Screen Went Black in Car Wash for 2-3 mins

[brooklyn]

Didn't have time this past weekend to do my normal hand wash, so took the car to the local Sheetz Touchless car was today. One of those deals where you pull in, park, and the stuff moves around the car and power wash/dries it. I put the car in Car Wash Mode (CWM) just to be safe. This is only the second time I've used a car wash instead of hand washing, and in both instances I've used this particular car wash and placed the car in CWM. About half way through the wash the volume of the song playing in the car lowered and lost some of its bass. That immediately caught my attention and occurred as the initial heavy rinse from the car wash machine was working its way from the front grill area towards the windshield. Screen then immediately blacked out and car appeared to go to sleep. Looked down and the PRDN and Hazard buttons were illuminated below the phone chargers. Not sure if they were illuminated before I pressed the brake to try to wake the car up.

Maybe about 2-3 minutes later, dash slowly came back to life (gradually got brighter) and car seemed to wake up. Music came back on with volume sounding normal. Car got rinsed a second time and then dryers did their thing and I pulled out and drove approximately 10 miles or so in 30 minutes of traffic without further incident. First time this has happened to me and doesn't seem to completely track with some of the other black screen episodes I've seen in my search results here.

Welcome any ideas on cause and whether this is something I need to flag during a service visit.

 

[GtiMart]

That sounds like the infotainment system crashing and rebooting, not the car going to sleep. It does happen sometimes. I presume you saw the Tesla logo over the black screen right before it started displaying again?

 

[brooklyn]

Not that I recall actually. Screen went black and then eventually came back on very dimly and then gradually brightened. If the Tesla logo did appear, it must have been very briefly or was too dim for me to see it.

 

[DerbyDave]

What you experienced was the system doing a reboot, as if you pressed both steering buttons while you were in the car driving. Did the car wash cause it? I doubt it, but see if it happens every wash you do. Otherwise, I agree that it was likely an infotainment error or an error with a buggy wash mode process that caused the reboot.

 

[brooklyn]

Appreciate the sanity check guys. I forgot to mention that I had just completed wiping down the main display (in screen cleaning mode) but it doesn't sound like that would have played any part in what appears to be an anomaly. The car wash itself was a little concerning in that the mere pressure of the car wash and subsequent dryer had my hood looking it was about to fly off the car. Still can't wrap my head around the fact that pushing down on that thing wrong could dent the heck out of it.

 

[DerbyDave]

If the actions are that threatening, that the hood is flapping around some, I might try another car wash next time. No sense in punishing the car that much for a wash.

 

[RichAZ/CapeCod]

What you experienced was the system doing a reboot, as if you pressed both steering buttons while you were in the car driving. ...

First time this happened to me I was shook! People purchasing a Tesla should be advised this may take place. I do a manual reboot once a month just to ensure I'm never surprised by this happening to me while I'm driving (which has happened).

Rich

 

[DerbyDave]

All critical systems continue to work during a reboot while driving or failure of the primary computer, assuming this failover hopefully has been programmed correctly.

"One important tenant of the FSD Computer, and design of the Tesla cars in general, is that they have fully redundant systems in case of the systems fails. The FSD Computer actually has two computers running, and is able to immediately shift over to another if one fails. That’s in addition to redundant power supplies, steering controls throughout the car, etc." Tesla Hardware 3 (Full Self-Driving Computer) Detailed - AutoPilot Review

 

[brooklyn]

If the actions are that threatening, that the hood is flapping around some, I might try another car wash next time. No sense in punishing the car that much for a wash.

More of an indication of the flimsy materials Tesla uses than the car wash, but yeah, will be sticking to my hand washes moving forward. Took my old C7 S6 and the wife’s eTron through that car wash on a regular basis and nothing moves!