Crunch! Falcon Wing Doors fail to sense obstacle

[int32_t]

I think the best way to fix it and agreed by the SC manager is to include additional sensors on the joint of the door, sensor has to face up. So this way when FWD goes up, the joint is the highest raising part of the door, that additional sensor will play a critical role to stop the joint and FWD will stop. People can just duck it and crawl out. At lease your door will be saved. I really don't know how inconvenience this might cause to handicap people sitting in the back.

Yes, except the highest point of the door doesn't really matter with these concrete beams. Sensors at the highest point would help in a flat-roofed building, but a protruding beam can hit just about anywhere. Unlike a normal door where you must watch "out and around," with a Falcon Wing Door you just have to watch "up." The doors seem to take care of the "out and around" part just fine. I can't imagine it would be that difficult, given the large proportion of glass on the roof, to check for vertical obstructions that aren't flat (flat ones being surfaces which seem to be obvious to the door).

It would be tough to remember to look up when in a tight space I suppose. I'm not certain that this problem can be cured by simply throwing more sensors at it, though. The doors are already bristling with enough sensors to avoid 99% of obstacles out there. And updating the software won't help avoid obstacles the sensors can't see. This is quite the edge-case engineering issue we have here, maybe just find a parking spot that's not under a concrete beam for now? We avoid parking spots that are too narrow to open our normal car doors in, so since that's no longer such a big deal with the X, look for spots that don't have headroom restricted in an uneven manner instead.

Condolences to the folks with <cringe> scraped Model X doors. I can't imagine the moment you hear the crunch.

As an avid cyclist, being "doored" is one of my worst fears. With that said, I never wear earbuds and I am extra ultra vigilant when riding along a row of street parked cars.

At least Model X doors can't be thrown open fast enough to catch you by surprise. I, too, keep my distance from rows of parked cars when I'm cycling. My dad very nearly got it real bad on his daily cycling commute to work once ... at the bottom of a steep hill!

 

[goneskiian]

At least Model X doors can't be thrown open fast enough to catch you by surprise. I, too, keep my distance from rows of parked cars when I'm cycling. My dad very nearly got it real bad on his daily cycling commute to work once ... at the bottom of a steep hill!

Yup. When I'm really moving I ride out in the lane with the traffic for that very reason.

 

[ohmman]

When fully open, yes. When in the process of opening, they would be if we could tell them to open like they were parked 6 inches away from another vehicle. But with nothing there, they will swing pretty wide in the arc to fully open.

Additionally, correcting yourself with a traditional door means rapidly pulling back your hand which is already moving the door. It's a very natural motion. Correcting yourself with the falcon wing door is much less straightforward, and I'd argue would never be quick enough anyway.

I definitely do not want to restart the decapitation discussion. However, there is a dooring risk with FWDs, and I'd argue it's slightly greater than with traditional doors. @goneskiian has excellent advice. Just like you should already be doing with your traditional vehicle doors, please be extra cautious in areas where cyclists are active. I had a friend sent to the hospital from a pretty gnarly dooring incident.

Yup. When I'm really moving I ride out in the lane with the traffic for that very reason.

When in doubt, always take your lane.

 

[aesculus]

Sounds like a good idea when we park on streets where cyclists could be prevalent we might want to get out of the car first, then move to the rear of FWD facing oncoming traffic and use the fob to open the door. That way we can warn, or at least act as a block, for oncoming cars or cyclists. Sort of a human traffic cone.

Or better yet just open the curb side FWD. Note in SF, and I bet in most major cities, the taxis are prohibited from asking or even allowing you to exit the vehicle streetside.

 

[ohmman]

Or better yet just open the curb side FWD.

Of course being careful that there's not a green lane to the inside of the row of parked cars; this is intended to protect the cyclists from moving traffic. But agree - in most cases that's the better choice. I do this with my kids anyway because I don't want them jumping out into a busy street.

 

[goneskiian]

Sounds like a good idea when we park on streets where cyclists could be prevalent we might want to get out of the car first, then move to the rear of FWD facing oncoming traffic and use the fob to open the door. That way we can warn, or at least act as a block, for oncoming cars or cyclists. Sort of a human traffic cone.

Or better yet just open the curb side FWD. Note in SF, and I be most major cities, the taxis are prohibited from asking or even allowing you to exit the vehicle streetside.

Curbside! Yes please!

 

[xkwizit]

Oh what..one cannot get out of Model X on street side without potentially decapitating a cyclist...that's a serious reliability issue that Tesla must take responsibility for.

 

[vangogh]

Or one can follow the warning in the manual...Just say'n

Warning: Before opening or closing a
falcon wing door, it is important to check
that the area around the door is free of
obstacles (people and objects). Although
the doors have many sensors, it can not
detect all objects at all times, particularly
when moving. At any given moment,
there may be areas near the door that are
not in the detection zone. Therefore,
when opening or closing a falcon wing
door, you and your passengers must
stand away from the door as it is moving,
while proactively monitoring the door's
movement and being prepared to take
corrective action at any time. To stop a
door from moving, single-click the falcon
wing door button on the key.

 

[EnergyMax]

Wouldn't a FWD encroach less into the bike lane than a standard door like the front door?

Agreed. As a cyclist who currently rides to work everyday in Chicago, I never ride within several feet of parked cars. Anyone (City of Chicago), who advocates this is advocating serious injury. I always take the lane when passing parked cars.

If you don't take the lane, you will get doored.

IOW bikes and Model X are more compatible than wide opening doors.

 

[Blastphemy]

Or one can follow the warning in the manual...Just say'n

Warning: Before opening or closing a falcon wing door, it is important to check that the area around the door is free of obstacles (people and objects)...

Yes, that's already been quoted in this thread more than three times. Thank you for another one. I don't get people who think just because the manual says something that problems aren't going to happen. It's all well and good for the manual to say, "look around," but in a real-world situation, there's usually a heck of a lot more going on than any manual can address. The most eloquent response to all these "read the manual" posts was by FoxXxy:

Manuals aren't perfect, and many people frequently discount some of the seemingly overblown warnings. For example, the Model X manual states, "Warning: Do not adjust seats while driving." I'm sure none of you have ever adjusted your seats while the car is in motion. (If Tesla truly felt that strongly about it, they'd have disabled seat adjustments while the car is in motion. That line was written by a lawyer worried about potential liability, not a safety officer.)

I'm also sure no one has a seatbelt pad on their strap, even though the manual states, "Warning: Never place anything between you and the seat belt to cushion the impact in the event of an accident." And I'm sure everyone keep both hands firmly on the wheel when AutoPilot is on and never get the warning beeps.

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.

Hopefully all the Model X mothers who don't read this forum have more "common sense" than some of you think my husband lacks, or there are going to be a lot more of these accidents. That was not a small obstacle above our car, and since neither I nor my husband is a physics professor or mechanical engineer, and we weren't able to evaluate our tricorder readings of the angular momentum fast enough, it didn't seem likely to either of us that something so large could be missed by the technologically marvelous falcon wing doors, regardless of the shape of the parking spot in relation to the direction of the two-foot-wide, 100-foot-long structural beam.

 

[Sri Kooturu]

When is the optimum height needed in garage after the garage door opens, so that falcon wing doors don't open incompletely and have enough ingress/egress space. I have 85 inches in my garage after the garage door opens completely

 

[hill]

Yes, that's already been quoted in this thread more than three times. Thank you for another one. I don't get people who think just because the manual says something that problems aren't going to happen. It's all well and good for the manual to say, "look around," but in a real-world situation, there's usually a heck of a lot more going on than any manual can address. The most eloquent response to all these "read the manual" posts was by FoxXxy:

You can never warn folk of the obvious too many times;

this is NOT a reference to the OP. That said;
In MANY states, we are a society that caters to the lowest denominator.
In other states, people do things at their own peril. The advantage of this system is, that said philosophy often thins out the chromosomes that we might not necessarily want passed on to the next generation. I might include myself in this group, as there were many a time that I "tested the odds"

.

 

[Seesaw]

The car should flash two or three times the turn signals on the side of the car that the door is opening. Cyclists would naturally veer away from the car if they see the turn signals flashing as they approach.

... OR maybe it would be confusing and do more harm than good

 

[nick_083]

My local Tesla store graciously agreed to bring Model X into my garage today so I can "test-open" the FWDs. We tried it in the "very low" suspension setting and it worked like a charm (with about 1cm clearance before the garage door track). Unfortunately in the "normal" suspension setting it didn't get enough clearance and it also didn't "see" the tracks... so the next thing you know is BANG!... FWD is hitting the garage door track pretty hard. The good news is that there was no visible damage on the FWD... Did anyone else had this issue?

 

[Sri Kooturu]

My local Tesla store graciously agreed to bring Model X into my garage today so I can "test-open" the FWDs. We tried it in the "very low" suspension setting and it worked like a charm (with about 1cm clearance before the garage door track). Unfortunately in the "normal" suspension setting it didn't get enough clearance and it also didn't "see" the tracks... so the next thing you know is BANG!... FWD is hitting the garage door track pretty hard. The good news is that there was no visible damage on the FWD... Did anyone else had this issue?

How much is your garage height to the track?
I thought mine was 85, it turns out to be 89.5 inches

 

[nick_083]

How much is your garage height to the track?
I thought mine was 85, it turns out to be 89.5 inches

Mine is almost 90 inches as well

 

[ohmman]

How much is your garage height to the track?
I thought mine was 85, it turns out to be 89.5 inches

This post shows mine open in my garage, where the rails are at 88.5". There are some other measurements provided as well.

 

[Sri Kooturu]

This post shows mine open in my garage, where the rails are at 88.5". There are some other measurements provided as well.

Thanks a lot! That gives me a sigh of relief

 

[K-MTG]

Ouch! I hope I don't run into that problem, my rails are kind of low. I don't think I can move it higher, can I?

 

[ohmman]