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Roadway Clearance Reports

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>I always back in because it's so much safer. [jerry33]

Taking delivery at the Tesla Shop 225 miles from home gave me plenty of time to consider which way to park- nose in or nose out. My prior reasoning of which end would be worst to be totaled, was faulty since either end is an expensive proposition, hence a wash out. But reflecting on the new owner who got white paint scraped on his ModelS nose, I've concluded that *the ass end should always be out*. Why? Because the aft is higher and easier to see. Consider that 6% of drivers or more are impaired in one way or other. They are much more likely to see the rear as opposed to the front. I stopped for food & nosed in toward a concrete bumper, got out to look & then moved in some more. Result was I was a bit further out than the car next to me, but both of us were high & visible to traffic. If I ever find a public charge station I will nose into that, trusting that the cord will still reach. That's my conclusion & I'm sticking to it. :smile:
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>I always back in because it's so much safer. [jerry33]

Taking delivery at the Tesla Shop 225 miles from home gave me plenty of time to consider which way to park- nose in or nose out. My prior reasoning of which end would be worst to be totaled, was faulty since either end is an expensive proposition, hence a wash out. But reflecting on the new owner who got white paint scraped on his ModelS nose, I've concluded that *the ass end should always be out*. Why? Because the aft is higher and easier to see. Consider that 6% of drivers or more are impaired in one way or other. They are much more likely to see the rear as opposed to the front. I stopped for food & nosed in toward a concrete bumper, got out to look & then moved in some more. Result was I was a bit further out than the car next to me, but both of us were high & visible to traffic. If I ever find a public charge station I will nose into that, trusting that the cord will still reach. That's my conclusion & I'm sticking to it. :smile:
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It's not about them seeing you, it's about you seeing them. When the back end is out, you have to have the car most of the way out before you can see anything. When the front end is out, only a fraction of the car has to stick out before you have a clear view. Far safer.
 
It's not about them seeing you, it's about you seeing them. When the back end is out, you have to have the car most of the way out before you can see anything. When the front end is out, only a fraction of the car has to stick out before you have a clear view. Far safer.

Also, I find the car much sexier from the front, and that's why I always back in!
 
I have not had a problem with clearance on speed bumps or most other driveways, including the entrance to my friends' parking garage where their Prius sometimes bottoms out when heavily loaded. I do hear a slight scrape when I pull into my own driveway, though. :( I get it whether going in forward or backwards, but raising the suspension to "Very High" gets rid of it completely.

This does cause a bit of a problem, though. My plan was that I was going to back the Model S into the garage, because of the location of the charge port. But, to do that, I have to come to a stop and back up, and my driveway is on a bit of a blind corner. My strategy with previous cars if I wanted to back in has been to check the mirror just as I go around the corner. If nobody is behind me, then it's no problem to get backed in in time. Raising the suspension adds a little time to this process and makes the timing more dicey.

If I come from the other direction so that I can pull in forwards, then I can stop safely with my signal on while waiting for the suspension to raise. But, then the charge port is in a royal PITA location vis-a-vis my garage.

Location-aware suspension (like the location-aware HomeLink) would really solve this issue for me especially if they could raise the speed limit to 20 instead of 15.
 
^ maybe one day tesla will have a location based suspension setting? Manually defined regions that put your suspension in a specific setting - or even speed / route based settings....

Perhaps, but a better solution, in my view, would be to have one of the options for a button setting to allow one push to put the suspension directly to very high, regardless of speed or location. When I want the suspension to raise, I want it to raise up NOW, not after I slow down and fiddle for several seconds. Even if it doesn't get fully up by the time I traverse whatever obstacle I'm raising it for, it's bound to be better than the current height.
 
Perhaps, but a better solution, in my view, would be to have one of the options for a button setting to allow one push to put the suspension directly to very high, regardless of speed or location. When I want the suspension to raise, I want it to raise up NOW, not after I slow down and fiddle for several seconds. Even if it doesn't get fully up by the time I traverse whatever obstacle I'm raising it for, it's bound to be better than the current height.

I just hate additional buttons - virtual or read... how about conditions that cause a specific reaction?

allow the owner to pre-set conditions that set the suspension to "very high" for example...
- when slower than 5mph for more than 5 seconds
- when average speed is less than 25 for more than 30 seconds
- when slower than 5mph and brakes are tapped twice
- or when you are within 1/4 mile radius of a specific location i.e. home
- when hazards are on
 
I just hate additional buttons - virtual or read... how about conditions that cause a specific reaction?

allow the owner to pre-set conditions that set the suspension to "very high" for example...
- when slower than 5mph for more than 5 seconds
- when average speed is less than 25 for more than 30 seconds
- when slower than 5mph and brakes are tapped twice
- or when you are within 1/4 mile radius of a specific location i.e. home
- when hazards are on

You see an obstacle, pool of water, etc. a short distance ahead. How does any preset help? What if you're going faster than the preset? In my opinion there are a lot of reasons to want a suspension height change right now. I'm not asking for an additional button, just the option to set one of the existing steering wheel buttons to do an immediate height raise. To me this is no different than the brakes. You wouldn't suggest programming the brakes to only stop at an intersection, or at a given location, or only at a certain speed. Forty five years ago you could do this with the DS-21, so it's not some new idea.
 
Can the suspension raise if you're traveling 45mph and see a large puddle right in front of you? I thought you had to be going below a certain speed.

My understanding is that it doesn't currently. My RFE is that it should be able to on command regardless of speed, and there should be a button option to tell it to do so. If there was a button like this, the rain threads would be a lot happier. (e.g. next time push the button)
 
You see an obstacle, pool of water, etc. a short distance ahead. How does any preset help? What if you're going faster than the preset? In my opinion there are a lot of reasons to want a suspension height change right now. I'm not asking for an additional button, just the option to set one of the existing steering wheel buttons to do an immediate height raise. To me this is no different than the brakes. You wouldn't suggest programming the brakes to only stop at an intersection, or at a given location, or only at a certain speed. Forty five years ago you could do this with the DS-21, so it's not some new idea.

how about the hazard button?

These conditions - my proposal isn't that these would be hardcoded in. I'm suggesting that owners can program conditions that could activate a certain setting (not just suspension).
Even something simple like flashing your brights twice.... something already part of the interface - to activate the highest suspension setting.
 
Even if you could, it would be nowhere near fast enough. It takes 10-15 seconds to adjust the vehicle height. It's NOT fast. Also you do have to be going below a certain speed or it auto-lowers.
hence gps activated locations (ie home - would be perfect) - for those other situations the hazard is perfect because you're letting people know around you that you're going to wait for about 10-15 seconds before moving again lol
 
Even if you could, it would be nowhere near fast enough. It takes 10-15 seconds to adjust the vehicle height. It's NOT fast. Also you do have to be going below a certain speed or it auto-lowers.

The auto-lowering would have to be disabled once the button was pushed.

But fifteen seconds seems like forever. Even using it for going into a driveway, that kind of time delay makes it barely usable. The DS-21 did it in two or three seconds between normal and very high, about five seconds from very low to very high--and there was a lot more travel than the Model S' suspension has.
 
Perhaps, but a better solution, in my view, would be to have one of the options for a button setting to allow one push to put the suspension directly to very high, regardless of speed or location.

I would suggest that this button be labeled "A"... :)

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