My experience with Tesla Insurance after destroying my leased Model 3 in a freeway accident

[cerealzealot]

On Thursday, Sept 17th I was involved in a car accident on the freeway. My car was a Model 3 Blue SR+ with white interiors.

I couldn't do much. Car started catching on fire 5 seconds after the crash (likely because I had an external battery and airpods in the frunk). We were three in the car but no one got hurt (almost, a few fractured ribs for the passengers, nothing at all for me).

I tried to file a claim 2h after the accident, got disconnected in the middle of the call. Tried to call the morning after (a Friday), got disconnected once again. Called once again and this time the claim went through. They told me someone would call me back within 24 to 48 business hours, I got a call back on the next Wednesday.

Someone was assigned to my case, I explained everything in details, sent pictures and videos. My car was still in the tow yard, and stayed there until Oct 2nd (15 days after the crash). I still had belongings inside during all this time, and since the car was shut down it was impossible for me to get them, I've been told to wait for insurance to pick it up.

On Sept 30th Tesla Inc sent me an email asking me to send them the contact of the person in charge of me. They sent me back an email on Oct 9th with the payoff amount they want. This payoff was calculated with how much downpayment I put, how many monthly payments I made and so on. They wanted $34,409 (I put $11,990 of down payment). Again this was a lease for 2 years.

An appraiser came on Oct 8th to see the car and to calculate a settlement offer. On Oct 21st I finally received a settlement offer from the insurance, of $46,279 (minus $1000 of deductible, so $45,279). I received DMV papers from IAA (Insurance Auto Action, the people who kept the car), filled them and sent them back, I received my check on Nov 6th (accident happened on Sept 17th, took almost two months).

This is my first accident ever, I cannot compare with any other insurance. I am happy with the final settlement, but communication with the person in charge was kind of hard (the person would *never* answer the phone, never). And every email would take 24 to 48h to get a response. Otherwise polite and helpful, but responsiveness is a big oof.

I was paying $300/month for 5K miles for this insurance (I'm 25, first car ever insured). I still don't know if and how much my premium will go.

 

[sightman]

Yikes, glad you are all ok but the time it took to process is too long IMO. I haven’t claimed anything major like this, but have claimed large repairable accidents and the payment was sorted out with check in hand within 2 weeks from what can recall. Thanks for sharing.

 

[jkirkwood001]

Wow, glad you and everyone are mostly safe - how about the people in the Hyundai?

I kinda assume my Tesla will try and avoid such an accident. Can I ask

• Did you brake first? or did collision avoidance brake automatically?
• We're you on AutoPilot?

 

[cerealzealot]

Wow, glad you and everyone are mostly safe - how about the people in the Hyundai?

I kinda assume my Tesla will try and avoid such an accident. Can I ask

• Did you brake first? or did collision avoidance brake automatically?
• We're you on AutoPilot?

The guy in the Hyundai was fine (surprisingly fine, a few seconds after the crash he got out of his car, went to my window, asked if we were cool, and then started taking pictures, as if it was his 10th accident).

I was on autopilot, it started breaking first, I braked even more as soon as I saw the stopped car (I have 2 seconds between the moment I see the car and the crash, not a lot of leeway).

 

[KenC]

On Thursday, Sept 17th I was involved in a car accident on the freeway. My car was a Model 3 Blue SR+ with white interiors.

Here's the video of the crash:

I couldn't do much. Car started catching on fire 5 seconds after the crash (likely because I had an external battery and airpods in the frunk). We were three in the car but no one got hurt (almost, a few fractured ribs for the passengers, nothing at all for me).

I tried to file a claim 2h after the accident, got disconnected in the middle of the call. Tried to call the morning after (a Friday), got disconnected once again. Called once again and this time the claim went through. They told me someone would call me back within 24 to 48 business hours, I got a call back on the next Wednesday.

Someone was assigned to my case, I explained everything in details, sent pictures and videos. My car was still in the tow yard, and stayed there until Oct 2nd (15 days after the crash). I still had belongings inside during all this time, and since the car was shut down it was impossible for me to get them, I've been told to wait for insurance to pick it up.

On Sept 30th Tesla Inc sent me an email asking me to send them the contact of the person in charge of me. They sent me back an email on Oct 9th with the payoff amount they want. This payoff was calculated with how much downpayment I put, how many monthly payments I made and so on. They wanted $34,409 (I put $11,990 of down payment). Again this was a lease for 2 years.

An appraiser came on Oct 8th to see the car and to calculate a settlement offer. On Oct 21st I finally received a settlement offer from the insurance, of $46,279 (minus $1000 of deductible, so $45,279). I received DMV papers from IAA (Insurance Auto Action, the people who kept the car), filled them and sent them back, I received my check on Nov 6th (accident happened on Sept 17th, took almost two months).

This is my first accident ever, I cannot compare with any other insurance. I am happy with the final settlement, but communication with the person in charge was kind of hard (the person would *never* answer the phone, never). And every email would take 24 to 48h to get a response. Otherwise polite and helpful, but responsiveness is a big oof.

I was paying $300/month for 5K miles for this insurance (I'm 25, first car ever insured). I still don't know if and how much my premium will go.

So, you're back.

I'd say if your passengers broke ribs, that someone "got hurt", not no one.

First accident?!? Didn't you start a thread in the Summer, where you backed into someone when you were practicing parallel parking? That's considered an accident.

As for how much time you had, you had 3 full secs not 2 secs, from the time you should have realized something was happening. If you watch, there are vehicles braking to the left and right of you, BEFORE, you see the stopped vehicle in front of the truck. I mean you don't even have to see what's in front of the truck to know that you should be braking, because the truck braked before he swerved. That should have tipped you off that traffic had slowed in front, or something had happened.

The little blue Honda that passes on your left, actually opens up his lane, in case you try to take evasive action by pulling left, but you don't. With the truck swerving left, that should have been one of the first things to consider, there's actually alot of room between two lanes, you can almost fit a third vehicle between the two. With the Honda giving you room, you could have shot the gap while braking. Even if you sideswipe the car next to you, generally, that's a glancing blow and less dangerous to everyone, than a nose to tail crash where you go from 60mph to 0 in a blink.

Good luck!

 

[dmurphy]

I couldn't didn’t do much.

Fixed that for ya.

Sorry to say, but this one’s on you. You had plenty of time to stop.

That said, glad the injuries weren’t worse than they are, but fractured ribs is serious enough.

Autopilot, FSD, doesn’t matter — none of these driver-assist technologies are a substitute for defensive driving.

 

[Candleflame]

why is noone putting on their hazard lights to warn traffic behind them? Completely avoidable.
and why is the hyundai just parked in the overtaking lane on a highway?

Also given that the car should have been reasonably picked up by the cars camera, did the car not brake?

 

[anandoc]

OP, you're a real class act.

"I hit the bullbar of the Jeep. At first I thought it was nothing, so I left without checking anything and parked elsewhere a few hundreds feet awa. I then saw the damage on my Tesla."

Broke my back headlight and bumper while trying to parallel park

"I am not going through insurance (I have Tesla insurance), because it's a rather small repair and I don't want my rates to go up."

Tesla knows I ordered Model 3 parts for my car but I don't want insurance to be aware

 

[MP3Mike]

This payoff was calculated with how much downpayment I put, how many monthly payments I made and so on. They wanted $34,409 (I put $11,990 of down payment). Again this was a lease for 2 years.

An appraiser came on Oct 8th to see the car and to calculate a settlement offer. On Oct 21st I finally received a settlement offer from the insurance, of $46,279 (minus $1000 of deductible, so $45,279).

So you got the majority, $10,870, of your down payment back.

Are you going to get another Tesla now?

 

[cerealzealot]

So, you're back.

I'd say if your passengers broke ribs, that someone "got hurt", not no one.

First accident?!? Didn't you start a thread in the Summer, where you backed into someone when you were practicing parallel parking? That's considered an accident.

As for how much time you had, you had 3 full secs not 2 secs, from the time you should have realized something was happening. If you watch, there are vehicles braking to the left and right of you, BEFORE, you see the stopped vehicle in front of the truck. I mean you don't even have to see what's in front of the truck to know that you should be braking, because the truck braked before he swerved. That should have tipped you off that traffic had slowed in front, or something had happened.

The little blue Honda that passes on your left, actually opens up his lane, in case you try to take evasive action by pulling left, but you don't. With the truck swerving left, that should have been one of the first things to consider, there's actually alot of room between two lanes, you can almost fit a third vehicle between the two. With the Honda giving you room, you could have shot the gap while braking. Even if you sideswipe the car next to you, generally, that's a glancing blow and less dangerous to everyone, than a nose to tail crash where you go from 60mph to 0 in a blink.

Good luck!

Fair for the thread in the summer. For the rest, be honest for a second. Do you *always* look 5 cars in front of you if any of them are abruptly changing lanes, especially if the car in front of you is absolutely not doing anything?

As for the left lane, you are wrong. I have the left camera video, the car is going faster than me and there was no way I could have go into the left lane (especially not with less than 3 seconds to think about why the **** there's a completely stopped car in front of me in an otherwise extremely fluid freeway).

Fixed that for ya.

Sorry to say, but this one’s on you. You had plenty of time to stop..

I was going at 65, in a car with 3 people full of luggages (we were going on a trip). 3 seconds is "plenty of time" to stop? Come on, just do some maths.

 

[jjrandorin]

Moderator note: gentle request for civility. Thanks (this note exists because there have already been reports submitted on posts in this thread).

 

[cerealzealot]

OP, you're a real class act.

"I hit the bullbar of the Jeep. At first I thought it was nothing, so I left without checking anything and parked elsewhere a few hundreds feet awa. I then saw the damage on my Tesla."

Broke my back headlight and bumper while trying to parallel park

"I am not going through insurance (I have Tesla insurance), because it's a rather small repair and I don't want my rates to go up."

Tesla knows I ordered Model 3 parts for my car but I don't want insurance to be aware

I said fair for that, my bad.

So you got the majority, $10,870, of your down payment back.

Are you going to get another Tesla now?

I bought a new one yes.

Moderator note: gentle request for civility. this does not mean all opinions are not welcome. video was posted, so this is a tacit invitation for people to comment on said video. With that being said, please attempt to be civil. Thanks.

I removed the video, it's not going to bring anything to the conversation (this was enough of a trauma to have people say it's all my fault and that everyone would have just avoided the crash).

moderator note: removed link to video, as user specified. Link was already dead when I did so.

 

[SageBrush]

I cannot see the video. Is this summary correct, OP ?

You rear-ended a car that stopped suddenly while driving on a highway with AP engaged ?
What following distance was AP set for ?

Side comment: Speaking only for myself, this story reinforces my opinion that AP is a bad idea for me. There is just no way I would be as alert and quick to respond while using AP than I would be when fully in control of the car. I'm going to have to wait for FSD.

 

[MP3Mike]

I was going at 65, in a car with 3 people full of luggages (we were going on a trip). 3 seconds is "plenty of time" to stop? Come on, just do some maths.

"Maths" say that it should take ~1.25 second to bring a Model 3 from ~65MPH to a complete stop. (Stopping distance is ~133 feet for ~60 MPH.) Add one second for a reaction time, and you should have had an extra 0.75 seconds to stop.

 

[KenC]

Fair for the thread in the summer. For the rest, be honest for a second. Do you *always* look 5 cars in front of you if any of them are abruptly changing lanes, especially if the car in front of you is absolutely not doing anything?

As for the left lane, you are wrong. I have the left camera video, the car is going faster than me and there was no way I could have go into the left lane (especially not with less than 3 seconds to think about why the **** there's a completely stopped car in front of me in an otherwise extremely fluid freeway).

LI was going at 65, in a car with 3 people full of luggages (we were going on a trip). 3 seconds is "plenty of time" to stop? Come on, just do some maths.

Do I look 5 cars in front? Absolutely! In fact I look much further, and if I can’t see around the vehicle directly in front of me, I rather change lanes than follow a pickup or SUV that I can’t see around. It’s basic defensive driving.

I always know where my bailout zone is. Evasive action doesn’t mean taking the whole left lane. It means squeezing between like a motorcycle lane-splitting. You’d be surprised at how much room you have. And the Honda has moved to his left in preparation for you to swerve. I can’t help you, if you think you have no options.

 

[Candleflame]

Fixed that for ya.

Sorry to say, but this one’s on you. You had plenty of time to stop.

That said, glad the injuries weren’t worse than they are, but fractured ribs is serious enough.

Autopilot, FSD, doesn’t matter — none of these driver-assist technologies are a substitute for defensive driving.

Do I look 5 cars in front? Absolutely! In fact I look much further, and if I can’t see around the vehicle directly in front of me, I rather change lanes than follow a pickup or SUV that I can’t see around. It’s basic defensive driving.

I always know where my bailout zone is. Evasive action doesn’t mean taking the whole left lane. It means squeezing between like a motorcycle lane-splitting. You’d be surprised at how much room you have. And the Honda has moved to his left in preparation for you to swerve. I can’t help you, if you think you have no options.

i think in the USA a lot of people just "cruise" and dont pay much attention. It doesnt have the same acitveness in driving as i.e. in europe where you constantly change lanes and drive at higher (more engaging) speeds.

 

[cerealzealot]

"Maths" say that it should take ~1.25 second to bring a Model 3 from ~65MPH to a complete stop. (Stopping distance is ~133 feet for ~60 MPH.) Add one second for a reaction time, and you should have had an extra 0.75 seconds to stop.

133 feet to stop?
Stopping Distance Calculator

With 1 sec reaction time going at 60 it says 260 feet here. Plus AP braked as soon as it saw it, didn't stop from crashing.

I can’t help you, if you think you have no options.

I'm not really asking for anything actually, I just made this thread to share my experience with Tesla Insurance, from crashing to end of case. I provided the video as reference and because I knew people would ask for it, but seeing how nice everyone is I removed it.

If anyone has questions regarding the claim, feel free to ask. If it's just to say that I'm a dumbass and that you personally would have avoided the crash, you can just not post. Be compassionate a little bit, I just had the two worst months of my life.

 

[MP3Mike]

133 feet to stop?
Stopping Distance Calculator

With 1 sec reaction time going at 60 it says 260 feet here.

That matches perfectly with what I said. 1 second reaction=130 feet, 1 second of full braking = 130 feet of stopping=260 total feet over the course of ~2 seconds.

Yes, the math gets a little tricky because your 3 seconds of available response time has varying levels of braking involved so it isn't a constant 65 MPH.

 

[Candleflame]

133 feet to stop?
Stopping Distance Calculator

With 1 sec reaction time going at 60 it says 260 feet here. Plus AP braked as soon as it saw it, didn't stop from crashing.



I'm not really asking for anything actually, I just made this thread to share my experience with Tesla Insurance, from crashing to end of case. I provided the video as reference and because I knew people would ask for it, but seeing how nice everyone is I removed it.

If anyone has questions regarding the claim, feel free to ask. If it's just to say that I'm a dumbass and that you personally would have avoided the crash, you can just not post. Be compassionate a little bit, I just had the two worst months of my life.

the stopping distance is around 133 feet but only if you slam on the brakes.
Collision avoidance does brake on the Model 3 but its only to soften impact - it will never slam on the brake. If you want that you have to drive with cruise control on which afaik does brake hard if it needs to.
I usually drive with AP/cruise control for exactly this reason unless im "actively" driving on a motorway. The car reacts superquick, there is almost no way that you can crash into a car ahead even if it brakes hard. In fact, the car even recognizes if a car ahead of the car ahead brakes and will already start slowing down.

 

[AZAV8R]

Moderator note: gentle request for civility. Thanks (this note exists because there have already been reports submitted on posts in this thread).

Thank you for posting this! The tone of this thread started sounding like so many on the Tesla factory forum (which I abandoned months ago). It seems like too many people have turned their backs on civility. Sad sign of the times.