Pointless door handle wear

I've thought the same thing, but I can't figure out how the car could read my mind as to my real intention any better -- unless there was somehow yet another setting I could make that was GPS aware, to tell it to just stay locked or unlocked unless I use the FOB to open the car. Even with that, there are logic problems I believe. ...but in the end , given all the other little things I think Tesla could do software-wise to improve MS (please -- better Media support!!!), it put this one down very low in any wish list I'd vote on.

My Solution: I just hang my FOB on a hook inside the door to my home from the garage as I go in if I don't want MS to do the open/close thing. The closed door and wall are sufficient to block the FOB range to my car. My former Lexus, MBZ and BMW also had doors that were FOB aware with puddle lights that would come on every time I'd approach ...and all those cars, along with my MS do and did odd things locking/unlocking if I wash the car with the FOB in my pocket as I brush over areas around the driver and passenger door. ...so, I just learned years ago to move every FOB out of range in those situations when I'm detailing my cars. You probably need to as well.

 

Actually I thought the OP had the perfect solution already, if there is an open door/trunk/frunk, don't retract the handles.

 

I think you guys worry too much. My dad, upon his first car with power windows (a 1993 Blazer) (Now called Tahoe)... thought we'd wear our the power windows... when I sold my 1995 Tahoe, it had 263,000 miles on it, over 13 years. Guess what. Windows still worked fine.

Stop worrying, and just enjoy the car

 

Maybe Tesla can add this feature: When parked inside your home secured garage, owner has a "Garage" decal that the front camera can see. The car does not auto-lock when it sees that decal. The GPS is not accurate enough to distinguish between your driveway and inside the garage.

 

This reminds me of the day way back in the last century when I was selling computer systems for billing. One client called me up to complain that the red light on the hard disk flashed 12 times every time an invoice printed. He was worried that the system was wearing out the red light (and the hard disk).
I tried to reassure him that the system was designed to withstand this type of use... but I'm not sure he believed me.

 

I have experienced the handles presenting, then retracting, in about a 2 minute cycle
over and over as I sat still in the driver's seat, doing nothing, while supercharging. During
the last couple of months, it seems to be much reduced, or possibly even gone away.

Typically, my FOB is in my left shirt pocket, and now the battery might be less strong.

It is on my list to mention at my next service visit.

 

... until you get the $1,000 bill to replace a door handle.

 

What wears and causes a handle to be replaced is a broken wire at one of the micro switches, due to metal flex fatigue, the wire just busts itself off.

The "cause" is "bad routing of the wire". There is a way to route the wire so it flexes less. But still, each time, in and out and in and out.. it flexes a little.
The wires chosen for this application are not flex friendly.

The handles are in-house assemblies for Tesla.

If Tesla one day wants a $1000 bill.. You can fix it yourself, for like, nothing but your time and bit of skills with wiring. By mending the broken wire yourself. And when you're in there, solve the issue more permanently by routing the wires correctly and even tack them down near the stressed joint with something to relieve the mechanical strain. There's nothing relieving the mechanical strain at that point from the factory.

I can't see these kind of handles making it to the model 3.

 

I gave up and changed the setting so the door handles won't auto-present. Couldn't stand them going in/out all the time. I'd love to see an option for "normal" door handles on the Model S. Some people love the fancy ones, some like me do not, and it just doesn't seem like it would be an engineering nightmare or anything to offer simple, normal door handles.

 

Similarly, I turned off the auto-folding mirror option. My wife likes it on her profile, and that's fine. But I'm the daily driver and there's just no sense having un/folding all the time where I live and drive.

If that too, were a geo-located feature, then fine. But not all the time, everywhere I leave the car do the mirrors need to fold.

 

The door handles don't ever retract when one of the four side-passenger doors is open (I've observed over 12 hours). But the lift-gate and funk are not included in this logic.

 

On a similar subject, how about a menu option to only present the driver's handle?
99% of the time I am by myself in the car. Why stress the other 3 handles unnecessarily?

 

My car already knows I'm home because of my homelink. They should tie the handles to that. I must walk by my car 50 times a day, either in the garage, or to the front door, which is in range. They are constantly opening and closing. I haven't turned off the auto present, because I really like never having to pull the fob out...and I think it's cool! I used to not have the fob on my key ring, but I lost the damn thing. Duh.

 

One point that I haven't heard mentioned is that keeping the handles presented uses power (even if you don't have the handles with the lighting). As I understand it, from another thread discussing why the handles are safe and won't crush your fingers when retracting, the handles are held in by a spring and extended by activating a motor or solenoid, working against the spring. So the handles retract after a short delay to save energy. Probably not a huge amount of energy, but it is coming from the 12V battery. When a door is opened, all the displays are also activated, which likely use much more energy than the door handles, so the extra energy use for the handles is probably moot. In contrast, when opening just the lift gate, the displays stay off, so it is a different energy profile.

Second point is that retracted handles and locked handles are separate states. So if the time delay for auto-presenting after a retraction were increased to 10 to 15 minutes there would be no great harm since touching the handle would initiate presentation, just as happens if auto-present is disabled. In an ideal world this delay would be configurable because some folks might feel that auto-present is broken if they return to the car without auto-present, even if they are away only a couple of minutes. I would guess that each of us has a different threshold for trading off unnecessary auto-presentations vs our minimum time to dash into a store, etc.

 

I think the main problem is that the car wakes from sleep. So I always take the fob out of my pocket when i get home.

 

I too would like an option to leave the handles out all the time or even regular door handles. Tesla sometimes engineers unnecessarily complex solutions to problems. The mechanical door handles is one example, and it's bitten them in the ass when they've failed on test vehicles such as what happened with consumer reports, and also no doubt contributed to the poor reliability rating that has gotten so much publicity as they are a common fault, or used to be. Simple fixed aerodynamic door handles would have been a better solution. I'm afraid the falcon doors on the MX will prove even more problematic.

 

I've experienced this same thing on many occasions, and I haven't figured out a pattern. I just finished a long road trip (and hit many, many Superchargers) and now that you mention it, it does seem to be reduced in frequency.

 

Ahh, that explains everything to me. Unnecessary 12V drain appears to be a top item for the TMC engineering team.

But like eye.surgeon, I still want a "car wash mode" that can keep the handles out.

But unlike eye.surgeon, I think the door handles are a big component in the car's first impression (not that it needs a first impression, though, really). They just need to keep working, is all. If they do have a design flaw, there will be a cottage industry refurbishing / replacing them, if not an outright recall.

 

Agreed. A few days ago I showed my Model S to someone who hadn't yet seen one in person and they were quite impressed when the handles "presented" as I approached the car. Was a reminder that most people probably have not seen how these work in person.