Retrieve logs in an accident

[shannonco]

Hi. My wife was involved in an accident but her Tesla did not make contact with any vehicle.

The auto pilot applied the brakes due to a car in front changing into her lane and she then applied brakes.

No injuries thankfully, but a car two cars back hadn’t left sufficient braking space hit the one behind her so are blaming her.

Police are investigating and she needs to complete a questionnaire.

If she could include a Tesla computer log showing the reasons for it initially applying the brakes, that would be ideal.

Anyone know if that’s possible?

Cheers

 

[Thp3]

Only if she saved the sentry cam (honked the horn). Then video is stored on the usb stick.

Tesla does not supply old video to owners.

 

[jkdman123]

Only if she saved the sentry cam (honked the horn). Then video is stored on the usb stick.

Tesla does not supply old video to owners.

He's not really asking about video (but that would be very nice to have). One would think the logs would show that autopilot engaged the brakes due to an obstacle. However, that data doesn't seem to be included in a data request:

https://www.tesla.com/support/privacy#:~:text=Go%20to%20www.tesla.com,in%20to%20your%20Tesla%20Account.&text=Use%20the%20drop%2Ddown%20menu,Select%20'Submit.

This link may show how to get the logs and decrypt them:

You Can Now Directly Read Data Logs From Tesla Vehicles

The Netherlands Forensic Institute has reverse-engineered Tesla's file format and released the tools to interpret data

jalopnik.com

 

[fholbert]

Hi. My wife was involved in an accident but her Tesla did not make contact with any vehicle.

The auto pilot applied the brakes due to a car in front changing into her lane and she then applied brakes.

No injuries thankfully, but a car two cars back hadn’t left sufficient braking space hit the one behind her so are blaming her.

Police are investigating and she needs to complete a questionnaire.

If she could include a Tesla computer log showing the reasons for it initially applying the brakes, that would be ideal.

Anyone know if that’s possible?

Cheers

I’m not understanding your story. If there was an accident behind your wife and she was not involved, why did she stop? Why was she justifying her reason for braking?

Never drove in the UK, but I can’t believe any driver is responsible for vehicles behind them. You have no control over vehicles following you much less if the vehicles two cars back didn’t leave enough space to brake.

Running into the back of another vehicle here you’re automatically at fault for the accident, you’ll usually be cited for following to closely also.

 

[ATPMSD]

Very odd, this should be a none issue. The car who hit the car behind your wife is at fault as they were following too closely. The car behind your wife was following at an appropriate distance since he did not hit your wife. You wife has no involvement in the accident.

 

[jkdman123]

I’m not understanding your story. If there was an accident behind your wife and she was not involved, why did she stop? Why was she justifying her reason for braking?

Never drove in the UK, but I can’t believe any driver is responsible for vehicles behind them. You have no control over vehicles following you much less if the vehicles two cars back didn’t leave enough space to brake.

Running into the back of another vehicle here you’re automatically at fault for the accident, you’ll usually be cited for following to closely also.

A car cut off the wife. Autopilot started braking. Wife finished braking. The vehicle 2 cars behind hit vehicle 1 car directly behind wife. They're blaming the wife for causing the accident, probably because they didn't see the car that cut her off. She didn't just arbitrarily stop in the road.

 

[FatherTo1]

In agreeance with earlier posts that your wife has no involvement nor legal responsibility in the collision of two other cars. Your wife avoided an obstacle, not any different than if a ball or dog darted into the street. Everyone else behind your wife is responsible for staying alert and maintaining safe following distance. It is ridiculous for the driver two cars behind your wife to weasel out of responsibility because a butterfly flaps its wings in Australia.

To the question at hand, it may be difficult to obtain logs. Are there public street cameras that the local constabulary can access? Other eye witnesses?

 

[fholbert]

A car cut off the wife. Autopilot started braking. Wife finished braking. The vehicle 2 cars behind hit vehicle 1 car directly behind wife. They're blaming the wife for causing the accident, probably because they didn't see the car that cut her off. She didn't just arbitrarily stop in the road.

I’m not doubting what you’re saying. Just don’t understand why your wife felt the need to stop and give a statement? Did her statement include she was on autopilot? Some ambulance chasing accident attorney is going to have fun with that.

I knew someone who was stopped 2nd car back at a red light. Looked over and saw a friend stopped beside her, she taped her horn and waved at her friend.

The driver in front of her wasn’t paying attention, assumed the light had turned green and entered the intersection causing an accident. She told the driver who caused the accident why she honked, the driver happened to be an attorney and guess who got sued.

 

[FatherTo1]

I don't fault OP's wife for stopping. Just two weeks ago my wife witnessed an accident ahead of her and wanted to stop to share her contact as a witness and provide Teslacam video. Nothing wrong with wanting to stop to help and check on people. You just don't expect to be blamed for being a good Samaritan.

 

[shannonco]

Thanks all. Yes, my understanding of the situation is the same as you’re all broadly saying - that she’s not legally responsible. She stopped simply because she saw an accident and, at the time, was flustered and assumed she was at fault.

I imagine that, once she relays her side of the story the fact that that her car wasn’t in contact with anyone else’s means it follows the rule of “you need to leave enough distance between yourself and the car in front”.

Just that - since it’s an official police enquiry and form - it’d be nice to have data to back up her version of the story is all.

 

[zoomer0056]

Tesla computer log showing the reasons for it initially applying the brakes

I think the best thing to do is go to your local SC and make an inquiry in person. Let them know its needed for an accident investigstion. You could use the app to request this service but it may not be timely enough. It would be interesting if logs show reasons for Autopilot actions.

 

[zoomer0056]

I’m not doubting what you’re saying. Just don’t understand why your wife felt the need to stop and give a statement?

It's not his wife. It's the OPs wife. She is helping to provide information for a complete picture of the incident. She's being helpful ... that's all.

 

[fholbert]

I think the best thing to do is stop talking and do not provide Tesla data to the PD. That data will be made available to the other parties. The OP has nothing to gain and Tesla data may work against his wife. Any good attorney will ask about Tesla autopilot and phantom braking.

If PD needs a statement be as brief as possible.

 

[fholbert]

It's not his wife. It's the OPs wife. She is helping to provide information for a complete picture of the incident. She's being helpful ... that's all.

My error, I thought it was a plural marriage…

 

[jkdman123]

I think the best thing to do is stop talking and do not provide Tesla data to the PD. That data will be made available to the other parties. The OP has nothing to gain and Tesla data may work against his wife. Any good attorney will ask about Tesla autopilot and phantom braking.

If PD needs a statement be as brief as possible.

View attachment 1024973

This is actually the correct response. Might be a good idea to get the data and just keep until a situation comes where you really need to share it. At this point, based on what OP has told us, he's not there yet.

 

[shannonco]

Thanks everyone. Very useful advice.

 

[WyoDude]

Telsa won’t provide you this data for something as simple as a collision. You don’t need this data for the police. It’s a waste of your time to try and get it.

@fholbert is correct. Your statement should be very short and nothing additional.

 

[BitJam]

The auto pilot applied the brakes due to a car in front changing into her lane and she then applied brakes.

The video footage of this should still be available even if your wife did not explicitly save it. Footage from the previous hour of driving (and sentry) is easily accessible in the RecentClips folder. The file names have camera position and time/date information.

If more than an hour of driving has elapsed then you can probably still get the video using an un-erase utility but this is a big pain in the neck because you may lose the time/date information in the filenames. IMHO, it would be great if Tesla added time/date info directly in the video it stores. CCTVs have been doing this for half a century.

I keep a spare usb drive in my glovebox formatted and ready to go. It's a handy backup in case the primary drive fails but my main plan is to swap drives within an hour after an incident so I don't have to fiddle around with un-erase to get the relevant footage.

Here is a summary of the options to get video files from the Tesla usb drive:

1. Honk or press the icon to save recent footage in the SavedClips folder
2. Get clips from the previous hour of driving/sentry from the RecentClips folder
3. Un-erase to get many more hours of video