Instrument Cluster Display Freeze

[Cottonwood]

My Model S has version 1.9.17 installed. After a long, 295 mile, drive yesterday, I had recharged the battery overnight and was running some errands. After giving a friend a demo drive, complete with a 0-60 acceleration demo, I put the car in park for him to get out, but noticed that the display did not go into park. I kept my foot on the brake and then drove off. I then noticed that the speed was staying at 0. As I drove more, I realized that the Instrument Cluster Display (behind the steering wheel) was frozen.

I tried turning off the car, charging, etc., but the display stayed frozen. The speed stayed at 0, and the odometer and time were frozen as well. It just stayed on when I locked the car. The car functioned normally, but the Instrument Cluster Display was frozen.

Because I am down in Pagosa Springs, a long way from the Denver Service Center, I sent a text to one of the techs there. He kindly sent me the trick to reset the Instrument Cluster Display by pushing and holding the top buttons on either side of the steering wheel. You have to hold for a while and the reboot of the display takes many 10's of seconds, but it fixed my problem. BTW, the reboot of the 17" Center Display is done by pushing and holding the scroll wheel buttons on the steering wheel.

There is a lot of info needed for driving the S on the Instrument Cluster Display, so I was happy to get it back.

 

[contaygious]

Thx for the info! Would be a good excuse for speeding though.

 

[doug]

Ruh-roh...

Glad they designed in a simple Ctrl-alt-del type reset instead of forcing you to unplug something under the hood, like another car we know.

 

[spatterso911]

Ruh-roh...

Glad they designed in a simple Ctrl-alt-del type reset instead of forcing you to unplug something under the hood, like another car we know.

true! so grateful for that!

 

[CyberDutchie]

The speed stayed at 0, and the odometer and time were frozen as well. It just stayed on when I locked the car.

Did the odometer continue to count the miles while the display was frozen?

 

[Cottonwood]

Did the odometer continue to count the miles while the display was frozen?

Yes, it did. In fact, you could see it counting on the center console when the trips page was selected, while the Instrument Cluster was frozen. Once the Instrument Cluster was rebooted, its display of the odometer caught up.

 

[Todd Burch]

Do they have some sort of log that their engineers can look through to track down the cause of the problem and fix it in a future software update?

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Do they have some sort of log that their engineers can look through to track down the cause of the problem and fix it in a future software update?

Hope they do. The developer mode screenshots from way back somewhere on these forums appeared to suggest that they do.

- - - Updated - - -

Said screen caps courtesy AndyM:
Model S Dashboard and console controls - Page 45

 

[stephenpace]

@Todd, I don't know, but my guess is they do for some issues. I've had my car two days, and the drivers display has gotten slight pixelation twice. A reboot has fixed it both times, but I'm not sure they'd want a report of each time someone rebooted. When the firmware upgrade comes for overnight charging, it might be nice to have an option to reboot the screens automatically when the charge finishes if they don't already.

The first time I charged at home I got an ominous message "Contact Tesla Support" on the driver's display, and a red exclamation with a "1" appeared in proximity to the 3G button, so I assumed that meant it might be sending the reason to Tesla. I started to contact my Delivery Specialist when a few seconds later the error cleared, so whatever it was apparently was a recoverable and/or a fluke. If it happens again, I will take a quick photo.

 

[vfx]

Comsider the Roadster gives thousand of data streams when they do a full bleed test I imagine the S logging is in the millions.

 

[ddenboer]

I wouldn't doubt that the S is sending stuff passively to Tesla all the time. If they didn't do that, it would be foolish. I have a project where we are constantly logging 40k iPad's to a central server so we can diagnose problems in our custom software before they occur. 40k is not a high number, so a few thousand cars should be manageable.

 

[Zzzz...]

reset the Instrument Cluster Display by pushing and holding the top buttons on either side of the steering wheel

Ruh-roh...

Glad they designed in a simple Ctrl-alt-del type reset instead of forcing you to unplug something under the hood, like another car we know.

Reminds me...

Once upon a time, a Russian pilot of Airbus, whose family was on the flight let his children to "fly" the airplane. He engaged autopilot and let them play with controls. Controls were supposedly disabled. Daughter found flying airliner boring enough to be on her way in couple minutes. His son on the other hand enjoyed experience. At one moment he pushed control all the way to the left. And held it in that position for a while. Airbus engineers implemented this push and hold as an alternative way to disengage autopilot. Pilot have not read Airbus user manual carefully enough or something.

There was no copilot in the seat. And father was at the back of the cockpit chitchatting with someone. Boy's action only partly disengaged autopilot. Still working parts of autopilot by trying to compensate stalled airliner. G-forces during nose dive acceleration pushed father even back. Long story short, no one survived.

I hope while Tesla implemented QUOTE:"simple Ctrl-alt-del type reset", QUOTE:"pushing and holding" for a while something on the steering wheel wont reset anything more important then Instrument Cluster....

If you want to Google the Airbus story, you can use "Flight 593". But most descriptions on the Internet could be described as incomplete at best.

 

[vfx]

Reminds me......, no one survived.

I hope while Tesla implemented QUOTE:"simple Ctrl-alt-del type reset", QUOTE:"pushing and holding" for a while something on the steering wheel wont reset anything more important then Instrument Cluster....to Google the Airbus story, you can use "Flight 593". But most descriptions on the Internet could be described as incomplete at best.

Or that it only works when the car is not flying.

 

[Cottonwood]

Reminds me...

Once upon a time, a Russian pilot of Airbus, whose family was on the flight let his children to "fly" the airplane. He engaged autopilot and let them play with controls. Controls were supposedly disabled. Daughter found flying airliner boring enough to be on her way in couple minutes. His son on the other hand enjoyed experience. At one moment he pushed control all the way to the left. And held it in that position for a while. Airbus engineers implemented this push and hold as an alternative way to disengage autopilot. Pilot have not read Airbus user manual carefully enough or something.

There was no copilot in the seat. And father was at the back of the cockpit chitchatting with someone. Boy's action only partly disengaged autopilot. Still working parts of autopilot by trying to compensate stalled airliner. G-forces during nose dive acceleration pushed father even back. Long story short, no one survived.

I hope while Tesla implemented QUOTE:"simple Ctrl-alt-del type reset", QUOTE:"pushing and holding" for a while something on the steering wheel wont reset anything more important then Instrument Cluster....

Wow, I skeptical at best when I read this story, but after doing a quick search, I found Aeroflot Flight 593 - Wikipedia with a description of the full sequence of events.

In my event yesterday, the car continued to run normally and all control inputs and responses were normal; it was only a frozen Instrument Cluster Display. In fact, I pulled up info on the center 17" display that confirmed this. However, because the S is a fly by wire machine, I do hope that the basic control functions have a lot of redundancy. Also, I would hope that the steering and mechanical brakes will revert back to complete manual mode. Does anyone know the details of these fall back modes?

I was flying my Cessna 310 over the Sierras many years ago on auto-pilot when George (our name for the auto-pilot, short for Gyro George), started an uncommanded bank and descent. I grabbed the controls and (as designed) was able to overpower George. I tried disengaging the auto-pilot, but nothing worked. My friend in the right seat was also a pilot. I had him fight George as I tried to disengage the auto-pilot in multiple ways. Finally, I pulled the auto-pilot circuit breaker and George gave up. George is a 70's vintage analog auto-pilot, who usually works great. We were never able to recreate this problem, but we certainly monitor George carefully to this day...

 

[dpeilow]

Some of my schoolmates were on that plane. A good friend of mine from schooldays is only around today due to missing the flight because of delays on the Moscow metro. So yeah, it definitely did happen.

 

[dmetcalf]

I had the same freezing issue twice today. It reset once I charged and walked away both times. I got screen shots and sent to ownership for review. My first one had me believing range was good and constant 75 mph cruise control for 20 miles, but center console on 17 in told the real story so provided some fail safe. I did not know how fast I was going though... This did not happen before today. Maybe a bug in the most recent SW update...

 

[Cottonwood]

I had the same freezing issue twice today. It reset once I charged and walked away both times. I got screen shots and sent to ownership for review. My first one had me believing range was good and constant 75 mph cruise control for 20 miles, but center console on 17 in told the real story so provided some fail safe. I did not know how fast I was going though... This did not happen before today. Maybe a bug in the most recent SW update...

What software version is in your S? You can find out by pressing the Tesla icon at the top center of the 17" display.

 

[dmetcalf]

What software version is in your S? You can find out by pressing the Tesla icon at the top center of the 17" display.

I was on your version, but it just updated to 1.13.16 and the techs told me it should have fixed it. They claim it only happens while using nav and cruise control at the same time...that must be why we were the only ones seeing it... Would you mind sharing your real name in a private MSG? The techs were asking me and I gave them your screen name...

 

[AnOutsider]

Some of my schoolmates were on that plane. A good friend of mine from schooldays is only around today due to missing the flight because of delays on the Moscow metro. So yeah, it definitely did happen.

Wow, talk about a final destination moment. What a sad turn of events. I'm less concerned about the car though unless it completely dies and somehow locks steering and brakes as well.

 

[PRJIM]

Anyone else have a problem where the speed read-out does not change at all- at a speed other than 0? My speedo shows 23 MPH all the time (even when the car is supposedly off, the IC stays on). I have done a few resets but this frozen speedo re-occurs every few days.