Driving Software Crash While Driving; Freaky Event, Developing

[thatheard]

TLR (or BLUF, for the military folks): Car driving software crashed while driving. Problem appears to have resolved itself after parking, situation developing.


Had a weird thing happen last night while driving in town. I was almost empty (6 miles left), and driving slow, when my stability control suddenly showed it was disabled. Then a bunch of other indicators went off, including traction control, ABS, and regenerative braking. The car continued to drive, however when I removed my foot from the pedal it felt as if I were maintaining speed, almost like I was in cruise control. Then the speedometer 'blue bar' started blinking, as well as the speedometer number. I didn't notice if anything else was blinking as I was a little concerned my car would take off and ram someone, and I was distracted by every idiot light on the dash being on at the same time.


I called in, and the tech confirmed he was seeing what I was seeing, but had no explanation for it. I parked and he continued to work on the car. He called about fifteen minutes later and said most of the indications had cleared when I put it in park.


I was able to drive it home with no further indicators and have driven it today with no indicators, but they're going to come out and look at it tomorrow. They now suspect the ABS module went bad, and took out all these other systems with it. Freaky.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Maybe you triggered the "sensor test mode"

Back in the 80's, I was looking at used cars on a dealer lot, including, I think, a Dodge Daytona (or maybe it was a Chrysler Laser), but the dodge version had all these "talking" voice alerts. I got in the car and started it up, and the system was running through about 10 different alerts in a curt female voice:

Brake System Failure
Coolant System Failure
Coolant Level Low
Battery Level Low
Engine Needs Service
Steering Fluid Low
... and about 5 others.

I didn't know if they were real alerts or a system test... but since the car wouldn't actually start, I left that one alone. I ended up buying a Mitsubishi Starion, which was such an awesome car to own back then.

Keep us posted if you learn anything new.

 

[ggr]

Maybe you triggered the "sensor test mode"

Back in the 80's, I was looking at used cars on a dealer lot, including, I think, a Dodge Daytona (or maybe it was a Chrysler Laser), but the dodge version had all these "talking" voice alerts. I got in the car and started it up, and the system was running through about 10 different alerts in a curt female voice:

Brake System Failure
Coolant System Failure
Coolant Level Low
Battery Level Low
Engine Needs Service
Steering Fluid Low
... and about 5 others.

I didn't know if they were real alerts or a system test... but since the car wouldn't actually start, I left that one alone. I ended up buying a Mitsubishi Starion, which was such an awesome car to own back then.

Keep us posted if you learn anything new.

A long time ago now, my roadster did something like this. It took ages to diagnose, but they eventually traced it to where the insulation rubbed off one of the CANBUS wires and when it shorted out it corrupted all the messages on the bus, with a result that looked like this.

 

[EarlyAdopter]

I had something very similar happen with an Audi. One of the wheel speed sensors went on the fritz and sent the stability control, traction control, and ABS systems into panic mode as they couldn't make sense of the spurious data coming in.

 

[green1]

I've had all the warning lights come on at once on one of my previous vehicles, combined with loss of power steering and power brake assist. Was not a fun event, turned out that the crankshaft pulley had fallen off while I was driving. Luckily a Tesla can't have that problem.

 

[trils0n]

I was driving with my boss a few months ago when one of the ABS or traction control sensors in his Infiniti went bad. Stability Control / ABS / Traction Control all disabled. But it took a while for the car to realize the sensors were sending faulty data -- it would randomly pulse the brakes of one wheel thinking it was slipping. Each restart of the car and it would have to relearn that the sensor was bad, and the crazy braking would continue for a few mins of driving. Was kinda scary to suddenly have one wheel's brakes slam on.

 

[mpbruin108]

About 3 weeks ago, I was driving on the 10 freeway here in LA at midnight and first the stereo turned off. Then the center ipad screen turned off. Then the ambiance light. I was afraid the rest of the car was going to turn off so I moved over to the right lane while still on freeway going 60mph. Luckily, after about another 2 minutes, the Tesla logo is seen on my ipad screen center console and the lights and radio come back. It was kind of freaky weird. First and last time that ever happened. I wonder if it was because my car was suppose to start charging around midnight every night but I was still driving.

Go fig.

 

[jerry33]

After the Prius was rear-ended (really hard) there was an undiscovered crack in the sensor array connection to the traction battery. After a few weeks it started throwing erroneous codes--hundreds of them, and of course I was on vacation at the time. This disabled all the braking safety controls and power brakes. I did discover (after a few hundred miles) that a power cycle would restore functionality for a while. Toyota did replace the traction battery at no charge because they don't replace just the sensor array connection. One of the more interesting codes was "Car has been driven less than six miles".

 

[bluetinc]

The car continued to drive, however when I removed my foot from the pedal it felt as if I were maintaining speed, almost like I was in cruise control.

Could this have been an after effect of having the regen braking disabled? I'm always amazed at how the car just continues to "go" when there is no regen. We got to enjoy that a number of times this winter . (Anyone can test this feeling for themselves by just shifting the car into neutral while coasting.)

Peter

 

[Electricfan]

I wonder if it was because my car was suppose to start charging around midnight every night but I was still driving.

Go fig.

That's a serious bug, if so. Did you report it to your service center?

- - - Updated - - -

One of the more interesting codes was "Car has been driven less than six miles".

That' funny, I like that! Reminds me of a quote the teacher shared in my first computer class in 1978 (I think it was Fortran) "To err is human, to really foul things up requires a computer"

 

[Kraken]

That's a serious bug, if so. Did you report it to your service center?

- - - Updated - - -



That' funny, I like that! Reminds me of a quote the teacher shared in my first computer class in 1978 (I think it was Fortran) "To err is human, to really foul things up requires a computer"

what he described sounded like a standard reboot to me. That's a pretty standard occurrence. I've only had it happen once without prompting though. I think it was just happenstance if it happened around the time he would have started charging if he was at home plugged in.

 

[thatheard]

Could this have been an after effect of having the regen braking disabled? I'm always amazed at how the car just continues to "go" when there is no regen. We got to enjoy that a number of times this winter . (Anyone can test this feeling for themselves by just shifting the car into neutral while coasting.)

Peter

That could be the case.

Update to the full thread: The ranger came up from Dallas on Friday, and looked at it. He saw all the codes, but couldn't see a specific reason why the problem should have happened.

Because the problem was safety related, we opted to send the car back with him so they can take an in depth look at it and try to figure out if there was something serious going on under the hood. Erm, processor. Where-ever serious stuff happens on space cars.

 

[Electricfan]

Hey thatheard, any updates on what they found after the ranger took the car back? Hope all is well.

 

[thatheard]

Hey thatheard, any updates on what they found after the ranger took the car back? Hope all is well.

Sorry for the slow turn on this, I replied to the thread I put on facebook but forgot to update this one. The short answer is they checked it out and didn't find anything. I haven't seen the problem repeat itself since. Original post from facebook below.

"Got my spacecar back yesterday with a clean slate. They'd taken her completely apart and tested every module, and all the wiring harnesses as well. For those of you who haven't been to a service center yet, they also washed it, charged it, and topped off the windshield wiper fluid. They never did decide what the issue was, but they reckon it's safe to drive. I'm just glad to have it back"

 

[mknox]

About 3 weeks ago, I was driving on the 10 freeway here in LA at midnight and first the stereo turned off. Then the center ipad screen turned off. Then the ambiance light. I was afraid the rest of the car was going to turn off so I moved over to the right lane while still on freeway going 60mph. Luckily, after about another 2 minutes, the Tesla logo is seen on my ipad screen center console and the lights and radio come back. It was kind of freaky weird. First and last time that ever happened. I wonder if it was because my car was suppose to start charging around midnight every night but I was still driving.

Yep, I had that once too. It was night and I was driving along in a completely darkened interior. No dash, no ambients... nothing. Thankfully the headlights stayed on and the car drove normally. In my case it lasted about 15 minutes and then the dash and center screen each went through their boot up process and all systems came back.

 

[JakeP]

MKnox, are you on a scheduled charge setting, and was that when it happened?

 

[mknox]

MKnox, are you on a scheduled charge setting, and was that when it happened?

I do use the charge scheduler, but I was about 30 minutes into an hour or so drive when it happened. It was quite a few months ago and never repeated (fingers crossed!)

 

[mpbruin108]

That's a serious bug, if so. Did you report it to your service center?

- - - Updated - - -



That' funny, I like that! Reminds me of a quote the teacher shared in my first computer class in 1978 (I think it was Fortran) "To err is human, to really foul things up requires a computer"

No, I never reported it to tesla. I lt hasnt happened again but then again, i havent driven past midnight since. I did have my annual service 2 weeks ago and they didn't mention anything. I'm assuming they also updated my software too. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[JakeP]

This really makes the computer programmer in me want to set up a scheduled charge, and then be driving right when that time arrives, to see if the problem can be replicated.

 

[ckessel]

This really makes the computer programmer in me want to set up a scheduled charge, and then be driving right when that time arrives, to see if the problem can be replicated.

My scheduled charge start is at 10pm and I know for sure I've been driving multiple times at that point.