Today I had the most frightening driving experience of my entire life. It was raining heavily and I was going about 60 mph on the freeway in my model 3 standard, 3 months new. Suddenly I lost all traction and was slipping side to side +/-90 degrees from the direction of traffic. I immediately took my foot off the accelerator and tried to slow down but didn’t brake. I swung 180 degrees each way about 5 times. Luckily no one hit me but I was taking up three lanes as I careened all over the freeway. I can’t believe how easily the model 3 loses traction in the rain. This is unacceptable. I would not recommend this car especially to anyone who lives in a rainy climate.
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Has anyone suddenly started hydroplaning in rain? [tires were bald]
- Thread starter Ngpngie
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dashcam video or it didn't happen!
j/k, but why do you think the Model 3 is any easier to hydroplane than any other car on the market? Your car is new. Your car's tires are new. It could be a patch of water on the roadway, your tires' pressure, a bump on the road surface, oil slick on the roadway, your car's wheel alignment is off, or something else. There are a lot of Model 3s in many rainy areas. Do you think your incident is representative to all these Model 3s in all these rainy cities? What do you think that is unique to the Model 3 that makes it easy to hydroplane?
But really, do you have the video of the incident? You should have it in the dashcam's recording.
j/k, but why do you think the Model 3 is any easier to hydroplane than any other car on the market? Your car is new. Your car's tires are new. It could be a patch of water on the roadway, your tires' pressure, a bump on the road surface, oil slick on the roadway, your car's wheel alignment is off, or something else. There are a lot of Model 3s in many rainy areas. Do you think your incident is representative to all these Model 3s in all these rainy cities? What do you think that is unique to the Model 3 that makes it easy to hydroplane?
But really, do you have the video of the incident? You should have it in the dashcam's recording.
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(personal opinion post only, not representing TMC or anyone other than myself, as a regular poster)
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Hydroplaning is generally (but not always) a tire issue, combined with a driver issue. Going too fast for conditions, and hitting water that causes your tires to lose contact with the ground is hyrdoplaning.
When you are driving on a freeway and a car starts to hyrdoplane, the safest thing to do is slowly stop accelerating and wait for your tires to catch the ground again, as they will do so.
"Slipping side to side" would only be because you turned the wheel aggressively when hydroplaning, and when you "immediately took your foot off the accelerator" like you would have done in a non tesla vehicle, you did the equivalent of braking, while hydroplaning (and likely turning the wheel at the same time, based on your comment).
Where you loose me, frankly, is the "I cant believe how easily a model 3 loses traction in the rain. This is unacceptable" statement as if it could not have happened in any other car.
The other place you lose me, is, calling "LA" a "rainy climate". I have lived in So. Cal my entire life, all around it, including LA, and Southern California is not a rainy climate. All the accidents that happens when there is even a little water on the road will tell you that. In fact, its likely that, because its actually NOT a rainy climate, combined with the car being new to you, is at least partially to cause for this issue. It certainly isnt an issue with the car though, as 100s of thousands of people drive these cars in much worse conditons than the rain we have had here in the past few days and there is no epidemic of teslas hydroplaning all over the place.
TL ; DR -- this is likely caused by going too fast for the conditions, being unlucky and hitting a puddle of water, then taking the wrong actions after, not a "model 3" issue.
To head off the inevitable comment of whether I am a tesla fanboy or something, no I am not. Tesla does a lot of things wrong, but a hyrdoplaning car is not a "tesla model 3" issue.
Slow down and stop blaming your stupid driving on a make/model of vehicle.
The Model 3 is easily the best car I've driven when it comes to dealing with standing water.
Without more information from the OP it's impossible to say what happened in their situation, but I love the way people find things 'totally unacceptable' and blame the car/Tesla when something happens to them or the car and they can't explain it.
I'd also add that "swinging 180 degrees in both directions 5 times" is impossible. A few degrees of yaw feels like a full on drift to most drivers. I suspect the car corrected a bit of sideways action a few times and the driver over-reacted and swerved around on the highway as a result of too much steering input. In general, if you don't do anything with the steering wheel the car will get you out of these situations itself using the torque vectoring, but the driver often tenses up, grips the wheel for dear life and makes things worse.
The best way to prevent this in the future? Go along to a skid pan and learn how to handle your car in low grip situations in a safe environment with an instructor.
Without more information from the OP it's impossible to say what happened in their situation, but I love the way people find things 'totally unacceptable' and blame the car/Tesla when something happens to them or the car and they can't explain it.
I'd also add that "swinging 180 degrees in both directions 5 times" is impossible. A few degrees of yaw feels like a full on drift to most drivers. I suspect the car corrected a bit of sideways action a few times and the driver over-reacted and swerved around on the highway as a result of too much steering input. In general, if you don't do anything with the steering wheel the car will get you out of these situations itself using the torque vectoring, but the driver often tenses up, grips the wheel for dear life and makes things worse.
The best way to prevent this in the future? Go along to a skid pan and learn how to handle your car in low grip situations in a safe environment with an instructor.
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MasterC17
Active Member
I would echo the above comments, but I am also curious how many miles you have put on the car in those 3 months? I'm also assuming you have the 18" wheels and tires?
Glad you are OK, OP. Where did you find a freeway around here that you were able to fishtail around like that without crashing into somebody (or being crashed into)? Anyway, thanks for posting this. I actually had not considered the ramifications of taking my foot off the accelerator if/when the M3 loses traction, and now I will.
My car has the standard wheels and has 7k miles. I would agree that the massive hydroplaning on the freeway was driver error except for the fact that my husband and I are experiencing significant traction loss and more minor hydroplaning episodes on rainy surfaces on the freeway and city roads. I am shocked at the lack of others reporting this. Do you think I should take it in to Tesla and ask for an alignment service? Also please save snarky comments for your family.
Which says to me you are not used to the feeling of lack of traction at the rear when accelerating and that feeling is leading to a panic reaction which just makes it worse. Seriously, find a skid pan and learn how RWD works in low grip situations and how to drive in slippery conditions. Some of the road surfaces in LA and Ca are not exactly high-grip in the wet. You need to anticipate what might happen and smooth out your inputs.
Agree I need to be much readier for this but I don’t plan on ever driving on the freeway again in rainy conditions. I encourage people to google about this issue. There are others out there reporting on this. There is even a dash cam YouTube post on it. Unfortunately my dashcam did not capture the incident. There is a guy named Dr Yan Lyansky who posted an opinion on this. Read it!
If this is how you feel, then you likely need to sell the car while the market is good, and get a car you believe does not have this issue. Google what, "hydroplaning cars?"
With the internet being what it currently is, one can find a youtube video on absolutely everything, including things like "the earth is flat", so googling about hydroplaning teslas I am sure will turn up posts, just like googling hydroplaning BMWs / Kias / Mercedes, etc etc.
Well post the YT link and we can take a look and comment, but unless your car is defective in some way there is no general issue with the Model 3 in this respect I can assure you. There are a lot of very experienced drivers here who take their cars on track and push them to the limits in all conditions and we would have found any inherent defects like that by now.
Regardless of how new your car is you should check the tyres regularly for tread depth and damage. It's unlikely the alignment is out enough to cause a serious handling issue, but worth you getting it checked for peace of mind. There's a remote possibility something else is wrong with your particular car, so again if you still believe what happened was unusual get it checked at a service centre.
If you fall off a horse, the best thing to do is get back on it. Being fearful of driving in the wet forever more isn't the answer because one day you might have to.
Not a Tesla fan boy here. Model 3 is certainly far from perfect. All cars can hydroplane given the right condition and lack of driving skills.
Noob user error, really, and blames the car. If hydroplaning once while going too fast and decides not to drive in the rain ever again, then thank you on behalf of all other drivers who would on the road near you.
I say this not to troll you. I want other folks to read this in the future know to ignore your comment about not recommending this car for owners in rainy areas.
There are many reasons to not recommend Model 3 to others. Easy hydroplaning is not one of them.
Noob user error, really, and blames the car. If hydroplaning once while going too fast and decides not to drive in the rain ever again, then thank you on behalf of all other drivers who would on the road near you.
I say this not to troll you. I want other folks to read this in the future know to ignore your comment about not recommending this car for owners in rainy areas.
There are many reasons to not recommend Model 3 to others. Easy hydroplaning is not one of them.
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Stewart
2021 MY, blue/black FSD & Tow
So I’m going to way in here with my experience, with MY. For those that are familiar with the area, (southeast of Seattle)northbound 167 at 11:30pm heavy rain. I was having trouble identifying where the lanes where. As there was little traffic I engaged AP it locked onto the lane, very surprised but happy. When there was a significant loss of traction (hydroplaning) , AP let me know that I needed to take control. Granted RWD and AWD certainly have different handling dynamics, but never had any radically loss of control. Very happy with the control of the MY, just my $.02 worth!
CarlThompson
Member
I live in NorCal and here it rains a lot every winter. I drove a RWD Model 3 here for 4 years (just sold it) and it handled better in the rain than most cars I've had (a lot).
But I agree with jjrandorin. Regardless of the car you must know how to handle hydroplaning safely. Rule #1 for everything is always travel at the appropriate safe speed for the conditions. Lots of people in CA don't seem to get this rule, unfortunately. If there is standing water in the roadway you should be able to see it in time day or night to react properly if you are driving at the speed you need to be. You want to put yourself in a position where you don't need to turn the wheels while you're in the puddle. You also want the car to be coasting... not accelerating or decelerating. Finally, you want to make sure you are running on tires with a reasonable amount of tread remaining that can handle lots of water if you can. If you follow those rules you can handle any car safely in the rain.
I'll add that if the conditions are wet and you suspect there may be standing water on your route then you may want to select the lowest amount of regen your car allows. This will make it easier to coast if you hit a patch of water. Tesla has removed the option to select regen level on newer cars and I think they should reconsider that decision because there are some conditions like this where lower regen may be safer.
One more thing... You probably already know this but if it has been dry for a very long time before the rain then the first few days of rain the roads are MUCH slicker than after it's been raining for a while. This is because all the oils that have seeped into the road during the dry time float to the surface during those first rains making the road slippery. After it's been raining for a while the oils get washed away and the roads aren't as treacherous. In CA it can be completely dry for months at a time so this is common when the rains start.
But I agree with jjrandorin. Regardless of the car you must know how to handle hydroplaning safely. Rule #1 for everything is always travel at the appropriate safe speed for the conditions. Lots of people in CA don't seem to get this rule, unfortunately. If there is standing water in the roadway you should be able to see it in time day or night to react properly if you are driving at the speed you need to be. You want to put yourself in a position where you don't need to turn the wheels while you're in the puddle. You also want the car to be coasting... not accelerating or decelerating. Finally, you want to make sure you are running on tires with a reasonable amount of tread remaining that can handle lots of water if you can. If you follow those rules you can handle any car safely in the rain.
I'll add that if the conditions are wet and you suspect there may be standing water on your route then you may want to select the lowest amount of regen your car allows. This will make it easier to coast if you hit a patch of water. Tesla has removed the option to select regen level on newer cars and I think they should reconsider that decision because there are some conditions like this where lower regen may be safer.
One more thing... You probably already know this but if it has been dry for a very long time before the rain then the first few days of rain the roads are MUCH slicker than after it's been raining for a while. This is because all the oils that have seeped into the road during the dry time float to the surface during those first rains making the road slippery. After it's been raining for a while the oils get washed away and the roads aren't as treacherous. In CA it can be completely dry for months at a time so this is common when the rains start.
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You did five, 180 degree corrections and never went more than 90 degrees in the car?
You should apply for your formula 1 license, because I think you did something that most of us never knew was possible.
You should apply for your formula 1 license, because I think you did something that most of us never knew was possible.
CarlThompson
Member
Personally I would not use AP in the rain. I doubt that it could anticipate/feel/handle a hydroplaning situation anywhere near as well as you.
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