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I had an auto park malfunction / accident. Any one else?

Would you still use auto park if you had an accident like I did

  • Yes. I believe in Tesla and it was a one off incident

  • No way


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Posted this earlier here on the main forum but since it happened in Hong Kong I thought I should share my experience here too (with more local details).

Earlier I used the auto park function in Hong Kong to parallel park my car. I had used the function maybe 4-5 times before and had no trouble.

Here is happened.

Location: Small public parking near Happy valley race course
1. I drove past the parking spot 1 (i wanted to park in) slowly it did not register as available on the system
2. I thought maybe the radar just didn’t detect it
3. ! continued driving forward as i saw another spot up ahead (spot 2 - see diagram below)

car1-car2-spot1-car3-spot2-car4-car5
——>

4. when i got to the position of car4. the parking indicator came up and I shifted to reverse and initiated auto park.

5. the car then proceeded to reverse at 15km/h, much faster than I expected in a parking lot (passing spot2) and so I immediately stepped on the brakes.

6. After the car stopped I realized maybe the car probably wants to park in spot1 and so i released the brakes for it to continue.

7. the tesla then continued reverse (at a fast 15km/h) and scraping car3 until i rammed the brakes again to stop it. See picture attached to see damaged. (I paid the owner of car3 HK$6000 to settle)


I contacted Tesla in the next day and told them about the incident. They requested to check up on the car. However after 3 days of getting the car they called and said understand it was a malfunction but there was nothing they could do and if i wanted to get the damage on my car fixed it would be around HK$52000 (multiple panels damaged).


I am a huge fan of Tesla and overall very pleased with my S. However the way Tesla has handled this incident has really disappointed me. I have not used the auto park function anymore as I have lost faith in the function and can’t afford another malfunction. There was nothing I could have done to prevent the accident as the car was moving way too fast in a such close quarters for me to react. I am glad the tesla hit a car and not a person. Although auto-park is a new technology my expectation was that it may not always work (unable to complete the parking) but I should not have to worry about it malfunctioning and hitting an object. Just like I would expect the brakes to stop the car everytime and not only sometimes. This is an auto park fail in my mind

Although I still love driving my Tesla I am weary of using any of their "auto" functions (after this accident
bG59n
I wouldn't dare use the auto-pilot, which is a shame). I hope everyone else has a better experience than me. Please let me know if anyone else has had anything similar happen.
 

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First of all, really sorry to hear about your misfortune. I just got my car about 10 days ago and although I love many of the features, I also have some reservations about autopilot and auto parking. I've tried the parking a few times now and I'm pretty nervous each time. Perhaps it's more of an issue with the size of the spaces here. I have resorted to just parking it myself. After hearing your story, I'm even less likely to try it unless the space is huge.

As for the bit about the response from Tesla, I am not surprised. When I got my car, I noticed a number of misalignments and demanded them to fix the problems. My so called DS told me it would take a day at their body shop. I called the body shop and they said 5 days minimum. I calculated the loss I would suffer from leaving the car there for 5 days (taxi fare, lost parking fees) and asked them to at least refund me some of that amount. Nothing from them yet. They're basically ignoring me. Generally good product but rely shoddy customer service. It's a new car and there should be zero defects. Now I have to suffer a financial loss for their incompetence.

Anyway, sorry again about your ordeal. Thanks for putting it up here. I'll be more careful with some of those features from now on.
 
Really sorry to hear about the incident, and it looks "painful" (both financially and the cars...).

Just like any new technologies, "auto park" and other features of MS / MX generally work in 99.9% of the cases, it's the 0.1% (probably less in real life) that's giving everyone a headache (it's probably safe to say that 99.9% of Samsung Note 7 are safe to use statistically). Unfortunately, the system / feature is not 100% fool-proof and there may be a disclaimer somewhere from Tesla on using this feature.

Not sure how serious is this malfunction, if this is something quite obvious and they could control within reasonable means (such as the incidents surrounding Takata airbags / GM switches), Tesla should own up and pay for the damage. Otherwise, it'd be pretty tough to get Tesla (or other manufacturers) to pay for it. You can always hire a good lawyer, but the trouble is not worth it really...
 
sorry to hear that, but just one comment: maybe you forgot to initiate the Autopark in the 17" screen and just released the brake after shifted to "R" (it happened to me twice but luckily i stopped the car as i felt it reversed too fast)
 
Point 5 and 6 explain everything

if you touch the brake after autopilot is initiated, It inactivates it. It will not just turn back on. If you then take your foot off the brake, you will roll if on an incline (unless you depress the brake hard enough to activate H mode) or if creep mode is activated, will be powered backwards. You cannot just release the brake for autopilot to continue.

basically, you touch the brake...no more autopilot...its off, and you are on your on.