Creep on or off and why

[kiwi]

@EVChris You can take your foot off the brake at a stop light - whether creep is on or off
the auto-parking brake is used to hold the car still.

I agree with @Uncle Paul - pick the one you like. Don't flame people for choosing something
different to you.

 

[Peteski]

With creep off, you must keep your foot on the accelerator in order to move forward at 3 to 5 miles per hour in a parking lot or garage. It something startles you, your knee-jerk reaction will be to mash down on the pedal under your foot to stop the car. If creep is on, that pedal is the brake and all is well. If creep is off, that pedal is the accelerator, and you may power-launch your P100D through the wall of the parking garage down to the street below.

I have creep off and I thought this might be a potential issue. But in reality, even with creep off, once you do initiate a very slow movement with the accelerator and then lift off the car then continues to creep until you stop it with the brakes. At first I wondered if the car was just rolling slightly downhill, but I don't think so as our garage is flat and it continues creeping all the way in. Anyway I find it very easy to back into our garage in this way i.e. use a little throttle to get the car moving and then use the brake to stop it short of the back wall. Kind of get the best of both worlds that way. Out on the road I much prefer creep off and just use the hill hold function when stopping at junctions. Works perfectly with a light prod on the brake.

 

[Silent Ludicrosy]

After two months of ownership, I’ve decided that the creep is a liitle to aggressive for my taste. It would be nice if there was a “low” creep option. Specifically, i would like the creep to ease in as i ease off the brake. I feel like it’s fighting me too much.

 

[ahkahn]

I'm creep off. The wife likes creep on. Well, for that matter, she likes creeps in general. That's why she's married to me.

 

[jrh007]

Huh? In conventional automatic transmission cars and my pre-'18 Leaf (which has no option to turn off creep), when you pull forward into a parking space or back in, you modulate the brake pedal when you're about to come to a stop.

I almost never back into my garage, unless I have to and the other car is not in there, as well. If you looked in the garage of every private residence in the US, I suspect you'd find that 80 to 90+% of the vehicles are pulled forward into the garage, not backed in.

I would respectfully suggest that the reason 80-90% of vehicles pull forward into their garage is that it is dangerous for ICE vehicles to sit in a garage backed in. When the car is started, carbon monoxide from the exhaust will gather at the rear of the vehicle rather than be exhausted out through the front of the garage into the air, particularly when a backed in ICE car is turned on to warm up. While people think carbon monoxide will simply dissipate once a garage door is opened, it actually will sit and linger. It really is quite dangerous. Obviously, with an electric vehicle, this danger vanishes in to the clean fresh air.

Regarding the to creep or not to creep, since I am getting delivery on Saturday (yay!), I can only speak from my test drive experience. While I could see myself getting used to it, driving my friend's Model 3, I found the absence of creep atypical. I say this as someone who has had two manual transmission ICE vehicles and two automatic transmission ICE vehicles (and an, obviously, manual transmission motorcycle).

Obviously, with automatic transmission, the familiarity is there. However, I did not find the creep off akin to my manual transmission experience either. In a manual transmission, the accelerator is not what determines the forward movement in 1st gear. It is the friction point balanced between the clutch and the accelerator. So I would control the amount of "creep" through a balance between the left foot (or left hand on a motorcycle) coming off the clutch and the right foot (or right hand on a motorcycle) pushing forward on the accelerator (or opening the throttle). With any new manual transmission, it would take a moment or two to find that friction point (and an embarrassing stall if I missed it), but once I found it, that's how I could control the creep.

I don't know what I will ultimately find most comfortable next week, but I would guess that I will ultimately like the creep on option. Time will tell...

 

[jerry33]

I've been using creep off for six years. There's only one situation where I would turn it on: A long time ago, I had a commute that went over a narrow bridge that was always backed up with traffic. I would put the Land-Rover into low range low and just let it putter along. Of course, if your Tesla has autopilot, there'd be no need. Other than that, creep off behaves the same as a standard transmission (unless you ride the clutch) with only one gear.

 

[Shock-On-T]

Creep on ... because I'm a zerg player.

 

[Mediocrates]

I would respectfully suggest that the reason 80-90% of vehicles pull forward into their garage is that it is dangerous for ICE vehicles to sit in a garage backed in.

I would counter-suggest that, culturally, most people in the USA do not reverse into parking spots in general. Look at any parking lot anywhere* in the country. The vast majority of vehicles will probably be front-in parked, yet there is no relevance for any hypothetical carbon monoxide concentration. Other parts of the world (Okinawa, Japan comes to mind) have a culture of reverse-in parking, which is far more common in those areas.

*(It would be interesting to know if there are US regions where reverse-in parking is more prevalent.)

While people think carbon monoxide will simply dissipate once a garage door is opened, it actually will sit and linger.

Are you suggesting there is a significant portion of the population that starts their vehicles with a closed garage door?

 

[TT97]

*(It would be interesting to know if there are US regions where reverse-in parking is more prevalent.)

Do Tesla Superchargers count?

 

[deemo]

I prefer creep off - better control and I don't see any advantage to creep.

Creep is a product of automatic transmissions in ICE vehicles, cars with manual transmissions don't have creep.

 

[Mark_T]

I prefer creep off - better control and I don't see any advantage to creep.

I prefer creep on - better control and I see several disadvantages to creep off....

 

[jerry33]

I would counter-suggest that, culturally, most people in the USA do not reverse into parking spots in general. Look at any parking lot anywhere* in the country.

While that's true, reverse parking is far safer from an accident point of view. The reason is that when backing in you've had a good view of the area while pulling up. When driving out you have the front view which is far more complete than the rear view. Many companies, particularly service companies, require their employees (when driving company vehicles) to back in.

 

[mswlogo]

I would respectfully suggest that the reason 80-90% of vehicles pull forward into their garage is that it is dangerous for ICE vehicles to sit in a garage backed in. When the car is started, carbon monoxide from the exhaust will gather at the rear of the vehicle rather than be exhausted out through the front of the garage into the air, particularly when a backed in ICE car is turned on to warm up. While people think carbon monoxide will simply dissipate once a garage door is opened, it actually will sit and linger. It really is quite dangerous. Obviously, with an electric vehicle, this danger vanishes in to the clean fresh air.

Regarding the to creep or not to creep, since I am getting delivery on Saturday (yay!), I can only speak from my test drive experience. While I could see myself getting used to it, driving my friend's Model 3, I found the absence of creep atypical. I say this as someone who has had two manual transmission ICE vehicles and two automatic transmission ICE vehicles (and an, obviously, manual transmission motorcycle).

Obviously, with automatic transmission, the familiarity is there. However, I did not find the creep off akin to my manual transmission experience either. In a manual transmission, the accelerator is not what determines the forward movement in 1st gear. It is the friction point balanced between the clutch and the accelerator. So I would control the amount of "creep" through a balance between the left foot (or left hand on a motorcycle) coming off the clutch and the right foot (or right hand on a motorcycle) pushing forward on the accelerator (or opening the throttle). With any new manual transmission, it would take a moment or two to find that friction point (and an embarrassing stall if I missed it), but once I found it, that's how I could control the creep.

I don't know what I will ultimately find most comfortable next week, but I would guess that I will ultimately like the creep on option. Time will tell...

That’s a great point that it is the “left” foot that controls creep with a clutch not really the right (some cars you don’t even need any gas). That’s probably why it feels more natural to have creep on after owning sticks for 30 years.

 

[jrh007]

Are you suggesting there is a significant portion of the population that starts their vehicles with a closed garage door?

No. I’m suggesting that CO will continue to linger in the unopened end of a open garage for a reverse parked ICE vehicle.

 

[jerry33]

No. I’m suggesting that CO will continue to linger in the unopened end of a open garage for a reverse parked ICE vehicle.

Depending upon the ventilation in the garage. A lot of garages have an outside door opposite the main door, so air flows between the two doors. And most garages leak a lot (at least in the warmer states). The Prius group calculated that it would take over a week to get enough O2 in an unopened garage with normal leakage to have enough to be fatal, assuming that no garage doors were ever opened and the Prius was left on. 'Course that doesn't apply to a normal ICE.

 

[Mediocrates]

While that's true, reverse parking is far safer from an accident point of view. The reason is that when backing in you've had a good view of the area while pulling up. When driving out you have the front view which is far more complete than the rear view. Many companies, particularly service companies, require their employees (when driving company vehicles) to back in.

Agreed. Furthermore, the goal would to be in reverse (with poorer visibility/control) in the situation where there are fewer variables. Reversing into a parking spot has (essentially) no other moving vehicles or pedestrians while in reverse - everything is static except the vehicle being driven.

It's a topic that seems to be rarely discussed (in general) in terms of driving improvements, yet there is a clear advantage to one approach. Of course...I say this as someone who parks forward-in 90% of the time, so I'm not exactly leading by example....

 

[beefster]

Creep off for me, feels more natural coming from manual transmission ICE. Creep on only seems to make sense if you frequently creep in a place where you cannot autopilot (parking garage) and might need to brake suddenly.

 

[RichieC]

I test drove a model 3 yesterday and loved it .. but i noticed the car has creep turned on and i turned it off which i much prefered. However i noticed that when on a hill stopped in traffic with my foot on the acceleraror "holding it" on the hill.. if i move my foot from the accellerator.to the brake to engage brake hold, the car rolls back a little .. is there any way to turn on brake hold or the parking brake with your foot on the accelerator in a situation like this? Seems like it needs an "auto brake hold" option that would turn on brake hold when it detects the car has been starionary for.more that a second or two...

 

[Peteski]

I test drove a model 3 yesterday and loved it .. but i noticed the car has creep turned on and i turned it off which i much prefered. However i noticed that when on a hill stopped in traffic with my foot on the acceleraror "holding it" on the hill.. if i move my foot from the accellerator.to the brake to engage brake hold, the car rolls back a little .. is there any way to turn on brake hold or the parking brake with your foot on the accelerator in a situation like this? Seems like it needs an "auto brake hold" option that would turn on brake hold when it detects the car has been starionary for.more that a second or two...

I just activate TACC/AP in that situation and then it just follows the traffic in front without ever rolling back. If I come to a dead stop on the brakes when not using TACC/AP, a further light press activates brake hold. I never use creep mode btw.

 

[RichieC]

Makes sense.. but there are situations where i can imagine you wouldnt want to use AP. I was wondering if there was a way to apply brake hold or the parking brake without pressing the brake pedal. Turning on creep does resolve this issue, but as i said i perfer it with creep off.