Crashed my 90D into a fence while parking...

[merlinchenx]

I lived in china and got my model s 90D for only 3 month, and i crashed the car into a fence while parking. Fortunately nobodys hurt.

When i drive my car into the parking slot the car begin to accelerate for no reason then i panicked and press accelerator pedal even further. The car crashed though the fence and hit a another car.

I was confused by the first acceleration, and i thought there was sth wrong with my car. Then i called tesla service and ask them to check the log of my car during the accident. According to tesla's reply, the first acceleration is caused by me accidentally press the accelerator pedal than after about a second the accelerator pedal is pressed even further. And this accident is noting todo with the car, its just human error.

It leaves me think a lot, as an experienced drive for more than 20 years, i never made this mistake before; And press brake pedal when emergency happen has already become conditioned reflex. The only reason i can explain why i press the wrong pedal is regenerative braking. When regenerative braking is on, i seldom use braking pedal during driving. Maybe this driving mode will somewhat changed my subconsciousness ? Any thoughts guys?

One more thing, i used to think the AEB will prevent such accident(my car's fw is 17.17.17 and has AEB enabled), but after i read the 17.17.17 release note carefully, i found out that AEB will be disengage when you press hard on the accelerator pedal...this is exactly what i do during the accident...

 

[merlinchenx]

English is not my native, Sorry for the poor english.

 

[John Green]

Are you really sure it was your own fault.
There have been very many reports of unintended acceleration in Teslas.
It seems the percentage of incidents is higher than most other cars.
Getting out of the habit of using the brake pedal increases the risk of accident.

 

[FlatSix911]

I lived in china and got my model s 90D for only 3 month, and i crashed the car into a fence while parking. Fortunately nobodys hurt.

When i drive my car into the parking slot the car begin to accelerate for no reason then i panicked and press accelerator pedal even further. The car crashed though the fence and hit a another car.

I was confused by the first acceleration, and i thought there was sth wrong with my car. Then i called tesla service and ask them to check the log of my car during the accident. According to tesla's reply, the first acceleration is caused by me accidentally press the accelerator pedal than after about a second the accelerator pedal is pressed even further. And this accident is noting todo with the car, its just human error.

It leaves me think a lot, as an experienced drive for more than 20 years, i never made this mistake before; And press brake pedal when emergency happen has already become conditioned reflex. The only reason i can explain why i press the wrong pedal is regenerative braking. When regenerative braking is on, i seldom use braking pedal during driving. Maybe this driving mode will somewhat changed my subconsciousness ? Any thoughts guys?

One more thing, i used to think the AEB will prevent such accident(my car's fw is 17.17.17 and has AEB enabled), but after i read the 17.17.17 release note carefully, i found out that AEB will be disengage when you press hard on the accelerator pedal...this is exactly what i do during the accident...

Sorry to hear about your accident. I also commend you on your honesty regarding the incident to help others... thank you.

 

[SMAlset]

No problem understanding what you wrote merlinchenx. Wow sorry to hear about the car/s and glad no one was injured. I have a feeling people do get "memory" confused about the pedals. My husband has been driving our car for the most part and today when he got in my ICE car first thing he did after he backed out of the driveway was to turn on the windshield wipers . I think he meant to shift gears but my gear shift is on the floor console. So I can see how the mind can confuse drivers sometimes. Thanks for the reminder about the AEB.

 

[Mr X]

There have been very many reports of unintended acceleration in Teslas.

Yes. Because people aren't man enough to admit that they pressed the accelerator and crashed their own car. They just blame it on the car. And every incident Tesla simply goes to the logs and it shows that it wasn't the car and it was the driver. And then the driver continues to blame the car regardless of what the logs say. Because it couldn't have been them! It just couldnt! My car that does 0-60 in 3 seconds, it has to be the car!!


Not

 

[Carl]

Were you using creep mode?

I wonder to what extent creep mode, in that it is one pedal driving for anything under 7 km/h, helps in avoiding these situations.

 

[Ugliest1]

And to follow on what @Mr X just posted

It seems the percentage of incidents is higher than most other cars.

Could that be because a Tesla is very much more responsive to driver input than most (scratch out "most") ALL other cars?

[EDIT] By the way, OP, sorry about your accident and glad that no one was injured.

 

[Festerfeet]

Sorry to hear about your accident I hope the damage wasn't too bad.

I do think that the pedals on Tesla are large and have a big gap between them but having the brake pedal so much higher than the accelerator pedal means that I have to make a conscious effort to make sure my foot is over the brake before applying pressure. Most of the cars I have driven over the last thirty years have smaller pedals that are closer together and never had this problem.

I do sometimes wonder whether the distance between the pedals, both height and width of gap makes this more likely to be a problem than was intended.

Oh, I just wanted to say, your English is pretty good.

 

[MXWing]

Do you use 'creep' mode? I get voted down to the depths of hell by recommending people use this feature but somehow anything that carries over from the ice age days is heretical.

Use that to slide into garages and parking spots, you have time/room to back your foot out and plant firmly on brake and not 'gas' when it is time to stop.

 

[merlinchenx]

Do you use 'creep' mode? I get voted down to the depths of hell by recommending people use this feature but somehow anything that carries over from the ice age days is heretical.

Use that to slide into garages and parking spots, you have time/room to back your foot out and plant firmly on brake and not 'gas' when it is time to stop.

The 'creep' mode is on, i reviewed my accident from cctv, it all happen in less than 1.5s. I dont know what will happen if it is a P90D.Thanks for the advice, i will keep remind my self to double check if my foot is on the right pedal after this accident.

 

[merlinchenx]

Sorry to hear about your accident I hope the damage wasn't too bad.

I do think that the pedals on Tesla are large and have a big gap between them but having the brake pedal so much higher than the accelerator pedal means that I have to make a conscious effort to make sure my foot is over the brake before applying pressure. Most of the cars I have driven over the last thirty years have smaller pedals that are closer together and never had this problem.

I do sometimes wonder whether the distance between the pedals, both height and width of gap makes this more likely to be a problem than was intended.

Oh, I just wanted to say, your English is pretty good.

The car is full of scratch but no main structure damage. I just notice you are from chengdu. I go to chengdu for business or for vocation time to time. Love the hotpot and 青城后山 there...

 

[SMSMD]

MInor mishap today
This is probably what exactly happened to you as well. Quite a common human error which unfortunately in a state of panic is forgotten and thought to have occurred due to Tesla.

 

[ecarfan]

New Are you really sure it was your own fault.
There have been very many reports of unintended acceleration in Teslas.
It seems the percentage of incidents is higher than most other cars.

There is no proof that what you state is true.

There are reports of "unintended acceleration" for every car in production by every manufacturer. People get confused and make mistakes. In their mind they believe they are pressing the brake pedal but they are pressing the accelerator pedal.

 

[Whisky]

Thank you for sharing. That's a good tip, about how one gets out of muscle-memory practice of using the break when driving a Tesla. I'm sorry to hear about the damage, but glad that everyone is okay.

 

[BestRadar]

And what is the reason AEB did not stop the car from going through a fence? What is the point of having safety features if they dont do anything.

 

[Ugliest1]

And what is the reason AEB did not stop the car from going through a fence? What is the point of having safety features if they dont do anything.

Read OP's last paragraph again. Driver slamming accelerator overrides AEB.

 

[Quick2Judge]

Hi Thanks so much for sharing your honest review of what you think happened.

I know I learned something from your review. I know you are not positive of about what happened but as the car slows down so much from regenerative breaking I could see myself sliding into distraction/ muscle memory situation and thinking my foot was hovering over the brake.

Hopefully your sharing this has saved others from damage or worse.
.

 

[wycolo]

When off-street do try to DRAG your brakes slightly by keeping one foot on the brake pedal at ALL times. This ends all confusion about your being able to stop suddenly if people or cars jump out at you. Off-street is where weird things tend to happen, much more than on the avenues. Safety is more important than a small bit of energy spent keeping the brakes clean. And with practice you can prevent the gong from sounding (when both pedals happen to be pressed).
--

 

[ecarfan]

And with practice you can prevent the gong from sounding (when both pedals happen to be pressed).

Please explain how to prevent the alarm sound when depressing both pedals.

In my opinion there is no legitimate reason to press both pedals simultaneously, "off street" or otherwise, and it is a risky practice. There is a reason that an alarm sounds when you do it! Teslas provide very precise speed control and it is very easy to use at any speed with a bit of practice needed if you are coming from an ICE and new to Tesla.