Model X Stuck on Park.... at the red light!!

[HappyEV]

I don't know if this has been posted somewhere (and I'm too lazy to search at this hour)

How to look like an idiot :

- Stopped a red light on a main artery in my medium sized city
- Put the car on Park to activate Autopilot (that my wife deactivated because she was scared to hit the Autopilot stick while she was driving)
- The car didn't want to switch to Drive or Reverse anymore
- Put on the Hazard lights and then Panicked!!!
- Fumbled through the manual unsuccessfully
- Powered the car off for 30 seconds twice
- Called Tesla support
- The girl on the phone asked me to Power the car off for 2 minutes. Then to try to activate Tow Mode and then close it.
- When it didn't work, Tesla suggested I call the police to protect my location and called the towing for eventual return to Service center.
- Finally, found my cool when the police arrived (cop was really friendly : he was a Tesla fan)
- Tried a quick Google search for "Tesla stuck on Park"
- Found a similar situation of someone in a car wash. Got out of the car for 2 minutes, got back in, powered the car off for 2 minutes and restarted it.
- Finally the car responded again!!!!
- Offered the cop a future free ride and left the scene just when the towing arrived.

My brain kept firing : "OMG, you look like an idiot with your 100k car stuck at the red light". I had to keep that voice shut down to try to find a solution

I hope this can help someone.

I guess these are some situations that we have to live with as early adopters.

I can say that my hockey team really made fun of me when I arrived 20 min late to the game

 

[xkwizit]

Moral of the story: Don't Park your car on a stop light

But on a more serious note..thanks for posting this and I think it should go in the sticky on reset techniques unless if it's already there.

 

[electricity]

More than an early adopter thing its a computer thing. Even macs and iphones that seem incredibly stable all the time have a few issues here and there from time to time that call for a reboot, i think this will be the case forever with these new generation of cars that are computers on wheels.

 

[kort677]

operator error

 

[CarlitoDoc]

Yes, you looked like an idiot. Who cares, you drive a Model X.

 

[xkwizit]

Yes, you looked like an idiot. Who cares, you drive a Model X.

Oh come on..give the guy a break..I sure hope you were just joking with this post.

 

[Super_Popular]

I couldn't get my Tesla in neutral while at a car wash so I am sure we have all had these moments.

On a side note, it's stuck "in" reverse not " stuck "on" reverse.

 

[andrewket]

I couldn't get my Tesla in neutral while at a car wash so I am sure we have all had these moments.

On a side note, it's stuck "in" reverse not " stuck "on" reverse.

Well, maybe not.

ICE cars use a reversing gear to go backwards. So the gearbox is in reverse.

EVs just change the polarity. So the only thing that's changed is R on the UI is selected. Stuck on reverse makes more sense to me

 

[Super_Popular]

Well, maybe not.

ICE cars use a reversing gear to go backwards. So the gearbox is in reverse.

EVs just change the polarity. So the only thing that's changed is R on the UI is selected. Stuck on reverse makes more sense to me

Not me. The vehicle's still has to move from drive to reverse sobtge vehicle can move so there is a device done where that allows the car to move forward or backwards.

 

[Crackem]

I use the Hold brake a lot . Just press on brake a little harder and it will Hold and put an H on screen. You probably already know but just in case

 

[CmdrThor]

Put the car on Park to activate Autopilot

End thread. This is not how you activate autopilot. Move along. Move along.

 

[andrewket]

End thread. This is not how you activate autopilot. Move along. Move along.

If it's deactivated in settings you have to put the car in park to activate it.

 

[ohmman]

But on a more serious note..thanks for posting this and I think it should go in the sticky on reset techniques unless if it's already there.

I've added it to the wiki post at the top of the thread here. If I've misinterpreted the technique, please correct me (or just edit the wiki).

 

[Ulmo]

- Tried a quick Google search for "Tesla stuck on Park"
- Found a similar situation of someone in a car wash. Got out of the car for 2 minutes, got back in, powered the car off for 2 minutes and restarted it.
- Finally the car responded again!!!!

You were able to figure out the workaround. BTW, this seems like a bug. I get similar bugs at all sorts of other computers and places, for instance, at the check out counter at Home Depot when I stick my stupid credit card in the stupid chip reader upside down or something else silly. The two terminals get out of sync, and I have to try clearing the old state out of both multiple different ways and times to finally get it to sync again. Happened to me today. Similar things happen with lots of apps on my smartphone.

I think eventually Tesla should find and fix this bug. Perhaps you can file a bug report? They can look at the logs and try to figure out what happened.

 

[Ulmo]

Yes, you looked like an idiot. Who cares, you drive a Model X.

Um, one which although most people would laugh and be thinking "that rich guy has rich guy problems", they would still rather also share those problems too, or at least not share the problems but garner the fruits of his labors by getting the more refined later models. He looked a lot less like an idiot than you thought he did, and even to the extent he did, he didn't.

 

[davidc18]

Sounds like you did a good job of troubleshooting in a stressful situation. Thanks for posting.

 

[Ormond]

If I get a Model X, I might have to buy some orange traffic cones. I'd probably los my cool too.

 

[aesculus]

I have found that I could flummox the parking brake before by trying to engage drive while my foot was not on the brake pedal. Quickly jumping between the two caused the car to get confused, but just for a few seconds, not minutes.

Oh and BTW could have found myself in the same situation the other day. I was playing with the AS settings at a long light and put it in park for similar reasons. I thought to myself this could be a bad idea, but then did it anyway.

 

[thimel]

To OP, are you sure you had your foot on the brake when you were trying to put the car back in drive?

 

[mhan00]

I had something similar happen to me in my Leaf. I turned the car off while at a red light for some reason (I actually don't remember why), and when I tried to turn it back on I couldn't shift it to drive. I panicked as the light turned green, and was fortunately able to shift it neutral and, since I was on a down slope, was able to slowly roll it into the left turn lane next to me to clear the lane for the traffic behind me. Luckily the road wasn't busy. Once in the left turn lane and with more time to calm down and think, I finally realized that I wasn't pushing down hard enough on the brake when hitting the on button, so the Leaf was only turning on in Accessory mode. For whatever reason, it took a lot more force on the brake pedal to depress right after turning the car off than it normally took if I had left the car off for a while.

Probably doesn't help in your case, but just found it funny to see another person show me how much worse my situation could have been if I had been on a busier road, lol.