Hit a deer, where was the driver assisted features?

[nimrooz]

A good friend of mine just hit a full grown Angus cow on a rural two-lane blacktop near Moab, Utah with his 2017 90D. It was open range country, and a line of black cows were crossing the highway at dusk. He did not see the cow in his lane until very late; he then swerved, but hit a second cow in the other lane head on. The cow impacted the frunk, then the windshield (shattering it), and then the roof. The A-pilars held but are seriously bent. The airbags did not go off, and he and his wife in the passenger seat were totally unharmed. The car was actually drivable afterward, but the police would not allow it given the state of the windshield. The car is being flat-bedded back to the Denver area for assessment by a body shop and insurance. No word yet on whether it is repairable.

There was no warning or braking from AP2.0. I encouraged him to write an email to Tesla Service to report the incident, for their knowledge.

The passive safety features did their job, and saved my friends, but active safety— not so much.

Good it went well, but shouldn't atleast the airbags be released here?
I know it's the (G) shock sensors that decide this, but a big frigging cow? It would have scared the crap of me to hit a big cow... Like a moose, you are probably dead if they get their legs or anything in the cabin during a hit...

 

[Yaro]

Here's one where it detects some hogs

 

[nimrooz]

If only mine did that...

 

[dhanson865]

So, yesterday I hit a deer...
My model S is a 2017, about 4 months old, with autopilot etc, also I have the latest update.
Where all my driver assisted features sleeping? -because, it did not make a warning sound, it didn't brake, it did nothing at all...
Off course I didn't ram straight into it, but tried to steer away from the deer.
But not a single reaction was made by the car, I would have thought that it would register the deer, or am I wrong?
Visible damage is; hood, front left fender, grille, headlight, front bumper. Invisible damage that I noticed so far is possibly radar and sensors in the front/side, because after the hit it won't turn on any assisted driving features. Automatic high beam deactivated, cruise control deactivated, autopilot deactivated, park assist and summon deactivated, and off course the screen tells me to contact Tesla service...
But why didn't it do anything or make any sounds? Deer was bigger than a small person, so does that mean that my car don't register people either?

If you were actively using the pedals and steering wheel the car expects you to drive. Assistance comes into play if you aren't holding the wheel, don't brake, don't take any sort of corrective action.

Hitting the brakes or turning the wheel disengages TACC, AP, and even modifies the behavior for Emergency Brake Assist.

If you were active and the car could tell you were then it gives you final say on where and how to drive.

 

[nimrooz]

If you were actively using the pedals and steering wheel the car expects you to drive. Assistance comes into play if you aren't holding the wheel, don't brake, don't take any sort of corrective action.

If you were active and the car could tell you were then it gives you final say on where and how to drive.

I somewhat understand what you are saying, but it's worth noting that it's wrong also, because if I'm not active etc, the car just plain stops and turn on the warning signals and tell me to go and sleep...

In all or some of the videos you see posted in this thread, people are steering etc themselves, and car gives a warning, sometimes emergency brakes, etc.
This did not happen at all with my car.

 

[Jan Fiala]

Pitty that the cheapest Subaru with EyeSight works better...

 

[meomyo]

thats whats cool about Cadillac. They have some pretty advanced sensoring and detecting going on.
Lets all face it. Tesla is best at making the 1st real decent ev. But thats about it. The rest is really not up to par with such an expensive car. from fit and finish to luxury to sensoring. They know it and sure the nice laptop screen is cool and styling/lines design in tops in EV style and range is best avail but the guts are very weak in the s and the x to me. I drive in one every day and many times drive it and while it drives nice its really a no frills car-barebones if you will in so many departments more so then the m3 at 1/2 or more the cost.

 

[meomyo]

Pitty that the cheapest Subaru with EyeSight works better...

thats sad to hear but i wouldnt doubt it. I think the ms pricing will drop next year like a stone after the m3 is actually really out in showroon to testdrive and buy for reals. The 3 doesnt have any better sensors of course but at least its 1/2 or more the cost of the s with pretty same seating luxury/faster screen and other smaller yet duh type standard features in even kia's and now outbacks.

 

[SilkySmooth]

Here's one where it detects some hogs

So to be clear, is it the case that all these video incidents are AP1 and not 2, or is something else going on?

 

[nimrooz]

I'm also curious about that

 

[jeffro01]

Man there is an awful lot of postulation here... The fact of the matter is there isn't an available active safety feature on any car on the market today that is equipped to deal with a deer jumping into your cars path. Sure we can derail this thread further by going on and on about how every other manufacturer is better than Tesla, blah, blah, blah..., but that doesn't change the reality that what the OP experienced is not something that is addressable by any current/shipping hardware/software combination. Some of the anti-Tesla comments here are absurd so I won't address any of them directly but come on people...

Jeff

 

[stopcrazypp]

I'm pretty sure that once your foot touches the brake all of the driver assist features turn off as it assumes that you know best.

My first thought too. If you reacted faster than the system, it's not going to do anything, esp. if steering is involved.

And as pretty much all systems warn, they don't detect in all cases, which is why it's assistive only.

I should note that the manual does not point out animals as a category it detects either:
"Automatic Emergency Braking does not apply the brakes, or stops applying the brakes, when:
• You turn the steering wheel sharply.
• You press the accelerator pedal.
• A vehicle, motorcycle, bicycle, or pedestrian, is no longer detected ahead"
https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/model_s_owners_manual_north_america_en_us.pdf

 

[daniel]

Good it went well, but shouldn't atleast the airbags be released here?
I know it's the (G) shock sensors that decide this, but a big frigging cow? It would have scared the crap of me to hit a big cow... Like a moose, you are probably dead if they get their legs or anything in the cabin during a hit...

It doesn't matter how big the animal is. If the driver and passenger were unharmed when the air bags didn't deploy, then the airbags behaved properly. You don't want them to deploy unless needed.

If a moose goes through the windshield I don't think air bags will help.

 

[David.85D]

I would have ubered to town and returned with the best butcher I could hire....

Should be an app for that! iRoadKill ??

 

[Russell]

So to be clear, is it the case that all these video incidents are AP1 and not 2, or is something else going on?

I think the 1st incident looks fake, at least for Teslas with AP1.
I know AP1 reacts to vehicles and pedestrians in its lane, not beside it.
Plus the front end of that car dived a lot.

 

[TaoJones]

For what it's worth - I had a coyote run out of the median on the interstate, right into the front left fender of my MS (AP1), and I got no warnings, and I didn't even have time to brake.

The 'hidden' damage was much worse than the initial estimate for body work (went from $3500 to over $9000 after they got in to it).

Ah feels yer pain. Hit a Darwin Award-winning coyote in the middle of the night outside Needles (CA). By morning at Flagstaff, AP1 stopped working completely.

The nearest SvC along my route was St. Louis, who did *stellar* work in record time and remain to this day my favorite SC in the States.

That said, I got lucky compared to your experience. It was not a huge coyote and managed to go directly under the car, only moving the radar module off-kilter and leaving some fur and blood around the unit.

Re-centering the module after removing the front end/clip and recalibration were all that was necessary. Was back on the road in approx 2 hours.

Recently hit a substantial truck tire tread piece with the AP2 car. The cosmetic damage cleaned off nicely (Thank you Opticoat Pro Plus) but it could have been much worse.

In neither case, with either car (AP1 or AP2), was there any warning or braking provided. After not having any with AP1, I certainly did not expect any with AP2, and that has proven to be the case.

In this arena so far (detection of small human-sized objects), I believe Volvo and possibly even Subaru have a demonstrable lead.

Volvo now offers, for $600/mo, a subscription plan that includes maintenance and possibly insurance, for at least one of their SUVs. Presumably this plan will extend to their upcoming electric fleet.

The devil is in the details, but after I switch back to an AP1 car as a bridge for the next 2-3 years, it is going to be hard to justify not at least considering the competition if Tesla doesn’t get off the schneid in the AP arena.

Caveat being Tesla still holds the infrastructure (SC) lead and *that* means range is still king.

But you’d think they’d contend for the safety crown as well not just overall *but in all facets as well*.

 

[hacer]

Something that even the mid-range Volvos has for a decade or so..
And these days I saw commercials for B segment vehicles with this features (I wont even talk about 100k plus segment)

Volvos seem perfectly capable of striking deer at full speed.
Hit a deer on I-80, 30 miles west of Des Moines, IA
This Is What A Volvo S60 Looks Like After Hitting A 130kg Deer

 

[RogerHScott]

No word yet on whether it is repairable.

I'm betting it is, based on my own experience. These cars are so expensive that you can sink ridiculous (in absolute terms) amounts of money into repairing them and still come out ahead.

 

[dmode]

thats whats cool about Cadillac. They have some pretty advanced sensoring and detecting going on.
Lets all face it. Tesla is best at making the 1st real decent ev. But thats about it. The rest is really not up to par with such an expensive car. from fit and finish to luxury to sensoring. They know it and sure the nice laptop screen is cool and styling/lines design in tops in EV style and range is best avail but the guts are very weak in the s and the x to me. I drive in one every day and many times drive it and while it drives nice its really a no frills car-barebones if you will in so many departments more so then the m3 at 1/2 or more the cost.

Did I hear "cool about Cadillac" ? Sure, if you are 125 years old

 

[daniel]

Did I hear "cool about Cadillac" ? Sure, if you are 125 years old

My dad had a Cadillac when he was around 80. He called it an "old man's car" for such features as, if you don't close the door all the way, it will close itself. He liked that about it. He liked all its old-man features.