collision avoidance fails to detect golf ball

[mblakele]

First dent. I heard the impact on the freeway, but didn't see what happened. Careful review of the dashcam video showed a golf ball at just the wrong place at the wrong time. In this frame it's on the right, after ricocheting off of my hood.

golf ball

• mblakele
• Jul 13, 2016

On the bright side the impact only dented the hood a little bit, and it's pretty well centered.

golf ball hood impact

• mblakele
• Jul 13, 2016

I'm more than a little bit annoyed, but I guess it could have been worse.

 

[rjcbox]

Sorry to hear about the damage. The title made me lol

 

[e-FTW]

First dent. I heard the impact on the freeway, but didn't see what happened. Careful review of the dashcam video showed a golf ball at just the wrong place at the wrong time. In this frame it's on the right, after ricocheting off of my hood.

golf ball

• mblakele
• Jul 13, 2016

On the bright side the impact only dented the hood a little bit, and it's pretty well centered.

golf ball hood impact

• mblakele
• Jul 13, 2016

I'm more than a little bit annoyed, but I guess it could have been worse.

Ha, great title! Sorry about that incident.
You should go on a media tear about this. Autopilot is clearly an abject failure. How come Elon did not fly in with his Iron Man suit to block that ball from damaging your car? For shame. For shame.

 

[tstafford]

If the paint's not cracked, I bet a mobile dent guy could get this out without much trouble.

 

[Joe Harsanyi]

If the paint's not cracked, I bet a mobile dent guy could get this out without much trouble.

I completely agree. Paintless dent repair works great and will probably cost you $100 or less (at least that's true here in MD).

 

[brantse]

Sorry to hear about that, but it's a pretty funny story. It left a perfect "golf ball dimple". If you could just get a few hundred, evenly distributed throughout the car, you could probably improve your range. Mythbusters proved this when testing the aerodynamics of golf balls and cars.

 

[jelloslug]

Don't be so sure about paintless dent repair. That hood is aluminium and is much harder to fix with that method.

 

[Half Dollar Bill]

Were you driving near a golf course or was that just bouncing down the road?
I keep thinking of the "Tin Cup" scene where Don Johnson hits a ball down a road and it bounces forever.

 

[scaesare]

Don't be so sure about paintless dent repair. That hood is aluminium and is much harder to fix with that method.

The local service center referred me to a paintless dent repair guy that took a ding out of my door with no problem. You do have to be sure they can work with aluminum of course, but it's apparently not that difficult. Cost was $150 or so.

 

[Trips]

Sorry to hear that. On a similar note a rogue Tesla hating shopping cart got mine. I was so upset that AP did not prevent the collision I almost called the media. Luckily no one was hurt except my car and the shopping cart when I kicked it.

In Tesla's defense I did not have my hands on the wheel, actually I was in the store shopping.

 

[jbcarioca]

mblakele and Trips have alerted us to two distinct major risks that have, I think, never been previously disclosed. I am certain that there are other cases soon to be revealed. Luckily I have not personally experienced any such incidents. I certainly hope and expect that autopilot will be improved to include protective weaponry against such assaults.

 

[mblakele]

Were you driving near a golf course or was that just bouncing down the road?

That stretch of freeway has two golf courses, one on each side. From the video it looks like the ball came from the left, crossing four lanes and the barrier.

 

[mikeash]

A similar thing happened to me with a rock a few months ago. Left a similar dent, plus scratched the paint. It's still pretty hard to see, so I've been studiously ignoring it for now.

 

[CJPonline]

I re-iterate the replies about paintless dent removal guys. Insist on knowing they work with aluminum!

 

[deonb]

Also disturbing. Based on the first picture, your Model S seems to have a pretty bad slice.

When your grip the steering wheel, make sure you see the three knuckles of your left hand. And the "V" formed by your left index finger and thumb should point toward your right shoulder...

 

[NikeWings]

I think collision avoidance made an excellent decision and saved your windshield.
BTW, I've got an identical dent in the back of my head....never it had it repaired and my performance hasn't been affected. The ball is now a paperweight.

 

[1208]

Unless you have the golf ball object as evidence we can only come to the logical scientific conclusion that because it is saucer shape in the dashcam that it was a UFO. That dent is actually an attempt by the UFO to create a wormhole.

 

[RDoc]

Tesla will be announcing their new 10MJ laser option early next year.

 

[Ashkenaz]

You might want to notify the FAA that the golf range is flying objects illegally, and that their drones autopilots are malfunctioning. Sorry about the dent. I hate to see that

 

[kirkbauer]

Call the NTSA and report the autopilot failure... the system is obviously not ready yet. Any human driver would have easily avoided that.