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Sudden Accleration

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OP is likely not reading a word for word transcript of what happened, rather summarizing what happened. Critiquing the specific English that was used in the situation has no relation to the events that transpired. Hell, maybe OP and their spouse don’t speak English when they’re talking to each other, and the post is a translation of what was said.

In any case, the wording that someone uses when speaking does not have a concrete connection to their ability to drive a motor vehicle, despite your ridiculous blathering.

I'm just responding to what was reported. Was it not quoted? Your narrative is a bit of a stretch.
 
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Interesting how some people are able to conclude "clearly" absolutely definitely 100% that the driver is at fault based on no first hand information.
I am a bit for scientific than that. I would never say it is certainly driver fault based on information I see on a web
site. While I personally suspect it is user error, I will reserve my comment that anything is certain :)
Not enough evidence for me to definitely claim user error

It's very likely user-error, given everything we know about the failsafes in the Tesla along with what we know about human behavior, fatalistic loss of perceived agency, lack of situational awareness, and some people will simply lie to save face. If you're a betting person, you'd stand to lose some money if you bet that it was sudden unintended acceleration (fault of the car) given what we know.
 
I had a case of “sudden acceleration” with my i3 while backing into a spot. It was totally drivers error as the car was new and my brain got confused as it was learning how to use the regenerative braking while backing up.

I was on the top level of a parking garage and ended up mere millimeters from a flimsy gate that would not have stopped me from plummeting 5 levels.

Not to be a jerk, but I believe these incidents of sudden/unintended acceleration are actually people who did what I did. The brain got confused and the accelerator was pressed with the intention of braking. Glad everyone is okay, but it does take some learning to drive an EV. Plus people don’t want to admit they pressed the go pedal when they wanted to stop.

Yes, regen braking or creep mode inversion I think can confuse people. And yeah, some people simply won't admit their mistakes. It's human nature. This is why we can be fairly certain it was user-error and not the fault of Tesla with its fail-safes.
 
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It's very likely user-error, given everything we know about the failsafes in the Tesla along with what we know about human behavior, fatalistic loss of perceived agency, lack of situational awareness, and some people will simply lie to save face. If you're a better man, you'd stand to lose some money if you bet that it was sudden unintended acceleration given what we know.
yup, agree. Just saying, no one here can make that "certain", just suspicion without first hand information. We can only speculate based on what we know, yet some people want to be judge, jury, and executioner based on incomplete information :) That was my point.
 
yup, agree. Just saying, no one here can make that "certain", just suspicion without first hand information.

I didn't mean to speak in absolutes, even if *I'm* certain. I think the best way to say it is that 'confidence is high' that it was user error. This is all hypothesis of course, but I think it's a very reasonable initial conclusion based on the current data. ;)
 
Today while my wife was parking the car at Costco, Alamden Road, San Jose, the car suddenly accelerated and hit car parked on the opposite side with such force that it pushed out a parked Kia SUB ( Soul) out of its parking slot into the road used for parking. It was not in Auto pilot . The car is less than 1 month old. My wife said just before the accident " I am not able to stop the car". I was in the front passenger seat. My wife confirms that her foot was not on the acceleration as she had already entering the parking slot . Dashcam footage shows a sudden acceleration.
Fortunately no body was hurt. Called Tesla. they immediately responded and took the details and asked for all details and said that they have opened an investigation on this. View attachment 573730
I have experienced unintended acceleration but only when the cruise control is set at a higher speed than I had intended.
 
It's very likely user-error, given everything we know about the failsafes in the Tesla along with what we know about human behavior, fatalistic loss of perceived agency, lack of situational awareness, and some people will simply lie to save face. If you're a betting person, you'd stand to lose some money if you bet that it was sudden unintended acceleration (fault of the car) given what we know.
Luckily it is of no consequence what the completely unqualified speculators of this thread believe, as Tesla should be able to access specific and comprehensive logging to help determine what happened.

However, based on my ownership of 3 Teslas over the years, I can say with objective certainty that it’s inaccurate to imply they are bug free OR that they have already implemented all of the failsafes that ought to be and will be added as situations occur that bring light to both flaws and weaknesses in their systems.

Keep in mind that even seatbelts and airbags largely exist to improve outcomes in situations of user error; cars don’t crash themselves. Yet it is still a legal and ethical imperative that manufacturers provide functional seat belts and airbags to protect users from their own errors.
 
I agree that pressing the wrong pedal, or forgetting to move the foot over to the rarely used brake pedal is the most likely answer (I’ve done this before, myself).

However, any vehicle with driver-assist and accident prevention technology has the ability to take over control of the car without any driver input. My Model X autopilot/TACC has attempted to accelerate hard at a stopped car in traffic and I was barley able to brake in time to avoid an accident. My wife described a situation in her Model 3 in which her lane split and she attempted to go to the right. The car misread the situation and engaged lane-keep assist and started pulling her hard left. She had a very hard time wrestling control of the steering back, and was really freaked out by the feeling of the car taking over unexpectedly and there being little she could do about it. Slamming on her breaks may or may not have solved that problem, but would have been unsafe in moving traffic, as well. She was not using autopilot or cruise control.

I do not think a malfunctioning safety mechanism is out of the question in this situation. These cars malfunction all the time. Usually it’s a benign glitch, but why couldn’t it be a more serious one?
 
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Luckily it is of no consequence what the completely unqualified speculators of this thread believe, as Tesla should be able to access specific and comprehensive logging to help determine what happened.

However, based on my ownership of 3 Teslas over the years, I can say with objective certainty that it’s inaccurate to imply they are bug free OR that they have already implemented all of the failsafes that ought to be and will be added as situations occur that bring light to both flaws and weaknesses in their systems.

Keep in mind that even seatbelts and airbags largely exist to improve outcomes in situations of user error; cars don’t crash themselves. Yet it is still a legal and ethical imperative that manufacturers provide functional seat belts and airbags to protect users from their own errors.

Data wins, I agree. You're no more qualified than me to speculate, but note that I'm not adding narrative. Occam's Razor figures heavily here.

I'm just trying to interpret the facts as reported, assuming the facts are 'factual'. On-balance and given what we know about Tesla's work in this area (preventing unintended acceleration with very fast and quiet cars) vs. human nature, I'd say user-error is the most likely explanation. This is especially true for those who lose their faculties in emergent situations for any reason, as it only contributes to user-error. The quote was odd (to me) considering the gravity of the situation, but this does lead me to believe that the driver lost her sense of agency and stopped any potential intervention.

Is there any verified case of a Tesla accelerating on its own? Not that I've seen. Do humans sometimes make mistakes? All the time. This is not an argument for perfection on Tesla's behalf, so much as the likely event of user-error vs. the failsafes built in to Tesla vehicles.
 
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I agree that pressing the wrong pedal, or forgetting to move the foot over to the rarely used brake pedal is the most likely answer (I’ve done this before, myself).

However, any vehicle with driver-assist and accident prevention technology has the ability to take over control of the car without any driver input. My Model X autopilot/TACC has attempted to accelerate hard at a stopped car in traffic and I was barley able to brake in time to avoid an accident. My wife described a situation in her Model 3 in which her lane split and she attempted to go to the right. The car misread the situation and engaged lane-keep assist and started pulling her hard left. She had a very hard time wrestling control of the steering back, and was really freaked out by the feeling of the car taking over unexpectedly and there being little she could do about it. Slamming on her breaks may or may not have solved that problem, but would have been unsafe in moving traffic, as well. She was not using autopilot or cruise control.

I do not think a malfunctioning safety mechanism is out of the question in this situation. These cars malfunction all the time. Usually it’s a benign glitch, but why couldn’t it be a more serious one?

Yes, but this expands the purview of the initial scenario. Driver in the reported case has sudden unintended acceleration whilst parking. Autopilot was off and presumably there was no 'self-parking' happening with FSD. I think this situation is likely user-error, vs. the errors we've heard about with autopilot/TACC and the fact that it's known not to be perfect in all situations.
 
note that I'm not adding narrative

Sorry to break it to you, but the following attempt at psychological analysis of the driver, about whom you have limited to no knowledge, is indeed implying a narrative:

announcing 'I am not able to stop the car' in such a circuitous and detached fashion shows a fatalistic tendency. Someone who so easily feels a fatalistic loss of agency to intervene is probably not very technically savvy and tends to panic in emergent situations

In all seriousness, you’re such a fan of the word “fatalistic” that it almost seems that it was on last week’s spelling quiz.
 
Sorry to break it to you, but the following attempt at psychological analysis of the driver, about whom you have limited to no knowledge, is indeed implying a narrative:



In all seriousness, you’re such a fan of the word “fatalistic” that it almost seems that it was on last week’s spelling quiz.

I guess you're going for Ad Hom now!

It wasn't a narrative, it was just an understanding of how people react in emergencies. Some continue to intervene or attempt that, and some do not. Fatalism makes a difference in human behavior, as belief informs behavior. This much is pretty basic and obvious. People who think 'life has a plan' might make decisions differently than those who don't. The perceived loss of agency makes a difference in how one fights off a potential accident or unfolding chaos. Having avoided many accidents myself as a long-term motorcycle rider, I understand this phenomenon well. Perhaps you think everyone is the same, but they're not. Have you noticed that not everyone rides motorcycles? Why do some people scream or panic during an emergency that requires a decisive response and others snap in to action? Panicking or feeling a loss of agency leads to inaction or more mistakes. Simply hitting the brakes would have stopped the car.

This is what I was commenting on, and it does make a difference. One way motorcyclists panic and get in to trouble is target fixation, focusing on the hazard and not where they want to go.

If your car suddenly started accelerating, would you just not do anything and remark how you can't stop the car....the long way? If not, why not?
 
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One pedal driving does create pedal confusion. Push to go, lift to stop?

Goes against a lifetime of driving for everyone who’s ever driven because it’s so new.

So, when people say it’s pedal confusion, of course, it is their opinion that that is what happened.

Of course the driver thought she was pressing the correct pedal. Has anyone ever said I pushed the brake pedal, then looked down and saw it was the gas? No.

Even when there is video showing no brake lights of cars speeding into a crash AND the driver says I was pushing the brakes, he or she don’t admit that he was wrong. That’s why it’s called pedal CONFUSION.
 
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Bottom line is if the OP driver had time to tell her husband she can’t drop the car, she had time to slam on the brake pedal.

I won’t claim the Tesla didn’t try to accelerate itself, but with any car, even an Audi eTron with brake by wire, a firm foot on the brake pedal will stop the car.

I am not a Tesla defender. But I will defend all cars in that their braking systems can always overpower their acceleration abilities. Drivers need to have situational awareness as others have already said.

my sister had an accident in her M3 when it was new claiming it tried to “kill her” by steering into a car. In reality I believe she tried to steer away from a car that was coming into her lane and the car fought her to self correct. She said she didn’t have any driving aids enabled, but are there always lane keep assists working? In any event, Tesla told her they found no flaws in their code so the accident was 100 percent her fault and she paid for the repairs.
 
Today while my wife was parking the car at Costco, Alamden Road, San Jose, the car suddenly accelerated and hit car parked on the opposite side with such force that it pushed out a parked Kia SUB ( Soul) out of its parking slot into the road used for parking. It was not in Auto pilot . The car is less than 1 month old. My wife said just before the accident " I am not able to stop the car". I was in the front passenger seat. My wife confirms that her foot was not on the acceleration as she had already entering the parking slot . Dashcam footage shows a sudden acceleration.
Fortunately no body was hurt. Called Tesla. they immediately responded and took the details and asked for all details and said that they have opened an investigation on this. View attachment 573730


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