Daniel in SD
(supervised)
I assume what happens is that people think that their foot is already on the brake.
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Right, I think that too. What I believe happens in these "accidently stepped on the go pedal but thought it was the brake" situations is something along these lines:
1. Driver new to EVs and regen braking
2. Driver partially distracted (meaning any type of distraction, like looking at phone, talking to someone, fiddling with touchscreen, or even thinking heavily about whatever activity happens when they get wherever their destination is)
3. Driver starts to release the accelerator, car starts regen braking, all feels normal to the driver.
4. Driver realizes that they are not slowing down "enough" as their partial distraction snaps back into razor focus on whatever it is their car is approaching and going to hit due to "not slowing down enough"
5. Muscle and brain memory translates to them that the car is already slowing down. Since they are already slowing down, muscle / drive memory will communicate to them that their foot must already be on the brake... because they are slowing down.
6. They press harder on the "brake" to slow down more to avoid hitting whatever they were about to hit.
I believe all of that happens in a split second of semi conscious thought. When I first brought my model 3 home, it was my first EV. I turned ON creep mode, and turned regen braking down to low. This made the car drive much closer to what my ICE cars did. I only drove that way for a day or two, then turned off creep mode, and regen braking. I made SURE to be FULLY focused on the car during my commutes. No touching touch screen for anything, no bluetooth calls, no focus on what tasks I had to do at work or home when I was going to either place.. just focus on the car and what I was feeling.
I only drove like this (with this amount of focus on what the car was doing) for an additional couple of days, until I was comfortable that my muscle memory was aware of what THIS car was doing. Total of 3-4 days of "getting used" to the car. Everyone is different, but regen braking is foreign to people who are not EV drivers and can fairly easily cause the above confusion I think.
No statistics or anything, just my opinion.
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Oldschool496
Member
Thats the best analogy for the possibility of what is happening to many I have ever read.
No, you won't find anything when looking to substantiate events where pressing on the brake causes a car to accelerate. This is because it does not happen - neither in a Tesla, nor other cars.
People, however much they insist otherwise, do make mistakes, especially in crisis situations. Investigations of "unintentional acceleration" invariably lead to people stepping on accelerators.
In some situations, it was a stuck throttle - someone stepped on the accelerator and the throttle got stuck, so when they released the accelerator, the car continued to speed up. But that's a different situation than the Opening Post described... and a Tesla does not even have a throttle. (A throttle regulates fuel/air flow into a combustion engine.)
(And yes, I've actually researched this specific issue and have spoken with experts and adjusters; years ago, my elderly father rammed his non-Tesla car into his garage and felt certain he was pressing the brake as the car accelerated.)
Dan203
Active Member
Didn't they determine that in a few cases that was caused by faulty floor mats getting stuck under the pedals?
That being said the majority of these types of incidents are caused by driver error. Usually panic causes people to hit the wrong pedal and then when it doesn't behave as expected they just push it harder.
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