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Comment by jondwillis | Hacker News Reader

Tangential, I am on a cross country trip with FSD 10.8.1 which has been recalled. Yesterday the entire visual interface and sound interface froze on me while stopped at a light while driving, somehow got into R-everse and I almost backed into a car behind me when the light changed. A soft restart fixed it, and I have cabin video of the entire incident. Anyone know how to signal boost this without being overly annoying? My software is two full versions behind and won’t update yet. Super unsafe, not that updating will guarantee to make it safer. Seemed like a memory leak or something to me, as the car computer got slower and slower over a couple of hours.

Whole thing is on twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1291302858 around 6h:20m

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It looks like right before that happened, you pushed up on a stick to the right of the steering wheel. Did that put it in reverse? Anyone with a tesla comment?

I don't have a Tesla, but hey this is the Internet, looks like pushing it up does put it in reverse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHC8TfXtHlg

Heh, but with all the UI frozen (even the blinker noise died) I guess he couldn't tell that he put the car in reverse.

Yes but the display freezing and then him putting it in reverse isn't what he described happening.

There's a big difference, and it's obvious from watching the video once which one happened, even to someone who didn't know how to put a Tesla in reverse (me).

When someone says something incorrect, I always wonder if it's accidental or intentional. This kind of misrepresentation seems intentional, making me question the source's future credibility.

I hate Teslas, their complexity is a design flaw. Can't believe I'm defending them.

To defend OP, he probably doesn't even remember putting the car into reverse, and probably hasn't reviewed the video. Yeah it's a weak defense, and I agree with you, if he's making big claims he should've reviewed things more carefully.

OTOH, I wonder if "The car must indicate to the driver visually/audibly that it's been put in reverse." is a clause in a law somewhere...

That I can get behind. These things are dangerous and don't belong on our roads.

Most manual transmissions don't give you any indication whether you're in reverse or the gear next door until you start moving.

The position of the gear selector is an indicator.

It can be in some cars, but with sporty 6-speeds in particular it can be very difficult to tell if you're in reverse or 1st just by looking because the shift gates are so narrow. My VW is even worse, because you get it into reverse by pushing the shift knob down and then basically shifting into 1st.

Of course not knowing which gear you're in when you start the car is less a problem with a manual - interacting with the gear lever is a much more normal and automatic (irony) part of the driving experience so if you start rolling the wrong way you just pop it into a different gear and move on with your life.

I watched the clip a few times and it appears he did bump the stalk upwards but I can't tell if it was accidental or he was trying to perform some function (perhaps unfreeze the display). I can say this much - no single car I have ever driven - manual or automatic - were you ever able to accidentally put into reverse without realizing consciously what you were doing.

I was trying to disengage FSD without feedback. The reverse was accidental.

e) I could definitely have been clearer with my wording but that is how I perceived the situation. “Somehow” I was in reverse.

Yeah that’s what happened.

https://www.nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem

May report if Tesla is not responsive or the lag happens again. As I said, this version has been recalled. The car did not reverse on its own, but it is still unsafe to have indicators fail.

Contact the tesla beta team.

Do they have an email address or another direct line of communication?

Email fsdbeta at tesla dot com

@6:21:21

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