So, it happened, yesterday and I thank God it happened when I did not have my two small kids in the car.
Yesterday around 6:20pm when I driving to the Schiphol airport from Amsterdam town, I accelerated and merged into the traffic and moved from the third outermost to the second outermost lane and suddenly I felt something wrong as the acceleration completely cut off and the touchscreen showed the warning that my 12V Power was low and that "Car May Shut Down Unexpectedly".
F*ck! I have heard of this but never thought it would happen to me. Damn it, my S might be a bit over 2 years old but it barely had 15K km on it and for god sake, I had taken it to the service centre less than 2 weeks ago (to replace the battery coolant, which was supposedly faulty) and they had run a usual diagnostic on it and given a clean bill of health!
I was going at around 80 km/hr and the car decides it had had enough. I move towards the slower lanes and then realise - there are no shoulders in this sections of the highway, and to make things more interesting, it was near an exit.
Frantically looking around, I see a small small emergency stopping place, just enough for a car. I steer the fast-decelerating car towards it and just about park it and the car stops completely. Phew!
Call to Tesla emergency line gets me through a personnel who tells me to go to the e-brake and power off control and power off the engine. I am to keep very still and not touch the screen, brakes or the doors (in case the car wakes up before a full reset?). I was told to expect a call in 10 minutes to continue. The call comes in, I press the brake and sob, sob, the error still persists. Tow truck it is, then! But the story does not end...
The personnel takes the details of the location of the car (I thought they could know that without asking me!) and tells me to wait for a call to confirm the tow service. While I wait for the call, the screen and the dashboard goes blank (I must have been holding my breath for too long!). I wait a bit and press the break pedal, and voilà, the error message has disappeared. I put the car in reverse, it moves. Forward, and it still moves (forwards of course). Eat that 12V battery!
The personnel calls and I convey what happened and I ask whether this means I am OK to drive and try to make it home or should I wait for the tow truck. I was told - if the error clears and the car can move, I am in luck! I mean, they should know this, right? Wrong!
Yay! I hang up and start to drive and within 500m the car decelerate again! I am not in the driving lane and the car stops. Luckily for me, the car from behind was a bit further back and I put on the hazard lights and he is able to slow down enough to change lane, curse me and drive on. The pile-up starts. Within minutes however I see a policy van behind, flashing lights. They had apparently noticed the traffic pile up and how cars were moving lanes and realised that there was a situation. Wow, that was fast! And they had also called a tow truck! Now, I appreciate where my tax money is being spent.
It turns out that the tow company called by the police was the same one used by Tesla. So my S is towed away to the service centre and I am dropped off home.
Luckily I was not catching a flight, just trying to catch someone before they board a flight. Without saying, that did not pan out.
Today I get a call in the morning where a guy trying to get the facts of what happened (really? I was on call with Tesla for a long time yesterday and you should have logs, damn it!). I tries to sheepishly excuse himself and say that they have not figured out what the problem is yet.
He is supposed to call me COB to let me know what they find.
Yesterday around 6:20pm when I driving to the Schiphol airport from Amsterdam town, I accelerated and merged into the traffic and moved from the third outermost to the second outermost lane and suddenly I felt something wrong as the acceleration completely cut off and the touchscreen showed the warning that my 12V Power was low and that "Car May Shut Down Unexpectedly".
F*ck! I have heard of this but never thought it would happen to me. Damn it, my S might be a bit over 2 years old but it barely had 15K km on it and for god sake, I had taken it to the service centre less than 2 weeks ago (to replace the battery coolant, which was supposedly faulty) and they had run a usual diagnostic on it and given a clean bill of health!
I was going at around 80 km/hr and the car decides it had had enough. I move towards the slower lanes and then realise - there are no shoulders in this sections of the highway, and to make things more interesting, it was near an exit.
Frantically looking around, I see a small small emergency stopping place, just enough for a car. I steer the fast-decelerating car towards it and just about park it and the car stops completely. Phew!
Call to Tesla emergency line gets me through a personnel who tells me to go to the e-brake and power off control and power off the engine. I am to keep very still and not touch the screen, brakes or the doors (in case the car wakes up before a full reset?). I was told to expect a call in 10 minutes to continue. The call comes in, I press the brake and sob, sob, the error still persists. Tow truck it is, then! But the story does not end...
The personnel takes the details of the location of the car (I thought they could know that without asking me!) and tells me to wait for a call to confirm the tow service. While I wait for the call, the screen and the dashboard goes blank (I must have been holding my breath for too long!). I wait a bit and press the break pedal, and voilà, the error message has disappeared. I put the car in reverse, it moves. Forward, and it still moves (forwards of course). Eat that 12V battery!
The personnel calls and I convey what happened and I ask whether this means I am OK to drive and try to make it home or should I wait for the tow truck. I was told - if the error clears and the car can move, I am in luck! I mean, they should know this, right? Wrong!
Yay! I hang up and start to drive and within 500m the car decelerate again! I am not in the driving lane and the car stops. Luckily for me, the car from behind was a bit further back and I put on the hazard lights and he is able to slow down enough to change lane, curse me and drive on. The pile-up starts. Within minutes however I see a policy van behind, flashing lights. They had apparently noticed the traffic pile up and how cars were moving lanes and realised that there was a situation. Wow, that was fast! And they had also called a tow truck! Now, I appreciate where my tax money is being spent.
It turns out that the tow company called by the police was the same one used by Tesla. So my S is towed away to the service centre and I am dropped off home.
Luckily I was not catching a flight, just trying to catch someone before they board a flight. Without saying, that did not pan out.
Today I get a call in the morning where a guy trying to get the facts of what happened (really? I was on call with Tesla for a long time yesterday and you should have logs, damn it!). I tries to sheepishly excuse himself and say that they have not figured out what the problem is yet.
He is supposed to call me COB to let me know what they find.
