Model 3 crashed into a pole

[Mounikar]

Hi everyone,

Last Thursday, I was driving from my work to home on the usual route. Autopilot was engaged on highway and as I was approaching the exit to my home, I applied brakes to slow down and took control of the vehicle.

I passed the 1st traffic signal and had to make a left at the 2nd signal. The signal was green so I just went and tried to turn the steering wheel to the left without luck, tried turning it fully but the next thing I realize is the airbag being deployed and I hit a pole. I noticed that regenerative braking did not kick in, and I always have it ON.
The car was not responsive to the turn which resulted in the car crashing into the pole. I also observed that the left front wheel had a flat tire, the accident was only to the right side of the car and no impact on the left side. There was absolutely no indication of a flat tire or low tire pressure indication before or after the crash.

This clearly indicates that there was some software/hardware malfunction in the car during the time of the incident. I am still in shock and scared to sit in a Tesla now.

Questions to be answered:

1. Why did the Tesla NOT detect the pole and brake automatically?
2. Why did regenerative braking NOT kick-in when I was making the turn?
3. Why was there NO alert on the screen from TPMS about low tire pressure before or after the crash?

I'm still waiting for the Tesla team to respond to my questions above, hope they investigate and provide a detailed/unbiased report. Meanwhile, I wanted to check if anyone faced something similar? Any inputs would be helpful.

Thanks

 

[Chancellor32]

Seems fishy, cars don’t just crash into poles on their own.

 

[NoirMS]

not a 3 owner but just want to say I'm sorry for your loss an hope you're okay...
keep us posted...

 

[Az_Rael]

Why did regenerative braking NOT kick-in when I was making the turn?

I believe regen turns off when reduced traction is detected if Tesla works the same as other regen cars I have been in. I would imagine a flat front tire (or if a pothole caused the flat tire) might cause that.

The flat could have been caused by road debris or a pothole, so in that case no low pressure beforehand would have been noted.

Not sure on the AEB. It does only work above 7mph, but a pole may be too narrow for it to detect. Not a lot of poles in roadways, so it is doubtful the system can handle that.


My theory is you experienced a blowout at a very inopportune moment and couldn’t correct in time. Not much the car could have done in that situation.

 

[omgwtfbyobbq]

I ain't touching the first two questions, but TPMS sensors need movement to turn on during normal operation and won't provide information until you've driven a bit. Odds are the flat came from hopping the curve, but it could have blown out like Az_Rael said.

Edit - If it did blow out, the sampling rate on the TPMS sensors could be low enough for you to hit the pole prior to the sensor reporting the tire pressure was super low/nothing.

 

[redgt]

Your car drove into the pole by itself? You were physically unable to overpower the demented tesla steering wheel and avoid this accident?

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

I have to wonder if your use of AP contributed to the accident.

In all the times I've either had a flat (either half way or all the way) I could easily feel it in the wheel. I didn't need a notification to let me know. Where you didn't take over steering until right before the turn where you crashed your car.

In your case it looks like you attempted a high speed maneuver where you expected the car to handle it just like it normally does, but it can't do that with a flat tire.

Whether you get notified or not depends on some factors. That's really the only mystery to me. Maybe it happened rather suddenly like a blowout.

Do you have the Dash Cam video?

In any case it's a good lesson to the rest of us to not get too reliant on our technical gods.

If we're going hit a corner at speed then maybe we outta make sure everything is working properly before hitting it. I've done the same kind of thing, but just without the whole blowout thing. I'm used to it handling corners beautifully, but that won't happen with a low/flat tire. If the car aint turning you gotta slam on the brakes.

 

[seattlite2004]

You have video? Maybe you'll see the indications of a flat or blown tire.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

I believe regen turns off when reduced traction is detected if Tesla works the same as other regen cars I have been in. I would imagine a flat front tire (or if a pothole caused the flat tire) might cause that.

The flat could have been caused by road debris or a pothole, so in that case no low pressure beforehand would have been noted.

Not sure on the AEB. It does only work above 7mph, but a pole may be too narrow for it to detect. Not a lot of poles in roadways, so it is doubtful the system can handle that.


My theory is you experienced a blowout at a very inopportune moment and couldn’t correct in time. Not much the car could have done in that situation.

I don't believe AEB kicks in when turning.

 

[Az_Rael]

I am still in shock and scared to sit in a Tesla now.

I also wanted to say to take care of yourself. I ended up with anxiety after my bad crash in my Model S. It manifested in odd ways (was scared to drive at night even though my accident happened during the day, not being able to be a passenger in a car, etc). Keep an eye on your mental health as well as the physical and make sure to take care of both while you recover.

And get checked out even if you didn’t think you got injured. Adrenaline does crazy things and stuff might not show up right away. The urgent care I went to found a burn on my arm from the side airbag I didn’t even know I had until she pulled up my sleeve.

 

[kengchang]

Hope you are ok, what were your foot doing while turning? on accelerator or brake?

 

[Darscot]

Thread title should be update to “I lost control and drove my car into a pole”. Sucks that you had an accident but I can’t see any reason the car was in any way a factor. You probably blew a tire and lost control it happens all the time.

 

[Mounikar]

Do you have the Dash Cam video?

No I don't have it.

If the car aint turning you gotta slam on the brakes

Of course I did apply brakes as soon as I realized it was going out of control, but I think it was too late, everything was so quick

 

[Mounikar]

I don't believe AEB kicks in when turning.

That's something new, didn't know that.

 

[busaman]

sounds to me like driver error(not grabbing the bull by the horns) and bad luck pothole/flatyre/reduced steering ability/pole, wrong place at the wrong time thats all.

 

[ent3ndu]

No I don't have it.

Shocker.

everything was so quick

You said you noticed you weren't regen braking. Was it too quick to understand what was happening, or did the car disobey your commands?

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

No I don't have it.

Of course I did apply brakes as soon as I realized it was going out of control, but I think it was too late, everything was so quick

I would highly recommend getting a large capacity USB drive to use Dashcam.

Never know when the footage will come in handy.

 

[dhanson865]

Thread title should be update to “I lost control and drove my car into a pole”. Sucks that you had an accident but I can’t see any reason the car was in any way a factor. You probably blew a tire and lost control it happens all the time.

I don't know about that. It's clearly not Tesla's fault but I think "Model 3 crashed into a pole" is neutral enough to leave as is.

I totally agree the tire failure is the likely cause. Fast leak or blowout, either way the car wouldn't turn properly if one corner is fully inflated and the other is flat or near flat.

It'd be interesting to see if there was a nail, screw, bolt, etc that punctured that tire.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

I don't know about that. It's clearly not Tesla's fault but I think "Model 3 crashed into a pole" is neutral enough to leave as is.

Other possible thread titles.

Pole Crashes into Model 3
Model 3 learning how to oil skate hits pole
Aliens use tractor beam on Tesla

 

[DrDabbles]

Sorry you crashed, hope everyone is okay.

This clearly indicates that there was some software/hardware malfunction in the car during the time of the incident.

No it doesn't. The only thing that is clearly indicated is that you crashed. How fast were you going? What state are your tires in? What was the road surface and weather like? Did you have TACC turned on and panicked when the car didn't slow down as you took your foot off the accelerator?

I am still in shock and scared to sit in a Tesla now.

That's a bit over the top and dramatic, IMO. People crash cars all the time. You survived your crash, so that's pretty good.

Why did the Tesla NOT detect the pole and brake automatically?

I could think of tons of reasons, not least of which is a pole is pretty small, and the car isn't magic. There are limitations to what it can do automatically for a driver.

Why did regenerative braking NOT kick-in when I was making the turn?

Maybe when you took over from autopilot, you actually didn't hit the brake, so TACC was still enabled.

Why was there NO alert on the screen from TPMS about low tire pressure before or after the crash?

It might not have been flat before the collision. Perhaps the tire was worn to its belt and lost pressure quickly. None of us were there, so none of us can tell you. But TPMS also aren't magic. If there was a leak before the collision, the system would have displayed a warning.

I'm still waiting for the Tesla team to respond to my questions above, hope they investigate and provide a detailed/unbiased report. Meanwhile, I wanted to check if anyone faced something similar? Any inputs would be helpful.

It's going to be a very short investigation, and I highly doubt you're going to like the result. I'm sorry to say this, but people make mistakes constantly, and those mistakes compound over time leading to a collision. Not keeping equipment up to standards, driving too fast, improperly operating a vehicle, not paying attention, thinking they're hitting the brake when they're actually hitting the accelerator, and so on.

That last one has been a big source of crashes of all kinds of vehicles, not just Teslas. But because a Tesla appears to be using more software to make it go and stop, people assume there was some glitch in the system. What they don't realize is that all modern cars use software to go and stop, and the glitch was with the operator.

...but I think "Model 3 crashed into a pole" is neutral enough to leave as is.

This gives agency to the vehicle, which has none, and removes responsibility from the operator. It's like calling a collision an accident. It isn't an accident, it's a collision.

I totally agree the tire failure is the likely cause. Fast leak or blowout, either way the car wouldn't turn properly if one corner is fully inflated and the other is flat or near flat.

Looking at the picture of the tire, it's not blown out, or even flat. The tire is also on the inside of the turn radius, meaning the extra load would have been taken up by the outside (right) tire. The car would have turned just fine, but the drive would have noticed a pretty violent shake and noise as the tire wobbled and deformed while being drive on if it was flat. It would be nearly impossible to not know you had a flat tire.