So, lastnight a deer ran into the front driver quarter panel on the highway. I was going about 55 and never ever saw it other than when it hit the windshield. There was no alert, braking and at the time I thought the airbag should have deployed. I'm getting a repair quote next week, but I have to say I was not impressed with Tesla's performance. While it was at night, after watching the footage on the dashcam it seems like it should have at least braked. Reading online now I'm worried that the car will take months to fix and/or be totaled.
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No warning, air bag, or braking - Collision with deer
- Thread starter kyzr2001
- Start date
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- Tags
- collision avoidance
So, lastnight a deer ran into the front driver quarter panel on the highway. I was going about 55 and never ever saw it other than when it hit the windshield. There was no alert, braking and at the time I thought the airbag should have deployed. I'm getting a repair quote next week, but I have to say I was not impressed with Tesla's performance. While it was at night, after watching the footage on the dashcam it seems like it should have at least braked. Reading online now I'm worried that the car will take months to fix and/or be totaled.
You are posting on a website after having a collision at 55 MPH. You should be impressed with the performance of the car as it sounds like you are ok. I mean, I get what you are saying, but if you are ok enough to go to a website and post after a collision where the car looks like that, I would say thats really good, not something to be upset about.
Damn that sucks. Sorry to see all the damage. Care to share the dash cam video?
Hope you get the car repaired and back on the road soon!
Unless the deer was wearing headlights there was nothing the car could do. Then deer was probably running at 35mph without headlights or yielding to traffic. The Tesla had no chance in this case.
Your airbag shouldn't deploy in a crash like that, as there was no deceleration of your vehicle, an airbag would have just made things worse. Be glad it wasn't an elk or a larger deer where it would go through your windshield
Lindenwood
Active Member
Teslas are supposed to scan the woods and prairies in infrared now?
I concur hat the car’s decision to not deploy any airbags was the right one. Honestly cars have had that pretty close to right for a long time. As a side note, airbags are very expensive. My wife hit a tree at 15-20mph and while the body damage was indeed pretty severe, because every airbag in the vehicle went off (which I thought was excessive), the $12,000 to replace the airbags put the vehicle over the “total loss” threshold.
Sorry about your car. I’d be devastated!
I concur hat the car’s decision to not deploy any airbags was the right one. Honestly cars have had that pretty close to right for a long time. As a side note, airbags are very expensive. My wife hit a tree at 15-20mph and while the body damage was indeed pretty severe, because every airbag in the vehicle went off (which I thought was excessive), the $12,000 to replace the airbags put the vehicle over the “total loss” threshold.
Sorry about your car. I’d be devastated!
Lol, yeah I guess I came across that way! I have to admit until lastnight i always wondered how people hit deer! They really come out of nowhere and I was fully attentive when it happened.
I was actually super impressed with the impact and how solid the car took the hit. It really never even flinched. I guess I have watched too many YouTube videos and had unrealistic expectations of rhe car. Yes, like I said initially I thought the airbag should have deployed but afyer seeing rhe damage - I totally agree, they weren't necessary and the angle of impact would not have impacted them.
Once I get the car back I can try to share the dashcam. For some reason when I went to pull it again to watch it...it was gone.
I was actually super impressed with the impact and how solid the car took the hit. It really never even flinched. I guess I have watched too many YouTube videos and had unrealistic expectations of rhe car. Yes, like I said initially I thought the airbag should have deployed but afyer seeing rhe damage - I totally agree, they weren't necessary and the angle of impact would not have impacted them.
Once I get the car back I can try to share the dashcam. For some reason when I went to pull it again to watch it...it was gone.
You're right! I'm totally good and other than getting some glass in my mouth which was strange... the impact was solid and the car took it like a champ. I'm grateful it wasn't worse or the horns didn't come through the windshield. But then I'd be complaining that the wipers didnt do their job. ;-)
I should have said this earlier as well, but, while I think the car did a good job at its primary duty in that situation (which is protecting the occupant as best as possible), I am empathetic to how much the situation sucks. Unfortunately, I think you are right that its going to be a while to get it fixed, as well, unless the car is totaled.
Glad you are ok though, as thats the most important thing.
jackmott
Member
On the one hand its probably reasonable that a Tesla as equipped with only cameras that see the same kind of light we do, wouldn't see a deer that a human couldn't either.
On the other hand Elon likes to promote their tech as "hard core" and doing things totally beyond what anyone else is doing. Which makes many of us imagine that the car is observing the world in all directions with sensors that can see in the dark, and through fog, etc. All of which is certainly possible!
But Tesla doesn't use anything but cameras looking at visible light now, and has never really been that hardcore.
the airbag not deploying is good though, deer mass wasn't enough to cause G forces where using it would be good. Those things can brake arms, and are costly to replace, so you only want to use them if not using them risks death.
On the other hand Elon likes to promote their tech as "hard core" and doing things totally beyond what anyone else is doing. Which makes many of us imagine that the car is observing the world in all directions with sensors that can see in the dark, and through fog, etc. All of which is certainly possible!
But Tesla doesn't use anything but cameras looking at visible light now, and has never really been that hardcore.
the airbag not deploying is good though, deer mass wasn't enough to cause G forces where using it would be good. Those things can brake arms, and are costly to replace, so you only want to use them if not using them risks death.
TheBrit007
Member
i hit a deer this past week with my m3 while in Kansas driving from southern california. literally came out of nowhere at 1:30am, it was like a bowling ball going thru a pin, felt like a pothole but the damage is much worse, currently estimated at 10k for the bumper, driver fender, headlight, driver door alignment and repaint were needed. Even after all this the car is still driveable, can still do its full FSD beta duties, the only thing thats annoying is the 2 radar sensors at the front popped out and so they think im close to something and wont stop beeping at very low speeds. drove back from Kansas to socal with no issues, and i still have daytime light and fog light on driver side so i do have light coming from that side thankfully, its just not the main headlight. what caused me the most concern was that no footage was recorded from the accident
Well, 2 months almost to the day they totaled my Model 3. Initially was $15k in damage, they stripped it down and the new total came inat $33k to fix it.
Insurance adjuster said there was so much glass throughout the entire car that it added a ton of money just to clean it. I admit, although I loved the car I was glad to hear they totaled it since there was no ETA on parts and it could have been over 6 months until they even worked on it. We picked up our Model Y this afternoon. ;-)
Insurance adjuster said there was so much glass throughout the entire car that it added a ton of money just to clean it. I admit, although I loved the car I was glad to hear they totaled it since there was no ETA on parts and it could have been over 6 months until they even worked on it. We picked up our Model Y this afternoon. ;-)
TheBrit007
Member
After 3 months, I finally got an eta of this friday for a possible pickup. At approx $22k in repairs, insurance & body shop arguing, this has been a nightmare. Tesla needs to do more damage collision repairs themselves to help prevent these things. I could have had my car back a lot sooner than this. The main issue was the labor costs the authorized Tesla repair shop was charging to do the repairs. Ive attached pics of the damage that was caused and the last state of the vehicle showing the damage underneath
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