True Story or Not?: "Frunk opened at 115mph and caused $20k damage on brand new P85"

[NigelM]

Guys c'mon....how about we welcome the new guy and understand what happened? He said that his kid got hold of the fob, have any of you tested pressing the fob button when you're driving at 40mph?

I'm interested to hear more and the lesson may be "Keep your kids away from the keyfob".

 

[Mike_Schlechter]

I have tested the fob for the frunk while in motion; it doesn't pop the frunk open at all if in drive. Doesn't matter if you hit the fob or from the touch screen. I tested this early on as it was a concern for me.

 

[roblab]

Guys c'mon....how about we welcome the new guy and understand what happened? He said that his kid got hold of the fob, have any of you tested pressing the fob button when you're driving at 40mph?

I'm interested to hear more and the lesson may be "Keep your kids away from the keyfob".

I think this could be the new nightly news leader, like when Tesla had battery f****, and now it's Hood unlatching and popping up so you can't see and take out the bank and all the people standing in line.

I tend to think it can't happen. I plan to test my keyfob and screen release.

 

[hockeythug]

This is a strange thread bump. Might be trouble ahead.

 

[Krugerrand]

Guys c'mon....how about we welcome the new guy and understand what happened? He said that his kid got hold of the fob, have any of you tested pressing the fob button when you're driving at 40mph?

I'm interested to hear more and the lesson may be "Keep your kids away from the keyfob".

The lesson may be that the new guy is a great story teller. I also think you're mistaken about the story. I don't believe any kids were in the car at the time. It was 5:30am and the adult was headed to the gym. I don't know of too many kids (read none), who are going to a gym to work out at that hour unless they have Olympic aspirations. Not impossible, but... They might be headed to hockey practice, in which case I'd expect the story to be; 'I was headed to the rink to drop my kid off for hockey at 5:30am.....'

I suspect the poster is saying that the kid pushed the key fob prior, as in the night/day before, then the adult got in the car at 5:30am not realizing the frunk was open, drove off not noticing it was open or not hearing/seeing any of the warnings/alarms that the car gives/may give about the frunk being open, hit 40mph and whamo.

Welcome New Guy! Interesting first post choice, interesting attitude about it, and some interesting choices of words. What did Tesla say when you contacted them?

 

[Bill D]

The reality here is that there is a defect with the frunk. I own a Model S and it happened to me last week. Driving at 5:30 in the morning to the gym without realizing that one of the kids had mistakingly pushed the button on the FOB. Result: hood popped open at 40 MPH and I am staring at a $8,000 repair. Luckily no one was on the road however what happens if you are on the freeway and the hood pops open.

Please clarify if "one of the kids had mistakingly pushed the button on the fob" WHILE you were driving at 40 MPH or did they push it BEFORE you began driving and cause you to depart that morning with the hood unlatched?

 

[eco5280]

Here's the only way I think the frunk could cause damage:

1) You open the frunk.
2) You gently set it down and forget to push it down into the latches.
3) You begin driving.
4) The car alerts you that the frunk is open.
5) You ignore said warnings.
6) You accelerate enough that the airflow under the frunk lip is sufficient to lift the lid.
7) The lid swings up and obstructs your vision.
8) You crash into a tree.
9) You aren't wearing a seatbelt, so you fly through the windshield and land high in the tree branches.
10) The paramedics arrive and find you being nursed back to health in a large bird's nest by an overprotective bluejay.
11) You post on TMC that the frunk magically opened while driving.

I think we can all agree that's really the only circumstances that would cause this sort of thing, right?

 

[mikeash]

No, there are other scenarios where this could happen. For example, instead of a blue jay, it could be a cardinal, or in rare cases even a sparrow.

 

[NigelM]

Reality check:

Sure this could be someone trolling but consider for a minute...

• We all know that weird things can happen with software in any environment
• We're talking about a mechanical latch (and no second safety latch)
• Everyone assumes automatically that it's impossible for there even to be a 1 in 50,000 failure rate?
• With a pile-on the OP will likely not come back and share details

Tesla makes fantastic cars, I have two of them and a reservation on a third one but I'm realistic enough to know that parts can fail on any and all vehicles of any make or brand. Maybe instead of scaring away a new poster with interrogations, e.g. about what he was doing with his kids at 5.30am*, we should open our minds and not sweep everything aside as if it was impossible.


(*sorry to pick you as an example Krug, nothing personal intended)

 

[eco5280]

Possible? Sure. Anything's possible. The car could turn into a sewing machine if I enter the correct sequence on the key fob. Why not.

But probable? I've had cars with key fobs for 20 years. Not one has ever let me do something it wasn't designed to do - like popping the trunk if the car's in motion. Not one time, not one car, never. I've tried it on every vehicle I've ever owned. Never a failure like that. Possible? Sure. But probable? What's more likely - user error or a defect in code that magically only affects one person in 50,000 even though everyone has the same code and the same vehicle?

 

[EarlyAdopter]

Heh. The first thing I did with my delivery specialist in the car way back on 1/17/13 when my car was delivered was try pressing the frunk button on the fob while in motion. It did nothing.

 

[NigelM]

Possible? Sure. Anything's possible. The car could turn into a sewing machine if I enter the correct sequence on the key fob. Why not.

Because you're using an example of something that's impossible to prove that everything is impossible?

I don't believe that there's any inherent defect, I also do know that parts can fail and this could happen on a car, including Tesla. I'm just saying that if we shout down anyone who raises an issue we'll never find out if there was one. Let's make sure we don't fall into a groupthink scenario here.

 

[Lloyd]

Reading his post, perhaps he meant that his kids had previously pressed, (maybe the day before) the key fob. When he got in the car, he did not see and/or ignored the dash warnings that the frunk was open. Then when he got to speed the frunk opened.

This scenereo is understandable.

 

[MrClown]

I agree with you on the software part - it's very unlikely that the same code would behave differently in different cars in this respect. However, I read his post to mean that the kid played with the FOB and opened the frunk prior to his getting in the vehicle, probably the night before. In that scenario it's not necessarily the software that could be the problem. The sensor that detects the frunk being unlatched must be a mechanical device and it could fail in some way such that it does not inform the software (and therefore the driver). This is not unreasonable.

That doesn't make his story true (or false) but that's one way it might have happened that doesn't involve unicorns.

 

[eco5280]

I am not silencing anyone, at all. I encourage everyone to post your experiences, good or bad. I'm not a Tesla fanboy, I'm a forum fanboy. Long live forums.

The sensor that detects the frunk being unlatched must be a mechanical device and it could fail in some way such that it does not inform the software (and therefore the driver).

Tesla did not invent this sensor. Save my 1963 AMC Rambler American every vehicle I've ever been in has had a sensor for every door, and most the trunk as well. I've never heard of that part failing - beeping when a door is closed, or not beeping when a door is open. Just my personal experiences, but again, I'm trying to use logic and reason. Did the sensor fail, or did the driver fail. Which is more likely - that the ONE sensor that's failed also happens to be the one user that left it unlatched while driving? Or, as I offered, that the frunk was opened and not closed, and the driver ignored the warnings? Which is more likely? That's what I'm saying. Everyone should try this (driving under 10 mph), put your frunk in various states of openness and see what happens when you begin driving. Report the results.

 

[NigelM]

I've never heard of that part failing -

Google can give you many cases, on many marques, where it has failed. True though that it hasn't been documented on a Tesla yet.

- - - Updated - - -

Did the sensor fail, or did the driver fail. Which is more likely - that the ONE sensor that's failed also happens to be the one user that left it unlatched while driving? Or, as I offered, that the frunk was opened and not closed, and the driver ignored the warnings? Which is more likely?

If we assume that everything worked as it should we'll therefore marginalize the possibility of a failure outside of user error.

- - - Updated - - -

Everyone should try this (driving under 10 mph), put your frunk in various states of openness and see what happens when you begin driving. Report the results.

There's no question of how the system should work; that doesn't eradicate the possibility of failure.

- - - Updated - - -

eco5280, nothing personal is intended when I dissected your post here. On balance of probabilities your implication of user error over hardware failure is more likely, but I would like to hear more from the OP and I think we collectively risked chasing him away earlier today.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

The reality here is that there is a defect with the frunk. I own a Model S and it happened to me last week. Driving at 5:30 in the morning to the gym without realizing that one of the kids had mistakingly pushed the button on the FOB. Result: hood popped open at 40 MPH and I am staring at a $8,000 repair. Luckily no one was on the road however what happens if you are on the freeway and the hood pops open.

Except the car warns you when a door is open, including the frunk. Did you not heed the warning?

 

[freds]

Except the car warns you when a door is open, including the frunk. Did you not heed the warning?

Some people don't pay attention to idiot lights at all!!!

 

[efusco]

The reality here is that there is a defect with the frunk. I own a Model S and it happened to me last week. Driving at 5:30 in the morning to the gym without realizing that one of the kids had mistakingly pushed the button on the FOB. Result: hood popped open at 40 MPH and I am staring at a $8,000 repair. Luckily no one was on the road however what happens if you are on the freeway and the hood pops open.

Which warnings did you choose to ignore?

 

[markb1]

I'm not convinced that it's impossible for the frunk to be unlatched without a warning on the instrument cluster. We'd have to analyze how that warning is triggered. There's likely a switch that is depressed by the frunk latch. It may be possible for the funk to be closed completely, but the latch would not be engaged because of a defect. The switch could conceivably still be depressed in that case. But we'd have to find the switch and figure out how it's depressed before we can understand how it could fail.