enough surface area for the sensors to work.

 

[Looking-for-S]

Sorry to the OP.

Will second comments that it doesn't seem reliable enough to use. I'm very surprised the insurance companies haven't been going after Tesla on this.

I used it three times. First time was just perfect, second time it seemed about to clip an adjacent car with the corner of the rear bumper and I overrode it, third time it seemed to pick way too sharp an angle and I thought it would scrape the side of my car and overrode that. And now I don't trust it and don't use it.

 

[Zaphod]

The brake pedal definitely moves when TACC is active. For sure, no question about it.

If you watch the self driving demo videos, you can actually see the brake pedal move up and down.

 

[chillaban]

If you watch the self driving demo videos, you can actually see the brake pedal move up and down.

It will move when the brake travel is more than ~50% or so, such as for coming to a complete stop. Bosch iBooster has a spring and servo mechanism which can partly separate the brake pedal input from the actuation of the master cylinder but only to a limit.

Small brake commands won't necessarily move the pedal, but large ones will. I spent more time than I should admit staring at my brake pedal this morning

 

[sorka]

The majority of Auto Park fails involve auto park NOT seeing an available spot and/or thinking there is a spot when you happen to slow down near an area that may look like a car park to the vehicle... They do NOT involved 'sudden acceleration'.

All the ones I've seen vidoes of so far involve auto park simply not clearing a bumper of another car or a wall resulting in collision. The Tesla bumper corners will pass within inches of other cars bumpers or walls. So close that it's impossible without an all around 360 camera(like every other luxury car has) to see just how close you really are. Therefore you either trust it all the time and cross your fingers or decide to never trust.

I'm just going to quote myself from one of the other threads:

Auto park on AP 1 hardware has been flawless for me up to the time that I stopped using it. I no longer use auto park given all of the reports where Teslas have crashed into walls and other cars in cases where the system clearly should have been able to handle it.
Now if it's a tall thin post, or something overhanging high that the sensors can't see but still low enough to hit the top of the car or anything else that is just strange, I can see needing to make sure that you don't use auto park in those cases.

But the failure of auto park in seemingly typical and straight forward situations is simply unacceptable. When I did use, it was in situations where I knew it would do a better job than me because I couldn't judge distances in tight parking scenarios as well as the sensors did. If there's tons of room and it's an easy case, then what's the point of using it at all. The people that are going to use are the ones that don't a a good level of parking skill already, or it's going to be a tight fit and hard to judge without a 360 all around camera like my Infiniti has.

So when are you supposed to take control? What are you supposed to monitor? Auto park turns the wheel for you. The instructions say to keep your hands off. What is the thing you're supposed to do to use auto parking correctly? Make sure you hit the break before the car hits something? Auto park passes within just inches of car bumpers, curbs, pillars, and walls. It's designed to do this. How are you supposed to know that it's about to hit something when the other 12 times you used it and it did the same thing but did so with just enough clearance? The answer is you can't know which really means you can't "trust" it which is why I don't use it any more.

At this point, I would gladly trade auto parking for the 360 top down camera view that I had in my infiniti. It allowed me to park in ridiculously tight spots while maintaining complete control myself.

 

[phaduman]

Had a similar occurrence...
Auto Park is definitely not reliable.

Oh man - sorry to see that accident. I was trusting auto park (that exact thing - the precise measurement of the parking sensors to come that close to the car ahead for maximum efficiency) but your camera just proved I shouldn't after all rely so much. I have only parked 2 or 3 times using auto-park - I guess I will stop doing that even for demos - not worth the accidents/time/cost. Thanks for sharing and forewarning.

 

[MPI72]

Last week, my wife had an accident while engaging auto park to back into a parking spot in a parking structure. We had been using auto park since its inception in 2015. It had been working well for us. We loved the convenience it gave us. But our luck ended last Thursday. It started well. It was in a company park structure. My wife found a spot, and passed it. Tesla detected to spot and showed the "P" sign. My wife engaged reverse gear, and press start to engage auto park. Tesla started backing toward the spot, but suddenly accelerated quickly, and before my wife could react on it, it smashed right into a parked car on the left rear. Tesla had a big dent at the bumper, with rear back light broken. The other car had even a bigger dent. From the damages, the force was pretty big. To me, it looked like there was a glitch in the sensor or software that had caused this. This need to be taken seriously.

I called Tesla road side assistance who directed me to a service center nearby. The service manager told me that Auto park was a "Test Feature", and you as the driver were responsible for the damages. Well, I asked him whether they were interested to take a look and download some data from the Vehicle to analyze the cause of the malfunction. The service manager said some one would call me. Well 5 days later today, still no one called.

I had been a big fan of Tesla, and had tried every feature on my Model S, especially auto pilot and auto park. This little incident poured some cold water on me. Frankly, I am quite disappointed, especially the way Tesla handle the accident. I am an engineer myself, and understand software/hardware glitch happens. When an accident happens, it is important to get first hand data, so that we can improve upon. 5 days passed, no action was taken. Some useful data might already be overwritten. We, as Tesla owner, supported Elon's vision, by contributing money and time, and being the guinea pig. I can't understand why Tesla would give up a perfect chance to investigate and improve on it.

Thanks for posting in detail what happened to you..
I have a Model X and today I engaged the Auto-park to reverse into a spot that the Tesla recognized. The results were similar to what you described. 1) Tesla detect a parking spot; 2) reverse started and an acceleration occurred; 3) middle rear of Tesla ran into back corner of a Chevy Volt that was parked. It almost seemed that it was going to park in the Volt's spot. It did not maneuver at all to the open spot next to the Volt. The Volt's bumper will need to be replaced. There is a dent in the tailgate and the bumper is damaged also.
I also have used Auto Park in the past without any problems. From your and other posts I will not use it again.

 

[timvracer]

I won't use autopark, simply not worth the risk.

 

[milleron]

The saddest part of these vignettes is that all other manufacturers have been able to implement flawlessly reliable autopark for many years in vehicles that rely solely on US sensors for detection and control of the automobiles. WHY does this implementation, available on too many other makes of cars to list, so defy the engineers at Tesla? This is not a rhetorical question; I seriously wonder what is the problem with the hardware/software on Teslas that makes them seem like clown cars next to something as mundane as a Ford Fusion which gets autoparking exactly right every time.

 

[OlaA]

Hi

Got my Model X autopark crashing 30 minutes after it was picked up, brand new! No help to get from Tesla, they didn't even want to check the sensors or if something was malfunctioning. Only reply was its the owners responsibility. Very disappointed, Tesla needs to address this. I bought the car with 360 degree view, but it seems that didn't help.

Never trust the Autopark, nor Teslas statements.

 

[sorka]

Hi

Got my Model X autopark crashing 30 minutes after it was picked up, brand new! No help to get from Tesla, they didn't even want to check the sensors or if something was malfunctioning. Only reply was its the owners responsibility. Very disappointed, Tesla needs to address this. I bought the car with 360 degree view, but it seems that didn't help.

Never trust the Autopark, nor Teslas statements.

360 view? When did Tesla add that?

 

[Tam]

...Very disappointed...

Sorry that it happens to you. Autopilot, summon, autopark... still can get you into accidents. And that is a current expectation. That is its current limitations and design.

Tesla standard line: "It works as designed. Nothing is wrong. It's your responsibility"

That's why you should only use it if you are good at babysitting the automation system.

By the way, it's true that you bought 8 cameras surrounding your car but please remember that currently, they are not all activated. Owners tested and block them by tapes and the maximum currently active are 2 front cameras.

Someday, your car can drive itself so you don't have babysit it anymore, but you know how long a baby grow into teenager, it may take a long long time!

 

[Gesteur]

I never really trusted the autopark, so i always am prepared to brake. I also can confirm that while autoparking the car accelerated, i managed to stop it in time. It was taking a too wide angle and would have bumped the other car next to it. Perpendicular parking.
Not gonna trust it for now and for sure I can expect tesla not taking any responsibility if something happened.

 

[mattack4000]

I look at it this way. If the spot is so small that I need someone to help me, it’s probably not worth parking......

 

[Galve2000]

Had a similar occurrence...
Auto Park is definitely not reliable.

Oh.My.God!!

 

[Stiction]

I don't use autopark, I don't use summon.

And ...I am extremely careful with autosteer...watch it like a hawk. Good for covering you when you are tired as long as you are covering for it, too.

I love the car but consider all this stuff toys that should be very carefully played with

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

I don’t use auto park very often, but I used it four times last weekend. Worked perfectly three of the times. When it failed I think it was because the space was a little too tight. I’ve never had it hit the curb or any cars. I think if auto park was hitting cars and curbs very often we would be hearing about it a lot more on this forum.