Model 3 glass roof broken

[frm00029]

My other half left her place of work (a school) yesterday to find the front section of the roof shattered. I phoned Tesla and they have since quoted £1200 - fine.
However, today my wife has seen the CCTV which shows a football being inadvertently kicked in the air on the grass and hitting the car. I can’t believe an object such as a football would cause the glass to shatter.
Do you think i should/could be pursuing this with Tesla as a safety issue and not fit for purpose? I would understand if a slate etc had fallen from the roof of the building but I’m having a hard time believing the roof can’t withstand a football bounce.

 

[Durzel]

A fully inflated football landing from high up could do some damage I'd have thought?

Does the CCTV show the glass shattering?

 

[frm00029]

I really thought the glass would be able to withstand much more force…
Yes so I’m told, well the ball bouncing off the roof at least. Unsure how details the pictures are

 

[SR-Plus]

Well a ball coming down on it from a height of 20 or 30m is quite a force and on such a small contact patch. If it struck the roof right in the centre of the glass, where I assume is weakest, then possibly?

 

[SR-Plus]

Just to add, try claiming from insurance if Tesla thinks it’s a non warranty/ design issue.

 

[Medved_77]

Tesla say the roof should be able to withstand the weight of two full-grown African Elephants, so I'm surprised a football should cause such damage, unless there was an integrity fault with the glass.

From Tesla's website:

In a roof-crush test, Model 3 resisted four times its own mass, even with an all-glass roof: that's the same weight as two full-grown African elephants.

Model 3 | Tesla United Kingdom

Model 3 is designed for electric-powered performance, with quick acceleration, long range and fast charging.

www.tesla.com

EDIT: Maybe 'withstand' means not caving in as opposed to cracking. Still wouldn't expect a football with its round edges to smash the glass.

 

[Mr H]

Tesla say the roof should be able to withstand the weight of two full-grown African Elephants, so I'm surprised a football should cause such damage, unless there was an integrity fault with the glass.

From Tesla's website:

Model 3 | Tesla United Kingdom

Model 3 is designed for electric-powered performance, with quick acceleration, long range and fast charging.

www.tesla.com

The OP’s roof wasn’t crushed therefore Tesla’s claim is proven in this case

 

[HenryT]

Just to add, try claiming from insurance if Tesla thinks it’s a non warranty/ design issue.

The school's insurance might be a place to start?

 

[frm00029]

The school's insurance might be a place to start?

They’ve said parked in car park at own risk

Tesla say the roof should be able to withstand the weight of two full-grown African Elephants, so I'm surprised a football should cause such damage, unless there was an integrity fault with the glass.

From Tesla's website:

Model 3 | Tesla United Kingdom

Model 3 is designed for electric-powered performance, with quick acceleration, long range and fast charging.

www.tesla.com

EDIT: Maybe 'withstand' means not caving in as opposed to cracking. Still wouldn't expect a football with its round edges to smash the glass.

this was along my line of thinking. Just can’t believe a football smashed it. Well, a football which isn’t from the 70s and made from leather

 

[Jason71]

They’ve said parked in car park at own risk

this was along my line of thinking. Just can’t believe a football smashed it. Well, a football which isn’t from the 70s and made from leather

I assume the glass is laminated toughened glass.
toughening glass involved cooling the outer layer very quickly so it sets before it has time to contract then letting the middle of each sheet cool more slowly so that it contracts and puts the whole outer layer in compression. That makes it hard to break because glass only really breaks in tension and before you can put it in tension you have to overcome the compression first.
However
if the outer compressed layer is punctured that tends to lead to a cascade effect where all the forces are released at once. That is why toughened glass shatters into a million pieces when it does break.
My point is if you gently put the weight of 2 elephants on top It can take it but hit it with something sharp on a small point and the whole thing can go. This is why thieves routinely use a centre punch to break car windows.

It may be that the roof was faulty at that point of impact or it could be that the ball had grit on it which concentrated the force into a very small sharp point.
Either way you were unlucky but it is not really possible to say which happened and if Tesla are feeling unsympathetic they could claim the latter.

Can you get the CCTV and show it to Tesla? If they are not interested in fixing it for free tell them you will put on as many social media sites as possible... as a PSA of course.

 

[Rustybkts]

I would guess that the roof crush test is using the chassis to support the car. You would need the glass far thicker than it is to support two elephants even if they could both stand on the same patch.

A football has a fair amount of inertia when falling from a height with a small contact patch when it hits and would certainly put a big dent in the boot or bonnet.

 

[Mr Miserable]

 

[pgkevet]

It's worth looking closely at your insurance policy - whether you have a specific section for glass insurance with no loss of no-claims and a limited personal contribution and indeed whether that is just the windscreen or all windows.

 

[Adopado]

It's worth looking closely at your insurance policy - whether you have a specific section for glass insurance with no loss of no-claims and a limited personal contribution and indeed whether that is just the windscreen or all windows.

Yes, great point! The roof is going to include either the windscreen or the rear screen so you would imagine it's going to be covered.

 

[dbartram]

The force of a football coming down is roughly equivalent to the force of the kick that sent it up. It's as if someone gave your car's roof a strong kicking. Perhaps the roof shouldn't shatter from being kicked -- but it doesn't entirely surprise me.

 

[init6]

If only it had hit the window:

Interestingly (or not) he couldn't damage the door panel of a Model x with a football, so something not quite right here.

 

[Jason71]

The force of a football coming down is roughly equivalent to the force of the kick that sent it up. It's as if someone gave your car's roof a strong kicking. Perhaps the roof shouldn't shatter from being kicked -- but it doesn't entirely surprise me.

Only in GCSE Maths questions. In the real would we have air resistance.

 

[HKP_Tom]

I suppose better in some ways that it broke the glass, rather than dented the steel roof which would have been a pain to have fixed. Rather than speak to Tesla, try some local auto glazing firms who would likely change it at half the cost.

 

[pgkevet]

It's unusual for me to get serious, but here goes:
Clearly there has to/should be some standard for car roof glass before they make hard hats compulsory.
When this glass 'shattered' how did it do so - in the sense of 'crazed', 'splintered', or thousands of bits?
Did the bits drop into the car or stay hanging from a plastic lamination?
A metal roof would be dinged or chipped by 'reasonable' items: plums, conkers, apples... should it protect from a house brick dropped from a motorway bridge?
We've seen past stories of tesla roof's spontaneously cracking, suggesting that batch issues occur. Presumably, such a roof has inbuilt stress and is more liable to fail with a small additional force. How often do tesla batch test?
Should this incident be reported to some UK/EU testing standard?

 

[AndrewGR]

I’d be very surprised if the roof isn’t laminated glass like the windscreen. If so it will crack but not shatter. The glass cover in any normal insurance policy will cover replacement - although my LV policy had a £190 excess when I had to replace my windscreen.