Tesla Defends Claims of ‘Unintended Acceleration’

Tesla released a blog post Monday defending a petition to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration claiming the company’s vehicles are prone to “unintended acceleration.”

The petition reportedly covers all Tesla models sold between 2012 and 2019, roughly 500,000 vehicles. The petition cited 127 complaints, including 110 crashes and 52 injuries.

Tesla said the allegations were false and initiated by a Tesla short-seller.

“Over the past several years, we discussed with NHTSA the majority of the complaints alleged in the petition,” Tesla said in the post. “In every case we reviewed with them, the data proved the vehicle functioned properly.”

See the full blog post below:

There is no “unintended acceleration” in Tesla vehicles The Tesla Team – January 20, 2020This petition is completely false and was brought by a Tesla short-seller. We investigate every single incident where the driver alleges to us that their vehicle accelerated contrary to their input, and in every case where we had the vehicle’s data, we confirmed that the car operated as designed. In other words, the car accelerates if, and only if, the driver told it to do so, and it slows or stops when the driver applies the brake.While accidents caused by a mistaken press of the accelerator pedal have been alleged for nearly every make/model of vehicle on the road, the accelerator pedals in Model S, X and 3 vehicles have two independent position sensors, and if there is any error, the system defaults to cut off motor torque. Likewise, applying the brake pedal simultaneously with the accelerator pedal will override the accelerator pedal input and cut off motor torque, and regardless of the torque, sustained braking will stop the car. Unique to Tesla, we also use the Autopilot sensor suite to help distinguish potential pedal misapplications and cut torque to mitigate or prevent accidents when we’re confident the driver’s input was unintentional. Each system is independent and records data, so we can examine exactly what happened.We are transparent with NHTSA, and routinely review customer complaints of unintended acceleration with them. Over the past several years, we discussed with NHTSA the majority of the complaints alleged in the petition. In every case we reviewed with them, the data proved the vehicle functioned properly.

 

[MichaelP90DL]

Last night, I tweeted the CBS TV station in Los Angeles in response to their segment on the 11pm news about this matter. I told them it was false, that Teslas log every driver input and the car's action, and that Tesla itself can access these logs remotely, and prove to the satisfaction of lawyers, judges and regulators precisely what happened. I suggested they call Tesla for comment. Sloppy reporting.

 

[dfwatt]

Last night, I tweeted the CBS TV station in Los Angeles in response to their segment on the 11pm news about this matter. I told them it was false, that Teslas log every driver input and the car's action, and that Tesla itself can access these logs remotely, and prove to the satisfaction of lawyers, judges and regulators precisely what happened. I suggested they call Tesla for comment. Sloppy reporting.

When you can't compete on functionality, safety ratings, cost of operation, user satisfaction ratings, or even just sheer performance, what are you left with? FUD fear uncertainty doubt, and frankly this kind of BS. It's the last gasp of a fossil-fuel Centric disinformation machine.

I'd stack it right next to all the reports from the brilliant Financial types predicting Tesla's demise anytime soon, and that once 'serious' auto manufacturers got serious about EVs, they'd all just blow past Tesla.

 

[MichaelP90DL]

When you can't compete on functionality, safety ratings, cost of operation, user satisfaction ratings, or even just sheer performance, what are you left with? FUD fear uncertainty doubt, and frankly this kind of BS. It's the last gasp of a fossil-fuel Centric disinformation machine.

I'd stack it right next to all the reports from the brilliant Financial types predicting Tesla's demise anytime soon, and that once serious auto manufacturers got serious about EVs, they'd all just blow past Tesla.

I wonder if corporate news outlets are playing an extortion game. "If you want better news reporting, buy advertising."

 

[dfwatt]

I wonder if corporate news outlets are playing an extortion game. "If you want better news reporting, buy advertising."

Yeah I used to think that it was sort of paranoid to attribute the poor coverage about Tesla in various news outlets to any version of a fossil-fuel-centric conspiracy, but it's really hard to see the consistent drumbeat and not wonder. If it's not a conspiracy it's at least a motivated disinformation campaign. Even to see Consumer Reports, in terms of how they took pains to minimize and even hide the results of their user surveys where the Model 3 simply blew up every other car they had ever surveyed in terms of overall owner satisfaction. I'm sure it was embarrassing that a car they were no longer recommending due to "poor reliability" defined as frequency of issues with glass, body panels, and screen resets) getting something like 95% user satisfaction, when even Porsche, their previous ratings champ, couldn't hit that number.

 

[erikM3]

Last night, I tweeted the CBS TV station in Los Angeles in response to their segment on the 11pm news about this matter. I told them it was false, that Teslas log every driver input and the car's action, and that Tesla itself can access these logs remotely, and prove to the satisfaction of lawyers, judges and regulators precisely what happened. I suggested they call Tesla for comment. Sloppy reporting.

You probably were never involved in such an event.
My M3 was standing still in traffic, then all of a sudden it accelerates while the car in front of me was not driving at all. I had to react immediately and brake to prevent a collission.
I report this event to Tesla with time and date. And you know what they say? They can't see it occured
Bad carcompany to not acknowledging these things happen to their cars.

 

[EVSmartParts]

Yeah I used to think that it was sort of paranoid to attribute the poor coverage about Tesla in various news outlets to any version of a fossil-fuel-centric conspiracy, but it's really hard to see the consistent drumbeat and not wonder. If it's not a conspiracy it's at least a motivated disinformation campaign. Even to see Consumer Reports, in terms of how they took pains to minimize and even hide the results of their user surveys where the Model 3 simply blew up every other car they had ever surveyed in terms of overall owner satisfaction. I'm sure it was embarrassing that a car they were no longer recommending due to "poor reliability" defined as frequency of issues with glass, body panels, and screen resets) getting something like 95% user satisfaction, when even Porsche, their previous ratings champ, couldn't hit that number.

I'm glad to hear your comment about Consumer Reports. I was always a fan and supporter... but recently my B.S. detector alarm started blaring as I read about their take on the Model 3. " ....complicated controls... must dig through layers of touch screen steps to open the glove box... In a nutshell they were reporting "Complicated Complicatedness and overwhelming overwhelmingness."

I don't understand their inability to see that the car is uncomplicated and is very easy to use. Walk up to it, get in, sit down, drive. Heater / AC starts, music picks up on the song that was playing when you got out, wipers start automatically when needed, headlights turn on automatically, seat adjusts automatically.
Your points are good. Thanks!

 

[ChadS]

Shouldn't the title be something like "Tesla denies" rather than "Tesla defends"?

HERE is an informative forum post on the topic.

 

[Jack6591]

When you can't compete on functionality, safety ratings, cost of operation, user satisfaction ratings, or even just sheer performance, what are you left with? FUD fear uncertainty doubt, and frankly this kind of BS. It's the last gasp of a fossil-fuel Centric disinformation machine.

I'd stack it right next to all the reports from the brilliant Financial types predicting Tesla's demise anytime soon, and that once 'serious' auto manufacturers got serious about EVs, they'd all just blow past Tesla.

I disagree in this sense; this is not the last gasp of the fossil fuel industry. While I despise their tactics — I admire their tenacity. Make no mistake, they will fight to last bullet and use every arrow in their quiver.

This fight will continue for years. You can respect your adversary, it is fatal to underestimate them.

 

[Joer293]

The devil is in the details. The car is always acting as designed, just not as desired. All my unexpected accelerations are a result of autopilot 1 glitches. I've reported bug notes over the years, but never seen anything fixed. I've never been in an accident situation. Worst case, the backseat driver yells at me to never use autopilot.

I've got 2 reproducible speed limit phantom recognition locations.
1. Veterans hwy , speed limit 45, autopilot accelerates to 65 and displays 65 on the cluster. Only a problem when the cop is running radar in rush hour at the motel.
2. Rt 10 north after Rt 100 split, speed limit 55, autopilot accelerates to 70 and displays 70 on the cluster. It drops to 55 when passing the next sign about 1-2 miles down the hwy. Again, usually only an issue when cops run radar. Saved numerous times, by autopilot slowing down due to the car in front slowing down for the speed traps.

3. Rt 10 south merge rt 100, autopilot has some geotagged speed limiter. If autopilot was going above 60mph, it slows down automatically. (Usually resulting in the cursing, horns from other vehicles, since it appears I'm brake checking them.) Then randomly about 1-2 miles later it will speed up to the set speed. It's unexpected when you have no idea why the car is slowing down in the first place. And forget your set speed was higher.

4. While this is really just user error, there have been many times on autopilot I run into traffic jams. After about 10-15 minutes I'll forget that autopilot was set to 70mph while traffic is at a crawl. Then some car exits my lane, Tesla lurches forward, just in time for another car on the other side attempting to take that spot. Tesla autopilot 1 is a jerk driver, either it leaves too much space, causing road rage, or always attempting to block cars merging. I feel this scenario is what led to the drivers death a couple years ago in CA. Probably forgot speed was higher, looking right to see anyone coming in, Tesla lurched forward towards a barrier, while driver looking out for other traffic. AP 2 is supposed to be able to handle those situations. 8 cameras can see dangers from all sides, not just the expected danger of other aggressive cars.

The front radar replacement (and software updates) did resolve the unexpected braking issues. "Noisy environment" is what the SC said the logs showed.

 

[dfwatt]

You probably were never involved in such an event.
My M3 was standing still in traffic, then all of a sudden it accelerates while the car in front of me was not driving at all. I had to react immediately and brake to prevent a collission.
I report this event to Tesla with time and date. And you know what they say? They can't see it occured
Bad carcompany to not acknowledging these things happen to their cars.

Many of us have had "unintended acceleration events", fortunately, most of them not serious or lethal. The real question is can you prove that the acceleration took place without your foot on the gas pedal? That's another story. Most of the research that's been done into these events shows that 99.99% of the time people hit the accelerator thinking it's the brake. Tesla's data in the hundred and twenty seven of these that have taken place over volume of 1/2 million cars operating offers no evidence that the car is accelerating without any pressure being placed on the accelerator. It sells copy to make these claims. It's another story to get hard data to support the notion that unintended acceleration is really happening on anything other than a microscopic scale in modern automobiles. When Tesla doesn't support your claim does that make them a bad Auto Company? Really? I bet my mortgage the problem is not in the car but somewhere else.

 

[dfwatt]

The devil is in the details. The car is always acting as designed, just not as desired. All my unexpected accelerations are a result of autopilot 1 glitches. I've reported bug notes over the years, but never seen anything fixed. I've never been in an accident situation. Worst case, the backseat driver yells at me to never use autopilot.

I've got 2 reproducible speed limit phantom recognition locations.
1. Veterans hwy , speed limit 45, autopilot accelerates to 65 and displays 65 on the cluster. Only a problem when the cop is running radar in rush hour at the motel.
2. Rt 10 north after Rt 100 split, speed limit 55, autopilot accelerates to 70 and displays 70 on the cluster. It drops to 55 when passing the next sign about 1-2 miles down the hwy. Again, usually only an issue when cops run radar. Saved numerous times, by autopilot slowing down due to the car in front slowing down for the speed traps.

3. Rt 10 south merge rt 100, autopilot has some geotagged speed limiter. If autopilot was going above 60mph, it slows down automatically. (Usually resulting in the cursing, horns from other vehicles, since it appears I'm brake checking them.) Then randomly about 1-2 miles later it will speed up to the set speed. It's unexpected when you have no idea why the car is slowing down in the first place. And forget your set speed was higher.

4. While this is really just user error, there have been many times on autopilot I run into traffic jams. After about 10-15 minutes I'll forget that autopilot was set to 70mph while traffic is at a crawl. Then some car exits my lane, Tesla lurches forward, just in time for another car on the other side attempting to take that spot. Tesla autopilot 1 is a jerk driver, either it leaves too much space, causing road rage, or always attempting to block cars merging. I feel this scenario is what led to the drivers death a couple years ago in CA. Probably forgot speed was higher, looking right to see anyone coming in, Tesla lurched forward towards a barrier, while driver looking out for other traffic. AP 2 is supposed to be able to handle those situations. 8 cameras can see dangers from all sides, not just the expected danger of other aggressive cars.

The front radar replacement (and software updates) did resolve the unexpected braking issues. "Noisy environment" is what the SC said the logs showed.

While you are describing what could be considered a form of unintended acceleration or dysfunctional acceleration this belongs in another thread. You're talking about autopilot dysfunction which is different from what most people mean by unintended acceleration

 

[MichaelP90DL]

I disagree in this sense; this is not the last gasp of the fossil fuel industry. While I despise their tactics — I admire their tenacity. Make no mistake, they will fight to last bullet and use every arrow in their quiver.

This fight will continue for years. You can respect your adversary, it is fatal to underestimate them.

Thanks for the reminder. My next book to read will be "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, written about 2,600 years ago.

 

[dfwatt]

I disagree in this sense; this is not the last gasp of the fossil fuel industry. While I despise their tactics — I admire their tenacity. Make no mistake, they will fight to last bullet and use every arrow in their quiver.

This fight will continue for years. You can respect your adversary, it is fatal to underestimate them.

I'm in the behavioral neurosciences where I got my doctorate looking at a number of severe personality disorders closely related to sociopathy. I do not underestimate the ruthlessness nor the psychopathy of the fossil fuel industry. But from the perspective of the long game however it is a last-gasp. That gasp still may last many decades but in the long game, that's a short time. Fossil fuels are on a short timeline to become stranded assets. Trumpism aside, the rest of the world is waking up and seeing the catastrophe on our doorsteps.

 

[Jack6591]

Davos: Trump decries climate 'prophets of doom' with Thunberg in audience

From the “Prophet of Denial”

 

[rdskill]

You probably were never involved in such an event.
My M3 was standing still in traffic, then all of a sudden it accelerates while the car in front of me was not driving at all. I had to react immediately and brake to prevent a collission.
I report this event to Tesla with time and date. And you know what they say? They can't see it occured
Bad carcompany to not acknowledging these things happen to their cars.

Good thing your dashcam will back you up.

 

[SSSimon]

Unintended TSLA share price accelerations seem to have made this non-issue worse

 

[Az_Rael]

The strange thing about the shorts is they grasp at something like this, but don’t grab hold of the Tesla problems that are much more tangible. Things like the battery capping or supercharging rate capping, or even the generally poor customer service many people are experiencing. Just seems odd that they have to grasp at straws (unintended acceleration) when there are real problems with the company they could use to promote their interests.

 

[MichaelP90DL]

The strange thing about the shorts is they grasp at something like this, but don’t grab hold of the Tesla problems that are much more tangible. Things like the battery capping or supercharging rate capping, or even the generally poor customer service many people are experiencing. Just seems odd that they have to grasp at straws (unintended acceleration) when there are real problems with the company they could use to promote their interests.

Marketing and advertising are major interests of mine. I'm constantly thinking about ways to get the phone to ring. You have pointed out vulnerabilities that short-sellers and competitors could exploit. But they don't. Instead, they create baloney and try to sell that, and all that does is hurt their credibility.

 

[erikM3]

Many of us have had "unintended acceleration events", fortunately, most of them not serious or lethal. The real question is can you prove that the acceleration took place without your foot on the gas pedal? That's another story. Most of the research that's been done into these events shows that 99.99% of the time people hit the accelerator thinking it's the brake. Tesla's data in the hundred and twenty seven of these that have taken place over volume of 1/2 million cars operating offers no evidence that the car is accelerating without any pressure being placed on the accelerator. It sells copy to make these claims. It's another story to get hard data to support the notion that unintended acceleration is really happening on anything other than a microscopic scale in modern automobiles. When Tesla doesn't support your claim does that make them a bad Auto Company? Really? I bet my mortgage the problem is not in the car but somewhere else.

Tesla service advisors told me they can not see in the log something extra ordinary happens unless the car itself do the extra ordinary. So only when the car brakes all of sudden they can see, not that YOU brake because the car accelerates all by itself for no reason causing dangerous situations. The log sees it's normal to accelerate, causing dangerous situations.