Model 3 rolling away on door opening?

[david943uk]

Hi - I have had an accident this morning, thankfully no-one hurt but ended with my 2 month old Model 3 in a tree. It could have been worse as I was in a car park at my son's school but all the kids had just gone in thankfully and I had hung on to drop something into the school so there weren't many people around.

I just want to know if anyone has experienced the same issue or whether this is totally my error. I was sitting in the car for a few minutes and thought I was in park mode. I pressed to open the drivers door and the car started to move forward and I've panicked, closed the door and hit the accelerator rather than the break.

So it's clear I made a mistake in trying to correct the issue but I'm confused as to why the car moved off in the first place as I thought the door opening put the car into park automatically and why then was it in drive when I then pressed the wrong pedal. My brake mode is hold so it doesn't ever move forward when I release from the brake, so that can't be the issue either.

I have got the dash cam footage and you can clearly see my door opening just before it starts to move, almost as if the door opening triggers the movement.

Has anyone experienced similar before?

 

[Gasaraki]

That is not possible. The minute you press the button to open the door, the car automatically goes in to park. It is not possible for the car to roll away.

 

[TBrownTX]

Could you have been in neutral?

Tim

 

[Gasaraki]

Could you have been in neutral?

Tim

He wouldn't have been able to accelerate then. And also if it's in N then the Hold function wouldn't have been working for the car to be stopped for a few minutes.

 

[Billee]

Being a retired accident reconstructionist I had to run some tests using my SR+:

If the car is still rolling even slightly ("HOLD" message not showing) it will not go into park when the door is opened until the speed drops to zero.

The other problem this accident raises relates to one pedal driving. I think drivers may lose the automatic reflex to get on the brake pedal in an emergency after not using the brakes for long periods of time..

 

[Gasaraki]

Being a retired accident reconstructionist I had to run some tests using my SR+:

If the car is still rolling even slightly ("HOLD" message not showing) it will not go into park when the door is opened until the speed drops to zero.

The other problem this accident raises relates to one pedal driving. I think drivers may lose the automatic reflex to get on the brake pedal in an emergency after not using the brakes for long periods of time..

Yes so based on exactly what OP is telling us, it can't happen. Something OP is telling us is not correct.

If it was slightly rolling so the hold wasn't engaged, how was OP stopped for a few minutes? It's obvious that it's driver's error.

Maybe OP was stopped with hold function on, but then tapped the accelerator, then tried to exit the car, then stomped on the accelerator some more.

 

[david943uk]

Yes so based on exactly what OP is telling us, it can't happen. Something OP is telling us is not correct.

If it was slightly rolling so the hold wasn't engaged, how was OP stopped for a few minutes? It's obvious that it's driver's error.

Maybe OP was stopped with hold function on, but then tapped the accelerator, then tried to exit the car, then stomped on the accelerator some more.

Thanks for replying.

Just so I'm clear - your scenario would suggest the car, which had been stationery for a few minutes, was still in D. On opening the door I may have inadvertently tapped the accelerator to release the hold and then exacerbated it by hitting accelerator rather than brake?

For one I don't think I would accidentally hit a pedal whilst simply opening my door and two, on my driver side cam video you can see that the car does not move until the point the door release is activated.

 

[Knightshade]

For one I don't think I would accidentally hit a pedal

Neither does anybody else who has an "unintended acceleration" story that, 100% of the time, turns out to be the driver hit the pedal.

(and in your original post you even mention your post-roll accidental accelerator application, so the idea you accidentally hit it earlier isn't unreasonable at all).

As another poster confirmed- if the car is stopped and in hold, and you open the door, it goes into park.

The only time he found it won't go into park opening the door is if the car is moving already before the door opens, or it's not actually in hold.

BTW you've mentioned the video twice now, but I don't see it posted or linked?

 

[MikeyC]

That's what I was thinking: that maybe your foot brushed the accelerator just before (almost the same time) as the door opening. It only takes a feather touch on the accelerator to take it out of hold mode and I believe it is possible to apply slight enough force to take it out of hold mode without it starting to roll yet. Maybe that's what happened and since there was slight accelerator pedal pressure, it didn't go into park when you hit the door button.

Mike

 

[david943uk]

Neither does anybody else who has an "unintended acceleration" story that, 100% of the time, turns out to be the driver hit the pedal.

(and in your original post you even mention your post-roll accidental accelerator application, so the idea you accidentally hit it earlier isn't unreasonable at all).

As another poster confirmed- if the car is stopped and in hold, and you open the door, it goes into park.

The only time he found it won't go into park opening the door is if the car is moving already before the door opens, or it's not actually in hold.

BTW you've mentioned the video twice now, but I don't see it posted or linked?

Here is the video

I've rerun it on my iphone time and again and can't see it move before the door is released. I'm not saying it's impossible I brushed the accelerator, just don't think it's probable. Plus the car just starts to roll, it doesn't accelerate quickly until I tried to correct it and did hit the wrong pedal.

 

[Knightshade]

If you brushed it to remove hold just before the button press happened on the door it's possible it took a moment for gravity to visibly move the car.

(in fact, the car will ALSO throw itself into park if you take the drivers weight off the seat while rolling at very low speed exactly to protect against a situation where the driver forgets to put in park as you appear to have done and brushes a pedal to remove hold before unlocking- to prevent him getting out and leaving the car in D without a driver where it could roll away- many discover this feature by accident when they lift off the seat creeping at the drive through to grab their wallet)


There's no mechanism to my knowledge by which the car can go from HOLD ON to HOLD OFF (but still in D) via the door button (and we know you were in D by the fact the accelerator sped the car up when you later hit it)

There IS a mechanism by which it can go from HOLD ON to HOLD off (still in D) via the pedal. So to use Sherlock Holmes famous axiom, that must, however improbable to you, be the truth.

 

[MikeyC]

The door definitely does start to open prior to the car moving so you're right about that. The problem here is that going by frames, the car started moving 0.11 seconds after the door started to open and it was barely open when it started moving. So here's what I think happened:

(1) You pressed the button to open the door.
(2) Door starts to open but it isn't far enough open to trip the "door open" switch yet.
(3) We all "fidget" a bit when preparing to get out so very close to that moment, you brushed the accelerator.
(4) Door isn't open quite far enough to trip the "door open" switch so it starts rolling forward.
(5) Door open switch is tripped once the door opens far enough but now you're moving so it can't counteract the accelerator.

Just my guess.

Mike

 

[david943uk]

Thanks for the replies.

If it was the case that I brushed the accelerator which then released the hold, I would expect the car to roll backwards as the slope of the car park was in that direction. I went back tonight to confirm that with my wife’s car.

I remember feeling the lurch as soon as the door opened hence why I think I assumed that caused the movement. The whole incident was so unexpected and disorientating.

Anyway I’ve sent the details on to Tesla and I’ll see what they respond and thankfully nobody was hurt.

 

[Black306]

The other problem this accident raises relates to one pedal driving. I think drivers may lose the automatic reflex to get on the brake pedal in an emergency after not using the brakes for long periods of time..

One of the reasons why I don’t use 1-pedal driving; don’t want to lose the instinctive reaction of hitting the brakes in time of need.

There IS a mechanism by which it can go from HOLD ON to HOLD off (still in D) via the pedal. So to use Sherlock Holmes famous axiom, that must, however improbable to you, be the truth.

There is also the method of pushing the brake pedal. Once in HOLD ON, pressing the brake pedal will change to HOLD OFF. Maybe the OP stopped in the parking spot and, not realizing it, lifted off/on the brakes.

 

[Knightshade]

Thanks for the replies.

If it was the case that I brushed the accelerator which then released the hold, I would expect the car to roll backwards as the slope of the car park was in that direction. I went back tonight to confirm that with my wife’s car.

If you're claiming it wouldn't have rolled forward from slope AND you didn't press the accelerator AND it was not in creep mode (and I assume you claim TACC/AP was not on)- how do you explain the car moving forward?

It's impossible for all that to be true AND the car moves forward...

 

[medphys3]

Are you certain you were in "Hold" mode or possibly "Creep" or "Roll?" "Creep" would cause the car to move when you let off the brake; "Roll" would if you were on an incline.

***do these change with driver profiles?*** Possibly it's set to "Creep" in a different driver profile?

 

[david943uk]

If you're claiming it wouldn't have rolled forward from slope AND you didn't press the accelerator AND it was not in creep mode (and I assume you claim TACC/AP was not on)- how do you explain the car moving forward?

It's impossible for all that to be true AND the car moves forward...

You can clearly see from the YT video the camber of the car park at the end - the car park slopes back. You can also see the car does not move before the door is released. It was not in creep mode as I tried that once way back when I got the car (as well as trying our roll) and have been in hold mode ever since. I was certainly not using TACC/AP either. The only fact I can't be certain about was whether I brushed the accelerator or not, and even if I had the consensus seems to be that I would simply have released the hold and not moved forward as I did.

Are you certain you were in "Hold" mode or possibly "Creep" or "Roll?" "Creep" would cause the car to move when you let off the brake; "Roll" would if you were on an incline.

***do these change with driver profiles?*** Possibly it's set to "Creep" in a different driver profile?

It's only me who drives it and it has been in hold mode more or less from a few days after I bought it.

 

[Gasaraki]

Thanks for replying.

Just so I'm clear - your scenario would suggest the car, which had been stationery for a few minutes, was still in D. On opening the door I may have inadvertently tapped the accelerator to release the hold and then exacerbated it by hitting accelerator rather than brake?

For one I don't think I would accidentally hit a pedal whilst simply opening my door and two, on my driver side cam video you can see that the car does not move until the point the door release is activated.

When you are stopped and the car is in HOLD, it is still considered in D, BUT the sec you press the door open button the car goes in to P.

Unless you hit the accelerator before you hit the open door button that the only time when the car is unable to put it in park since you are already moving.

I am still a little confused after watching your video. Because I KNOW for a fact that the car can put itself in to park even when it has not stop moving fully. Not via the door button though but via the Park button. I do this sometimes when I'm moving in to my garage and just happen to hit the Park button on the stalk before it stopped moving. It locks the car up.

I still think that you hit the accelerator right before you pressed the door button. If the car "rolled" it would have rolled backwards on to the road, not forward.

 

[Gasaraki]

Are you certain you were in "Hold" mode or possibly "Creep" or "Roll?" "Creep" would cause the car to move when you let off the brake; "Roll" would if you were on an incline.

***do these change with driver profiles?*** Possibly it's set to "Creep" in a different driver profile?

No. Those settings are not profile settings.

 

[bedoig]

No. Those settings are not profile settings.

I'm pretty sure they are, but they won't change while the car is in drive even when changing profiles. They are saved to the profile and change when switching profiles as long as you're in park.