I was visiting the Arby's drive-thru today in Pryor, Oklahoma. It's located next to hwy 69, which has a 35 mph speed limit. I had either the autopilot (non-beta) or cruise control on before I pulled in. I stopped to order, then I stopped and had to wait a bit on my food. I had the car in park.
After I got my food, I put my food on the brake, hit the "drive" lever a couple of times (a habit, because it sometimes misses it the first try).
I am absolutely certain I didn't press the accelerator more than just a tap. There was a car a few feet in front of me waiting on food. My car took off in a moderately fast acceleration (which seemed really really fast at the time) toward the parked car. I heard the three beeps I get whenever I unsuccessfully try to engage autopilot.
I slammed on the brakes right away, but the car was going fast enough that the tires skidded when I stopped. (Nice acceleration, even in chill mode.) I'm pretty sure the Arby's employees and the people in the car I almost rear-ended were impressed with my superb driving, but being the humble soul I am, I did not wait around for compliments. To add insult to injury, Arby's was out of turkey and I had to get beef!
At this drive through, my car always thinks there is a 35 mph speed limit, even inside the drive through. This is not the first time its happened at this drive-thru. I've seen it at least a dozen times. This is the first time I've almost rammed somebody, however.
I have tried to duplicate it, but haven't been able to consistently. Either I haven't hit on the right combination of commands, or it's an intermittent occurrence with the car. I would like to re-iterate that I am definitely not hitting the accelerator too hard.
I am not interested in demanding a recall, contacting the NHTSA, etc., as it would be a waste of time. I'd like to see Tesla fix the bug, but trying to get that done would also be a waste of time.
I would like to know if anybody else knows what's causing this. How can I prevent it? It seems like it must be a software problem, in which case there must be a specific situation that causes this to happen. Maybe someone else has experienced this and analyzed it? My car is a 2020 Model Y, the VIN number ends in 001271.