I was driving south on i5 in Washington state two weeks ago going 70-75mph on autopilot with navigation on and suddenly the brakes locked up and the car was coming to a sudden stop. I hit the brakes my self and then the accelerator as quick as I could. I looked in my rear view mirror and luckily there was nobody following me. Wow that was close. So I told the guys at my service center in Portland Oregon about what happened and he said “ya we have heard that happens at times”. I asked him if I had been rear ended would Tesla stand behind the accident? He said no that the autopilot with navigation is beta status. He said I would have to give him the exact location on i5 and he would pass it onto engineering and they would have to go in and change the programming in the system to tell the cars not to jam the brakes at that location. That did not sound very reassuring to me.
I also notified Tesla corp from my Tesla account and they responded with a boiler plate statement that was not very satisfying. I love my car and its the best automobile I have ever had. I was counting the other day and I have owned more than 50 cars so far and this is the best. However If I were to be killed in an accident because of some programming error that would be tragic. I love the autopilot and have driven 14,000 miles in ten months using a lot of autopilot. This is the second time the car did this brake locking up situation. The first time it was just for a split second and then then car recovered and accelerated on its own.
So I think I know why the car is doing this. I would like to advise others to be aware of this situation. I believe the car thinks its running into a wall when this braking accrues. What I believe is happening is when I am driving on a downhill interstate with an overpass in the middle of the hill the car sees the dark background of the hillside and when the overpass comes into play is when the car gets close to the overpass and the car thinks because its a solid straight line on the horizon / overpass it thinks there is a wall in front of the car and slams the brakes on.
Has anybody else had this happen?
Thank you
Tony
I also notified Tesla corp from my Tesla account and they responded with a boiler plate statement that was not very satisfying. I love my car and its the best automobile I have ever had. I was counting the other day and I have owned more than 50 cars so far and this is the best. However If I were to be killed in an accident because of some programming error that would be tragic. I love the autopilot and have driven 14,000 miles in ten months using a lot of autopilot. This is the second time the car did this brake locking up situation. The first time it was just for a split second and then then car recovered and accelerated on its own.
So I think I know why the car is doing this. I would like to advise others to be aware of this situation. I believe the car thinks its running into a wall when this braking accrues. What I believe is happening is when I am driving on a downhill interstate with an overpass in the middle of the hill the car sees the dark background of the hillside and when the overpass comes into play is when the car gets close to the overpass and the car thinks because its a solid straight line on the horizon / overpass it thinks there is a wall in front of the car and slams the brakes on.
Has anybody else had this happen?
Thank you
Tony