Crunch! Falcon Wing Doors fail to sense obstacle

[Mark Z]

...The hard thing about these doors is that you can't open them manually,,,

Actually, you can move them manually, it's just a lot of work.

There is another way to open and close the falcon wing doors that can give a lot of control. Use the key fob to start and stop the door movement. With some practice, the doors can be positioned carefully. That doesn't help if you stop the doors without damage, but then the key fob press raises the door and damages it.

I would suggest to use the inside control on the pillar to close the door when it is open or the lit red button to close the falcon wing door. The touch screen can also be used to start and stop door movement and control raising and lowering.

 

[Dr ValueSeeker]

What does all that have to do with what happened to my car? Well, nothing really... apples to oranges. But I wanted to write it for the sanctimonious few who are so perfect that they never misjudge or misinterpret a function or feature, and feel the need to assert ad nauseam that the manual is a holy text from which one should never deviate. Sure, every operation of the car should be monitored closely by the driver and her passengers, but watching all the demonstrations Tesla has done that show how well the falcon wing doors avoid obstacles may have given many people the misplaced confidence that those doors are infallible. Now we know they're not.

Opening a car door inside a parking garage seems like a very common operation. No one should expect the operator to measure out clearances and check the manual for these simple operations. If the door could be manually operated, there could be a tiny question mark. But these are automatic. People can't be all Einsteins to just open a car door.

Do not bother about the "sanctimonious few" Tesla apologists. They are most likely Tesla shareholders or fanatics, who feel (or pretend) that Tesla can do no wrong. They descend down on every thread to defend Tesla no matter what, and try to dismiss the issues brought up.

I'm actually wondering, when Tesla will issue a recall for these doors. Thy seem to be having an awful lot of issues for everyone.

 

[Lump]

Posted on Facebook...
Be extra careful in parking garages.. Our model X did not detect this concrete cross beam and hit it pretty hard when opening.. Luckily minimal damage to door..

 

[BornToFly]

Posted on Facebook...
Be extra careful in parking garages.. Our model X did not detect this concrete cross beam and hit it pretty hard when opening.. Luckily minimal damage to door..
View attachment 172478 View attachment 172479

Houston, We have a problem....

 

[loganintx]

I'm a reasonable person and I would not think that doors prevented from opening while car is in motion would also mean that car is prevented from moving if doors are open.

 

[Skotty]

Tesla will most likely change the sensor configuration, possibly adding more sensors, to fix this problem. That would be my guess anyway. Maybe they will offer a recall to update the hardware in delivered cars. In the meantime, try not to park under any beams, and if you do, try to supervise the door opening.

 

[Just a Reader]

I would have considered the OP's parking situation and the one in #123 to be exactly the kind of situations where the sensors were supposed to kick in. A massive concrete beam in a parking garage - if they don't detect such a common and visible obstacle, then what are they really good for?

 

[Oyvind.H]

Celebrating my cancellation with a drink tonight.....

 

[fryfrye]

I think its time to flood contacts at Tesla with this to get them to enhance this system. this type of set up in a parking garage is WAY WAY to common for the system not to handle. I had assumed that there were height sensors on the part of the door the was actually "highest" during a opening that would stop this.

 

[eloder]

Given the photo documentation, I fully expect Tesla to pay for all damage incurred.

I think the Falcon Wings are awesome. They are not yet perfect, but I expect the software to get better, and suspect the door sensors are fine. It's the software that failed in this use case.

I'll try that with my non-FWD car, or my microwave when I put metal into it...

Based on the shape of the roof and the sensor positions of the FWD, it doesn't look like a FWD failure.

because in each case there was no expectation that that the car/laptop would prevent such damage

What's anti-virus software? Software designed to prevent a virus from causing harm? Much like the software governing how a FWD opens in an odd situation?

 

[Seesaw]

Curious on the thoughts of the Model X owners.

Do the doors need to open that high? I realise with the arc of the doors, the height allows for more clearance on the horizontal plane, but do they need to go up as high as they do?

When standing underneath them is there plenty of clearance above your head? Maybe they could flatten more when opening.

If they came down another 6 inches it would probably make a world of difference

 

[Redshift]

I am wondering what happens when you go to disneyland or somewhere where underground parking is the only option. You must park underneath a odd shape pillar or angular beam by theme parking rule or maybe that is the only parking space available. How you suppose to get out? hmmm... I guess we can exit from the other FWD or passenger and driver doors. What if you did not see the top beam? waaaaaa...

I guess we will learn asap when we break the door.

FWIW-I took my week old model X to Disneyland (I wanted to compare the acceleration to California Screamin'). The only hotel in the immediate area with a destination charger is the Anaheim Marriot. The Tesla-specific charger is in a parking structure with low overhead concrete beams. My fwd did not "see" the beam either. Luckily, mine was just a small scrape that should be repairable. I told both the hotel and Tesla, but I haven't heard back from either.

 

[TSLA Pilot]

From Page 6: "That appears to be broken glass...from the clearly broken window."

Actually, that's glass from the faux B-pillar at the forward edge of the FWD, just to be fully accurate. See OP pics in first entry for details.

 

[systemcrashed]

There is a very simple matter at hand here. Just like any mechanism that relies on input from sensors to restrict its motion, there is an inherent "blind-spot", particularly at a 45 degree angle to the joint of the FWD, if a sensor is added to eliminate this blind spot and add more control to its movement you will solve this. For most of us who do not park in low clearance garages, the existing sensors will work. So maybe a small fix for Tesla. Its a growing pain, not catastrophic for the FWD.

 

[JohnSnowNW]

From Page 6: "That appears to be broken glass...from the clearly broken window."

Actually, that's glass from the faux B-pillar at the forward edge of the FWD, just to be fully accurate. See OP pics in first entry for details.

Umm...thanks.

 

[Seesaw]

Also some risk mitigation through the doors opening flatter and maybe the opening speed slowing down once it gets into the final 30 degrees?

 

[Just a Reader]

.... For most of us who do not park in low clearance garages, the existing sensors will work. ....

I don't know about the US but here in Europe parking garages with this kind of obstructions are extremely common - even in new buildings.

 

[JohnSnowNW]

I don't know about the US but here in Europe parking garages with this kind of obstructions are extremely common - even in new buildings.

They either aren't common in my area, or I just haven't found them yet.

 

[systemcrashed]

I don't know about the US but here in Europe parking garages with this kind of obstructions are extremely common - even in new buildings.

Yes, in Europe this is very common. It is also common in more urban areas of the USA. Tesla will revisit the sensor configuration of the FWD this is going to be for certain. Whether or not it will be done for our model year remains to be seen , but I doubt it.

 

[McRat]

I don't know about the US but here in Europe parking garages with this kind of obstructions are extremely common - even in new buildings.

They are very common in the US as well. Hotels, airports, hospitals, downtown areas often have multilevel parking with low clearances. I'd estimate the average noted clearance is 7 feet.