Summons Crash in to Garage Door

[heffneil]

Hey all I want to share a bit of a horror story and get some perspective if you wouldn't mind.

This happened about a month ago as I was leaving to go see "The Last Jedi". I was showing off the summons backing out of the garage. The car moved about 3 - 4 inches and disconnected. My buddy who I was showing off for said lets just get in and go we were running out of time. So we jumped in the car and started to back out when I heard a crunch. I quickly moved forward and jumped out of the car. As it turns out the door was coming down on us and it decided to turn around when it had resistance. Problem is that the hurricane braces on the back of the door caught the camera and pulled it back up inside the hatch. I used a pliers and pulled it down and it is better but other than that and my license plate frame also being damaged I dodged a bullet.

I asked Tesla to make the repairs and they jerked me around a lot. The end result is that they want me to pay for the repair and have quoted that I can't rely on the camera and backup sensors to make sure the space behind me is clear. I argued that those weren't the failure. The failure was in the summons who thought the car was being parked and closed the door. I couldn't see the door coming out because the read window is too small to see the door as it came down and I don't drive looking out the back window.

Tesla downloaded the logs but provided no insight. She (the service manager) told me that summons is stopped when I press the brake which I think is either BS or it happened so quick between closing the doors the door started to come down and then I pushed the brake to shift in to reverse. Very possible given how quick things happened.

Regardless they had to order parts and it will be fixed the question will be who pays the bill. Best I can tell its only about a $300 repair or so - but I don't think I should be responsible.

I did turn off the feature to close and open the garage door automatically.

 

[mal_tsla]

Open automatically is safe enough, but auto close is fraught with peril. Always off!

 

[Super_Popular]

I did not think that you could move the car if the doors are open?

 

[heffneil]

Huh? Doors were closed?

 

[Super_Popular]

Huh? Doors were closed?

Did you read what I posted?

What I said was, "I did not think the car would move if the doors where open"

This is what you said: "So we jumped in the car and started to back out when I heard a crunch. I quickly moved forward and jumped out of the car. As it turns out the door was coming down on us and it decided to turn around when it had resistance."

Correct me if I am wrong but it sounds like the doors where open when you pulled out?, I was unaware that the X would move if the doors where open but I could be wrong.

 

[heffneil]

Second door is garage doors. I assumed you realized my car doors were closed. Sorry for not specifying.

Also I put the car in gear with the FWD open all the time. I have moved VERY slowly with them open. I take it you don't have a Model X?

 

[Dyspareunia]

Open automatically is safe enough, but auto close is fraught with peril. Always off!

This 100% of the time! My buddy’s X nearly did the same thing as he was slowly pulling out of his garage, the auto close transmitted, despite the vehicle’s front not fully clearing the garage. He was quick enough to push the HomeLink and stop the garage before any mishaps. He told me he no longer trusts the auto close.

 

[Sandiegodoug]

I had issues with summon too. Car would just start turning into side of garage as it was coming out. I have to watch it like a hawk, and make it go back in to straighten out front wheels, the reverse out of garage. I called corporate and they told be summons still in beta testing. Works most of the time.

 

[Super_Popular]

Second door is garage doors. I assumed you realized my car doors were closed. Sorry for not specifying.

Also I put the car in gear with the FWD open all the time. I have moved VERY slowly with them open. I take it you don't have a Model X?

I do have a Model X but anytime I have put my car in drive before the front doors are closed it will not move. I have never tried to drive with the FWD open but I will try it in an open lot.

 

[Tam]

...door was coming down...

Would placing your garage sensors to 20 inches from the ground stop the garage door from coming down?

...who pays the bill...

Like Autopilot, Summon is beta so you, the owner who didn't disable Autopilot or Summon pays the bill if there's an accident or fatality.

 

[croman]

This is user fault. Sorry.

 

[Bijli123]

As much as I hate the funky quirks of Tesla, I think this is user fault.

When I configured the Garage Opener - I decided to not use Auto-close - because I don't trust the safety of the car doing it automatically. I still had auto-open switched on. However what I didn't realize was that the signal is a toggle. Once there were people moving sofa into my garage and as I approached the house, car tried to auto open the garage door - which started to close the door. Imagine if the movers were moving the sofa in right at that moment.

I disabled auto-open right away.

I like it that Tesla has some features which some people might like. However the car today is really dumb and so is this feature. There is no way that it has a human-level judgement to know when to auto open and when to auto close the door.

I really wish that Tesla put this feature behind a huge disclaimer and list of scenarios where it can go wrong before it allows the user to switch it on.

I use minimum funky features of Tesla and am extra careful when using it and would recommend others do the same!

 

[rush6410]

The door closing is not related to summon in you instance. It is the auto close feature with Homelink. It uses your GPS location based on the initial setup of home link. I set my location for homelink just outside the garage door. This gives a buffer for when it detects you reached the distance away from set location before it closes. From users manual.

Resetting the Location of the
HomeLink Device
If you experience situations in which you
sometimes drive up to your HomeLink Device
and it doesn't open, or the HomeLink icon on
the touchscreen's status bar does not display
the dropdown when you approach the device,
you may need to reset the device's location.
To do so, park as close as possible to the
HomeLink device (garage door, gate, etc.) and
display the HomeLink settings page by
touching Controls > Settings > HomeLink.
Choose the name of the programmed device,
and touch Reset Location.

 

[arcus]

The problem with auto-open/close is that the car doesn't have any logic built in to differentiate between the two (it is a simple toggle, like a manual button press on a garage door fob). I wish it would be paired with either sensors or cameras (or both) to actually "see" the state of the garage door and make more intelligent decisions when triggered. Most of the incidents would be avoided that way.

 

[rush6410]

The problem with auto-open/close is that the car doesn't have any logic built in to differentiate between the two

But, it does use the sensors when in the garage with door closed initiating summons. It will not back up into the door. It detects the door then opens. If door is already open, it does not send the command to close at initiation. In other words, it used logic at initiation. Is door closed or open based on rear sensor. Depending on status of sensor it sends the command to open door or not. Once it backs out It sends command when it reaches a distance away from homelink location. I've tested it pretty thoroughly, and this is what I have observed. With that said, it is software executed. So, things can go wrong. It is the drivers responsibility to monitor expected behavior and intervene if needed.

 

[rush6410]

So we jumped in the car and started to back out when I heard a crunch

I am pretty sure and will test later that summons would immediately cancel when you opened the doors to jump in and would not send any commands associated with summons. That is why I pointed to a possible Homelink location issue instead.

 

[bhzmark]

I was showing off the summons backing out of the garage.

You activated summons, so it did the options it was enabled to do -- namely activate the door.

the summons who thought the car was being parked and closed the door

Summons merely activated the door as per its user enabled setting.

Did you ask the garage door opener mfr why the garage door opener "who thought the garage door area was clear" to pay for the repair?

I did turn off the feature to close and open the garage door automatically.

Wise.

Would placing your garage sensors to 20 inches from the ground stop the garage door from coming down?

Also wise.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

I feared this kind of thing happening so I made sure to never use auto-close on homelink. I also disabled auto-locking, and any other auto thing that could come back to bite me.

Ignoring question of fault I think it's best to assume that technology is out to get you. So don't give it any obvious paths.

 

[rush6410]

Ignoring question of fault I think it's best to assume that technology is out to get you.

And you bought a Tesla. You must live on the edge.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

And you bought a Tesla. You must live on the edge.

Tesla was the only game in town for those wanted to ride the wave of technology with the expectation that we'd take responsibility for what happened as a result.

Like Summons the feature relies on ultrasonics, and it's not always going to work. It will work better eventually with EAP (with smart summons). But, with the current version it's a managed risk. Are the sensors going to properly sense the objects in the way? Will it recognize when I try to manually stop it.

So many elements of the car have gotcha's if you don't understand how the technology works under the hood. That's why this incident happened. It was a gotcha waiting to happen.