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.

 

[SpiceWare]

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.

They're trying to - on twitter they use a bunch of hashtags like:

• #TeslaPaintIssues
• #TeslaQualityIssues
• #TeslaServiceIssues

and so on.

They'll use those tags in replies/retweets of people* who tweeted issues, then use those tags to discourage others from buying a Tesla. As an example see the relies to this tweet.

* frequently the accounts posting issues are accounts that have been inactive for years, such this one which tweeted about an accident that they're blaming on AutoPilot. The account last tweeted in 2015, so it's highly likely it's a hacked account that was bought by TSLAQ to spread FUD.

 

[Pauluske69]

Tesla says.........the car accelerates if, and only if, the driver told it to do so......
This is absolutly not true.
After receiving software updates, in August last year, my S started to accelerate from 100km/h to 110km/h on 1 spot in my daily drive, which I reported at Tesla Eindhoven on the 12th of September.
Now, the last couple of weeks I have at least 4 spots in my daily drive, that my car accelerates when on auto pilot, from 100km/h to 120km/h without my permission.
When I set my cruise control to 100km/h I expect it to stay at 100km/h untill I instruct it otherwise.
It is a dangerous and most anoing bug that came with the last updates.
Beste regards,
Pauluske69

 

[dfwatt]

Tesla says.........the car accelerates if, and only if, the driver told it to do so......
This is absolutly not true.
After receiving software updates, in August last year, my S started to accelerate from 100km/h to 110km/h on 1 spot in my daily drive, which I reported at Tesla Eindhoven on the 12th of September.
Now, the last couple of weeks I have at least 4 spots in my daily drive, that my car accelerates when on auto pilot, from 100km/h to 120km/h without my permission.
When I set my cruise control to 100km/h I expect it to stay at 100km/h untill I instruct it otherwise.
It is a dangerous and most anoing bug that came with the last updates.
Beste regards,
Pauluske69

See previous post on this issue. This is not unintended acceleration in the strict sense it is autopilot dysfunction. They are different. This belongs in a different thread

 

[rdskill]

When I set my cruise control to 100km/h I expect it to stay at 100km/h until I instruct it otherwise.
It is a dangerous and most annoying bug that came with the last updates.

Unfortunately TACC can adjust speeds based on the mapped speeds rather than your current. In my gated community it thinks the speed sound be 40mph instead of 25mph depending on which of the 3 ways you enter the gated community.

On a 4-lane interstate there is a section where if I am in the 2 right lines my speed will go from 70mph to 55 or even down to 35 if I am in the far right lane!! Full regen kicks in. Not fun!

So, not a bug. Its part of the FSD in the wild fantasy.

They really need an option like you described and how all the other cruise controls work. You set a speed to maintain and that's it. TACC can make the car slow down if a car is in front. Good-by phantom breaking due to incorrect speed maps.

 

[jboy210]

Tesla says.........the car accelerates if, and only if, the driver told it to do so......
This is absolutly not true.
After receiving software updates, in August last year, my S started to accelerate from 100km/h to 110km/h on 1 spot in my daily drive, which I reported at Tesla Eindhoven on the 12th of September.
Now, the last couple of weeks I have at least 4 spots in my daily drive, that my car accelerates when on auto pilot, from 100km/h to 120km/h without my permission.
When I set my cruise control to 100km/h I expect it to stay at 100km/h untill I instruct it otherwise.
It is a dangerous and most anoing bug that came with the last updates.
Beste regards,
Pauluske69

If you read the claims they are mostly about the car accelerating when the driver was pulling into a parking spot. So, quite a different scenario.

 

[specialgreen]

I think the title should be that Tesla defends against claims of unintended acceleration. There's a big difference between "Valens defends Attila the Hun" and "Valens defends [Rome] from Attila the Hun".

 

[MartinPNL]

Reading all this and the comments, and no one actually experienced this.

It is not about an unintended foot on the gas pedal, for me it is about going into TACC (cruise control) by itself.
It happened 5 times until now. The first two times were, of course, completely un-expected. Apparently I am hard-wired to hit the breaks automatically so nothing really bad happened. Because, when you reduce speed when you approaching an roundabout, it is actually no fun feeling the car accelerate when you expect it to slow down.

The next three times I was, albeit a little, prepared. So I noticed the TACC blue circle was on (Oh, March 2019 European M3 LR) and the car accelerated because of that. That also explains, once you hit the breaks, TACC goes off.
It happened twice while decreasing speed for a roundabout, and once leaving a parking area, entering the road over a speed bump.

After contact with support they explained they need a timestamp and location. So I am thinking of rigging a video cam inside to actually have proof that the TACC activated by itself. When it happens again, that is. Maybe the update to 2020.4.1 update solves the issue.

Happy driving!