Model S Slid Away...

[ram1901]

This makes NO sense. First, the car goes into park if you open the driver's side door regardless of whether you put it in park. Second, when you plug it in, it also keeps the car from turning on. One possibility is that the driveway was slippery and the car began to slide. But the video didn't seem to indicate that. Repeat. This makes no sense.

 

[MikeHolliday]

My Tesla took a slide down my driveway during the recent ice storm too, my fault for not checking before trying to head out. Does great on ice going straight, but you realize the weight when you try to turn on a sloped bend on a full sheet of pristine ice. No damage, just ended up in the snow until the sun came out in the afternoon.

Out of curiosity, why park a $100k car outside the 2 car garages rather than inside, particularly an EV that wants warm batteries for best mileage? It must be a permanent situation since the wall charger is visibly outside.

I guess if you've got his and hers Roadsters in there it makes sense to sacrifice the MS.

I fully agree. I have a 49 year old Triumph TR6 in my garage which I have invested much more than I should have at this point. BUT I made sure that when I got my Model Y last summer and with the PPL and taxes I am in the 70's I was not going to park it outside. I spent 2 or 3 days organizing and cleaning out the garage so that the Model Y would easily fit.

 

[TFKarl]

Hello, I also posted on Tesla Form, however between their form and TMC I have been able to obtain so much information by reading the posts. I figured it wouldn't hurt to reach out on here as well.

What brings me here today is a fairly unusual even that happened to me today with my Model S. After running errands today I returned home, parked my car and plugged it in. It was snowing today but living in New England, I did not think much about it.

So I go into my home and am inside in my kitchen and I hear the alarm on my car and then get an alert that "Sentry mode has triggered the alarm state". Since I didn't hear the driveway alarm and was home alone I found this odd. Well... I go outside to find my car in the middle "island" of my driveway. Thankfully sentry mode recorded most of the event, however there is a second or two lapse between clips. Posted link to the video below.

So here's my main question for today. From my understanding every time we put any Tesla in "Park" the emergency brake is auto applied... is this correct? My insurance company is trying to blame this on that or that there was a defect on my car, but there has never been an issue with it nor have I had ANY complaints at all during my Tesla ownership. Even the service center experience (Warwick, RI) has been very pleasant, which I know isn't always the case for everyone on here.

There is quite a bit of damage caused by this event. The Tesla Wall Charger plug prongs are ripped out (but the charger base is still attached to my house), the front of my cars over bumper is cracked, the charge port is shattered and the charge port door went flying, and the entire driver rear side rear is dented in multiple spots and where it is not dented it is very deeply scratched, and the left taillight is ruined and ready to fall out.

Thank you for any input!

That’s crazy! Weather, Man! Our winter has been very slick here in the Northwest as well. Perhaps the relatively warm tires on the snow changed the surface under the tires enough to make it slicker than the surface you walked on to your door. Anyone a physicist? Good reminder to all of us about parking safety, especially under unusual weather conditions.

 

[NikolaACDC]

Sorry, clearly the car is sliding, while in Park. You can see at the very end of your video, the wheels are not turning, and the car actually does a small lateral slide, indicating that. Unfortunately, the slope and weight were just enough to cause the vehicle to slide. If it hadn't happened now, it likely would have happened some other time.
...

Also, if you look in the lower left corner of the video for the last ~2s at the end, you can see the snow being pushed away in chunks by the wheel that's just barely in the frame.
Wouldn't happen that way if the wheel was actually turning.

 

[magdere]

More than likely, this is simply the result of parking a car on a sloped slick surface and inertia/gravity doing its thing. There have been a few similar reports over the years.

With EVs the only mechanical brakes are provided by the parking brake - there’s no equivalent to putting a transmission in “park”. Practically speaking this means only two wheels are “locked” by the parking brake in the rear. The front wheels have no resistance or mechanical lock.

I’d bet my life the rear wheels were indeed locked in place by the parking brake, but that’s not going to do much for a 5,000 pound car parked on a slope on a sheet of ice. For that matter I doubt having all four wheels locked in place would have made much of a difference either.

In fact the parking brake is better than putting the car simply in park. Brakes will lock both wheels while putting the car in park will only lock transmission, and because of the way differentials work it will start sliding if only one of the wheels loose grip.

 

[ucmndd]

In fact the parking brake is better than putting the car simply in park. Brakes will lock both wheels while putting the car in park will only lock transmission, and because of the way differentials work it will start sliding if only one of the wheels loose grip.

Agreed, yeah.

I was referencing the more common example (though by no means universal) of a front wheel drive car where the transmission will lock the front axle(s) and the mechanical parking brake does the same for the rears.

 

[ucmndd]

One possibility is that the driveway was slippery and the car began to slide. But the video didn't seem to indicate that. Repeat. This makes no sense.

It makes perfect sense. The car slid on a frozen sloped driveway.

 

[richrootes]

Maybe you need a third garage?

 

[Fred42]

Hello, I also posted on Tesla Form, however between their form and TMC I have been able to obtain so much information by reading the posts. I figured it wouldn't hurt to reach out on here as well.

What brings me here today is a fairly unusual even that happened to me today with my Model S. After running errands today I returned home, parked my car and plugged it in. It was snowing today but living in New England, I did not think much about it.

So I go into my home and am inside in my kitchen and I hear the alarm on my car and then get an alert that "Sentry mode has triggered the alarm state". Since I didn't hear the driveway alarm and was home alone I found this odd. Well... I go outside to find my car in the middle "island" of my driveway. Thankfully sentry mode recorded most of the event, however there is a second or two lapse between clips. Posted link to the video below.

So here's my main question for today. From my understanding every time we put any Tesla in "Park" the emergency brake is auto applied... is this correct? My insurance company is trying to blame this on that or that there was a defect on my car, but there has never been an issue with it nor have I had ANY complaints at all during my Tesla ownership. Even the service center experience (Warwick, RI) has been very pleasant, which I know isn't always the case for everyone on here.

There is quite a bit of damage caused by this event. The Tesla Wall Charger plug prongs are ripped out (but the charger base is still attached to my house), the front of my cars over bumper is cracked, the charge port is shattered and the charge port door went flying, and the entire driver rear side rear is dented in multiple spots and where it is not dented it is very deeply scratched, and the left taillight is ruined and ready to fall out.

Thank you for any input!

If you park any vehicle on an iced driveway, this can happen. Years ago I parked my Camry at the top of my driveway and the next morning it was gone. It had slid down my 400 foot driveway and was sideways at the bottom. Not a Tesla issue.

 

[dannycamps]

I think first and foremost, thankfully no one was hurt. A car sliding uncontrolled could've caused unspeakable damage under the right circumstances. A dent, scrape, and a broken charger/port are probably the best case scenarios.

I am not sure what (if anything) could have prevented this. Even if you chocked the wheels, there is no guarantee that the car just wouldn't have slid the wheel chocks down the driveway with it. 5,000+ pounds in motion is a tough thing to stop.

Insurance should cover it (either auto comprehensive or homeowners) and perhaps may be worth investing in a leveling/regrade of your driveway if possible.

 

[MikeHolliday]

I live in Ohio and do know of some people would have heated their driveways. This is the permanent solution...

 

[nimbuzz]

A very similar situation was posted of a Model 3 Performance sliding on a driveway and ripping out the charger. I found the resulting discussion 'eye opening' about the 'Performance' tires on the car and ALL performance, non-winter or non-All-Season tires. These tires CANNOT be used at temps lower than 45 Degrees F cuz the rubber gets hard and has NO TRACTION!! People had all sorts of stories about the extreme hazard of using the wrong tires in even slightly cold weather and needing two sets of tires or wheels & tires AND the memory to change into them BEFORE even a slight dip in temps--I had no idea :-(

 

[Bryan L]

Thank you for the info and clarification. I am sure that is it, what is crazy to me is I have parked in the same spot in much worse winter weather and it never moved AND this happened after about 30-45 minutes after being home. My next question would be, has anyone had any experience with Tesla doing body repairs?

Yes, It took Tesla 8 weeks to replace my front bumper after flying tire tread knocked out the fog light. What bothered me more than the time it took was their complete lack of communication and refusing to reply to texts or phone calls. I actually had to drive 30 minutes down there to get an update. Then, after they called to say the car was ready, I got there and they said they needed a few more minutes. 90 minutes later they told me they weren't done and they kept the car another week. But they did a good job on the repair

 

[MikeHolliday]

I guess that I should brag about the Columbus Ohio SC. When my car has been in for service I get an update in my Tesla App everyday. If I have any questions I ask and get answers and when I feel it necessary I call and speak with Service.

 

[Rudolf]

I wonder how much, if any, wheel chocks with steel studs might have helped.

 

[Andy7]

I'm sorry you had this unfortunate problem.

Oddly enough, a few weeks ago I read in a Subaru Ascent forum of the same thing happening with a Subaru Ascent (our other car).

Not having a garage, I am now worried about this for my car.

Would cranking the wheels to the side help? In my case it might bump the railroad tie sides of the driveway and stop without damage (I hope). Or the Subaru, parked below it in snowy weather since it has much more clearance, would stop it in any case. Unless the M3 pushed the Subaru out into the street!

 

[xrayangiodoc]

The tracks suggest that the car was sliding. Very surprising! More to you I would imagine than to us.

 

[KenC]

I wonder how much, if any, wheel chocks with steel studs might have helped.

Actually I bet anything would have helped. Even a welcome mat thrown in front of the rear wheel would have likely prevented it. A little dirt, anything that could have increased grip fractionally could have been enough to prevent the slide away. Unfortunate.

 

[Rudolf]

...Would cranking the wheels to the side help? ...

Withe wheels sliding, not rolling, cranking the wheels to the side would not help.

 

[Steverino]

I noticed that the area directly under where the car was parked was "defrosted". Is it possible that heat from charging the battery may have melted the snow/ice under the vehicle and helped to get the slide started?