Won't shift into D or R

[orangem]

Encountered something really odd today. I shifted into P to quickly drop my family off. Then I tried to shift into D. My 2015 refused to shift. After many attempts, I jumped out of the car, hoping a door lock and door unlock will reset it; and that did not work. Meanwhile cars were queuing up behind me and starting to get annoyed.
So, it just struck me to power down and power up the car. This finally worked to let me shift into D.
It never happened for my last 6 years with different model S. May be a new bug in the software. But a heads up, power down and power up will get you going again if you encounter this.

 

[Tam]

...power down and power up...

If that doesn't work, I hope you also remember the reboot procedure too.

 

[SSonnentag]

Reboot. My wife called me from a supercharger location with the same issue. I had her reboot, exit the vehicle, lock it, and then try things again. All was back to normal.

 

[ckoval7]

Did you lift your butt out of the seat at all? I had my car freak out from that when I went to reach for something that slid across my dash. It put itself in park, then wouldn't go back into gear. This happened to me at a stop light.

 

[DirtyT3sla]

This happened to me one time. I got out to get the mail and then couldn't *sugar* back into drive or reverse. I had to use the key card on the center part and then it was fine.

 

[Dan Baldwin]

This happened to me one time. I got out to get the mail and then couldn't *sugar* back into drive or reverse. I had to use the key card on the center part and then it was fine.

Key card ???

 

[orangem]

Did you lift your butt out of the seat at all? I had my car freak out from that when I went to reach for something that slid across my dash. It put itself in park, then wouldn't go back into gear. This happened to me at a stop light.

I jumped out and back into the car multiple times to try to trigger it to shift to D. It did not work. So I do not think is my butt problem... ...

If that doesn't work, I hope you also remember the reboot procedure too.

Probably the 2 scroll wheel reset would work, but that would be my last resort as that takes a few minutes. I was blocking a single driveway at that time and people were starting to be impatient..... Power down and power on by pressing brake pedal took my seconds.

Key card ???

He was probably referring to a Model 3.

 

[NYL12]

Happened to me today. Pulled into parking space and tried to out in park but the display stayed on “D”. I got out then back in. As there was a wall in front of me I tried to go in reverse, By moving shifter. While the “R” was not highlighted, it stayed in”D”, I carefully hit the accelerator and I moved backwards. Then moved shifter again and moved forward. Finally rebooted and everything went back to normal.

Very weird.

 

[HGREY]

Had the same thing happen at a Supercharger station here in San Jose yesterday. I have had my Model S for 3 years. Was attempting to back up and stopped as I was too close to another car. I awkwardly and quickly grabbed the shift lever and my hand slipped. I thought I had damaged the lever. I put my car in park. After that the car would not shift gears. I tried rebooting, turned car on and off etc. I then called Tesla service and he had me try many of the things I had already tried such as rebooting, turning passive entry back on, etc. Tesla ended calling a tow truck. I read on Tesla forum about putting the car into tow mode and a few other tricks, such as getting out of the driver’s seat and back in. Nothing worked. I was resigned to sending my car to the Service Center. I got out the car to wait with my wife. The tow truck arrived pretty quickly, about 20 mins. Just as he was pulling up I got back in my car and it shifted like normal. I think the key may have been turning tow mode on and off, doing a reboot and then getting out of the car to allow it to shut down. At least that’s my hypothesis. It was quite embarrassing telling the tow driver I didn’t require his help anymore. He was very understanding. The car has been fine since then.

 

[HrvatskaEV]

That's weird. I just experienced this yesterday in a Mercedes E-Class. Try flicking up the gear shifter a few times rather pushing it up (make it more abrupt). If that doesn't work, power on and off (in the Merc I just turned the car off then on again, but the MS has no start/stop button).