Model X didn't warn when my wife was backing up the car and hit a parked car

[Srinivas Ganti]

Our ModelX didn't warn when my wife was backing up the car and hit a parked car of my neighbor. First of all, the backup camera should come on despite any interruptions it may have and the warning and automatic stop should be there. I am annoyed because now, I have to spend my deductible to get my car fixed and the my neighbor's car, when Tesla's sensors should have warned and stopped the car.
Any body else had any issue like this? Also, the Falcon wings woudn't stop all the time in the Garage, it recently hit the Garage opener and put a dent on the Falcon Door. This is very disturbing for a $100K+ car that Tesla wants me to rest the software by pressing two scroll bars on the steering like a $2000 laptop. They better have safety related overrides for the car if we are paying $100k+ for a car.

 

[outie]

Didn't the backup camera come on when you put it in Reverse? What interruptions are you talking about?

What's automatic stop? I can pull into the garage and it'll have a big STOP message on the instrumental cluster when the car gets close to the wall, but it never stops for me. Is it supposed to?

So without having a good visibility (or the lack of), your wife continued to reverse hoping for the best? Thank god it wasn't a child that she hit.

The FWD are known to not stop on all situations. If you are in doubt you need to be ready to stop the doors yourself. I learned it the first day I put it in my garage. I know it sucks, but it can only do so much...

 

[Srinivas Ganti]

I guess the software wouldn't automatically go back to the backup camera if she went to a menu right before backing up may be because of a call or to on the Music and she couldn't figure out how to go back. I would have expected the sensors to warn, but I was told she didn't get any warning at all.

 

[FerraraZ]

Sure be mad but like he said, she continued to reverse without knowing where she was going. These technologies do not replace the driver.

Usually hitting a parked car is pretty embarrassing considering you're the only one moving...

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

There is no automatic stop that I'm aware of when it comes to the ultrasonic sensors. It just warns you, and if you want to run into something you can. Plus the ultrasonic sensors (at least with the AP 1.0 package) don't always detect things.

Sucky position to be in for sure.

You can't blame Tesla because it's a known issue with any car that relies on ultrasonic sensors for distance detection. You can have them pull the logs to see what the ultrasonics sensors saw to see if they indeed failed to see the car.

You can't blame your wife because then she'll be mad at you.

 

[Paul Carter]

Our ModelX didn't warn when my wife was backing up the car and hit a parked car of my neighbor. First of all, the backup camera should come on despite any interruptions it may have and the warning and automatic stop should be there. I am annoyed because now, I have to spend my deductible to get my car fixed and the my neighbor's car, when Tesla's sensors should have warned and stopped the car.
Any body else had any issue like this? Also, the Falcon wings woudn't stop all the time in the Garage, it recently hit the Garage opener and put a dent on the Falcon Door. This is very disturbing for a $100K+ car that Tesla wants me to rest the software by pressing two scroll bars on the steering like a $2000 laptop. They better have safety related overrides for the car if we are paying $100k+ for a car.

Welcome to TMC.

Feel your pain, but why back up without looking? The car is not responsible nor anywhere does it say its capable of stopping while backing up.

I would agree that I wish the rear camera and sensor activation was a little quicker off the mark when put into reverse. Its a little laggy sometimes.

 

[outie]

Unfortunately as glitchy as the software is on these cars, the driver really needs to know how to drive without relying on the techs. It sounds to me she was very distracted while reversing the car.

Now it's a good time to give your wife a good walkthrough of the functions. For example, tapping the Camera icon will bring the reverse camera back any time. Or she can even leave it on the screen at all times.

 

[DJ 240V]

just because one pays more doesn't mean things work perfectly! Then planes would never crash. Sorry - did not mean to be cynical , but backing up the car without the HD camera view turned on seems irresponsible.

 

[Srinivas Ganti]

Thanks Guys, I am not the only one telling her she got to look back and ensure there is nothing or nobody around. I guess she was too distracted and didn't notice the neighbors car parked on the side of the road, which is usually parked in their drive way. Unfortunately, there is a big drop from the drive way to the road and she had extra velocity due to the drop that didn't help in the situation.
Having said that, I wish Tesla puts an override with the Camera on while backing up and a serious warning like we get while driving with forward collision detection in the future.

 

[MXWing]

In all seriousness, you need to drive as if there is no sensor, no camera. You need to look in your rear view, look to the left, look to the right.

Imagine if your wife killed your child or your neighbors child.

Backing into a car from your over reliance on technology is a cheap lesson that could save a life someday.

 

[B8BB8B]

Maybe your wife lied because it's a 100K + car and didn't want to get in trouble from you?

 

[Drewflux]

Unfortunately you have to pay. Even if using the auto park feature , your insurance company will still ask who was driving/ in control of the vehicle at the time of the accident.

Tesla like most vehicle manufacturers list camera's, reverse sensors as driving aids. The driver is still in control of the vehicle.

I would still be mad at the bug/glitch of no camera or sensors operating but not much you can do about it now.

 

[Roger_wilco]

As long as these features continued to be called as "drive assist", you (driver) are the responsible.
If they start giving drivers licenses to blind persons to travel in driver seats of (much advanced versions of) these kind of cars, I believe then we can start sueing the car maker for the accidents like above.

 

[davidc18]

It can be inconvenient when a menu pops up over the backup camera view. The fix is to stop the car, uncover the camera and then, and only then, continue backing up. Glad the accident only bent some metal and everyone is okay.

 

[Srinivas Ganti]

My main motivation was to bring this issue to Tesla's priority list of fixes in a public forum and I was told Teslamotorosclub would be the place.
Hope, very soon in the future, Tesla would override driver behavior if necessary to keep the people and the car safe.

 

[Hitman007]

Ultimately you can't override driver error.

 

[jbcarioca]

I hit a post backing out of my parking space with my Tesla. The tesla systems worked as designed but I was distracted and ignored the warnings. I dearly would like to blame someone else for my error. I cannot because it was mine and mine alone. I am sorry this happened, just as i am sorry when I made taht mistake. Still, trying to blame the car is a time-honored but futile effort. it was not the fault of the car, but of the driver. Sorry.

 

[travwill]

Man, I'm not getting too involved in this one ;-). But, I'll add:

1. On reversing, the car does really well, better than our others at proximity warnings, etc. You still have to look/know what is around you though. There is no auto-stop on reverse or forward at slow speeds - the car will easily let you hit things as it should.

2. With the FWDs, you have to also be aware of how they operate and where sensors are and limits. Ours will almost or hit our garage door opener too if I let it. It is suspended in middle of garage and has that thin chain rail down middle. The X is parked on one side, and of course you need to know the sensor is on the roof of X thus doesn't show much/anything above car. The doors have sensors but picking up a thin rail can be hard also. We can't ever use our FWDs inside our normal garage I'd say.

 

[ecarfan]

First of all, the backup camera should come on despite any interruptions it may have and the warning and automatic stop should be there.

The rear view camera comes on when the car is put in Reverse. There is not and never has been an "automatic stop" feature. There are loud warning chimes and prominent onscreen messages when you get to close to an object that the ultrasonic sensors detect and even before those warnings both displays show a graphic indicating how close the car is to other objects.

I assumed you married an Asian female. (Indians are Asians!)
I did too. They suck at driving and Tesla automation isn't good enough to compensate for that.

I know you said "But seriously" however you are mistaken thinking that what you said before that was a joke. It wasn't. It was just a stupid stereotype.

 

[scottf200]

I guess the software wouldn't automatically go back to the backup camera if she went to a menu right before backing up may be because of a call or to on the Music and she couldn't figure out how to go back. I would have expected the sensors to warn, but I was told she didn't get any warning at all.

Just to confirm, I have also had it happen where I do something with the UI (phone, calendar, etc) and the backup display does not come up. It is pretty odd and no doubt a software bug. When this happens I stop and put the car in Park and then Reverse again. I'm too use to having the backup camera for the neighbors kids, toys, and cars.