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?

 

[jjrandorin]

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.

I think they are tied to profiles too, actually. I am fairly certain my wife and I have different settings on this, but will check it when I get a chance.

 

[bedoig]

I think they are tied to profiles too, actually. I am fairly certain my wife and I have different settings on this, but will check it when I get a chance.

Ya, I have a chill profile that I set up when I got the car and it was set to roll (before hold came out). I use hold on my regular profile and haven't switched to the chill profile in years, but a couple days ago for some reason I decided to switch to chill and I got an error message along the lines of "can't change driving mode while car is in motion" or something like that.

 

[hellchris]

If the car is in hold mode, in D, and parked on a backwards-facing incline, brushing the accelerator enough to disable the brakes but not accelerate forward does NOT result in the car rolling backwards-- the motor will hold the car on the incline until the brakes come back on or the driver accelerates more. I have a very steep driveway and have played with this behavior a lot. The car may move a cm backwards just a bit before the motor cancels out the movement, but it definitely won't continue rolling backwards.

 

[Dogs_In_A_Pile]

Have you taken the car to an EMPTY car park with nothing around and tried to recreate what happened? It would be an interesting experiment.

 

[medphys3]

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.

This. Confirmed just a minute ago.

 

[KenC]

I'll guess no Hold, for whatever reason, but that as the OP pushed the door button, his right foot twitched and pressed the accelerator by mistake. People often do things unconsciously. Drivers turning left, will inadvertantly swing a little right before turning, that sort of thing.

Unfortunate, but the driver admits when the car started to roll he panicked and pressed the accelerator and not the brake, just shows how a reflex may do the opposite of what is intended.

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.

Off-topic, but I've long driven a stick, and used lots of engine braking, so it was totally natural to drive a Tesla with regen. Driving a stick was just like the Tesla, pre-Hold, where you had to at very slow speeds, put your foot on the brake to bring the vehicle to a complete stop. I totally can see how many drivers might actually mix up the pedals as they get used to regen braking and 1-pedal driving, and how long it might take to become instinctual. I've long thought this is the reason for unintended acceleration. People panic, when TACC speeds up, and press the wrong pedal. Which brings me to another point. I think there are a lot of people who are surprised by TACC sometimes, when the vehicle speeds up from a stop or slow speed from following a car ahead. It's super-easy to activate by accident.

 

[skygraff]

Am I the only one who presses the park button (twice, sometimes) anytime I take my seatbelt off? Ultimately, as much as I like the automatic safety features, I refuse to trust them with my life and limbs.

Sorry this happened and hope (no offense) that it is driver error but, in the meantime, best to keep treating it like any other vehicle and “safe” it before relinquishing positive control.

 

[Xambler]

Of course there is the white elephant no one talks about…why can’t the Tesla just prevent us from driving into something…unless maybe we override a warning like: “you are going to hit something. Are you sure you want to?”.

 

[KenC]

Am I the only one who presses the park button (twice, sometimes) anytime I take my seatbelt off? Ultimately, as much as I like the automatic safety features, I refuse to trust them with my life and limbs.

Sorry this happened and hope (no offense) that it is driver error but, in the meantime, best to keep treating it like any other vehicle and “safe” it before relinquishing positive control.

If I park on a slope, I set the park brake, even if it doesn't do anything.

 

[Jejunjm]

If I park on a slope, I set the park brake, even if it doesn't do anything.

I press and hold always. I'm probably a crazy person though. (When I drove an automatic I always used the the pbrake and of course with my last 2 manual transmissions)

To me this is good certainly the car is lsnt going anywhere safety devices or not. I also had a Pacifica hybrid before this... Jeep Cherokee rollaway risk leads to recall from FCA

 

[pnwadventures]

Have you taken the car to an EMPTY car park with nothing around and tried to recreate what happened? It would be an interesting experiment.

Less speculation and more this. ^^^^

 

[Gasaraki]

Am I the only one who presses the park button (twice, sometimes) anytime I take my seatbelt off? Ultimately, as much as I like the automatic safety features, I refuse to trust them with my life and limbs.

Sorry this happened and hope (no offense) that it is driver error but, in the meantime, best to keep treating it like any other vehicle and “safe” it before relinquishing positive control.

Normal people do this. When you are stopped for an extended amount of time or basically not at a light, you should put the car in PARK. I do this first before unbuckling.

 

[Gasaraki]

Of course there is the white elephant no one talks about…why can’t the Tesla just prevent us from driving into something…unless maybe we override a warning like: “you are going to hit something. Are you sure you want to?”.

Actually they "prevent" you from accelerating too much when it detects something in front of you. It's a setting you can turn off.

 

[DopeGhoti]

The presumption, faulty as it may be, is that the large nut behind the steering wheel is what should be in control of everything, no matter how much adjustment it may need. If the calibration of that nut is such that it commands the car to drive through a garage door or nearby stand of trees, the car is designed to infer that despite what the sensors say the nut knows better and gets control priority.

That's why "unintended acceleration" is an accurate descriptor for these events while "uncommanded acceleration" is not.