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.